The children just stood for a moment, too frightened to move. He started toward them, waving a stick and shouting, and Janie said, “The boat! Hurry, we must get to the boat.”
They ran like the wind, and long-legged James got there first and had the boat untied in the wink of an eye.
The horrid man was gaining on them now, still shouting and waving his stick in the air. Janie leaped over the turtle and grabbed one oar and Billy took the other. James held Davey.
“Push, James! Push! We’re stuck,” yelled Bill frantically. James reached out to grab the pier and push the boat off, and just then there was a violent commotion in the weeds. Charging down upon them in full fury came a wicked looking goat. His head was lowered and his sharp curled horns were thrust out. James pushed desperately to loosen the boat, and the weight of the goat and the shove were all the rackety old pier could take.
It collapsed into the water with a great splash, and down went the goat in a tangle of horns and whiskers and loose boards. The children gasped and then James screamed,
“Row! Row for your life!” And the boat shot out into the lake and out of reach of the bedraggled goat and the angry man.
They made the distance home in record time, and almost cried with relief when at last they reached their own pier.
“Boy!” said Billy. “That was a close one. I’ll never go near that place again.”