"And this is the water. Hurry up, Bluff! Snap her off! I'm tired of staying here!"
"I've got it. Now start the circus, Frank!" cried Bluff, with a grin, as though he quite enjoyed turning the tables on the ardent photographer for once.
So the horse was urged to start moving. Frank tried to ease the jerk as much as he was able, but all the same, poor Will cried out that he felt as if he were being drawn in two.
"But I moved then! Keep going, now that you've started, boys! Oh! sure enough, I'm coming up! Faster, now! Hurrah! I'm free from that horrible mire!" he continued to shout, as he dangled there with his feet in the water and his head almost touching the friendly limb.
"Try and climb up. Here, Jerry is coming out to help you, Will!" called Frank.
With the assistance of his chum, Will managed to straddle the limb. Then, after he had rested a little while, he crept along until at last he jumped to the ground, to be received with hearty handshakes by all the others.
"But that was a terribly close shave, all right," he said, as Jerry scraped the sand and mud from his legs. "Whatever would you have done if it hadn't been for that bully old tree, Frank?"
"I don't know, exactly, but I'd have found some way to pull you out," returned the other; and those boys, who knew what he was equal to in an emergency, felt positive that he would have proved the victor, no matter what the conditions.