“Gee, that was—was—”
“Providential,” said Alf soberly, coming to Dan’s assistance. “And then what, Gerald?”
“We tried everything we knew about helping drowned persons, but nothing seemed to do much good. We got a whole lot of water out of his lungs, but he wouldn’t come to. We took turns pumping his arms and chest, and after awhile we could see that he was breathing. But it was awfully hard, for there wasn’t much room on the bank, and he kept slipping back into the water. So Thompson said we’d put him into the canoe and paddle back to school as fast as we could. So finally we got him in and we grabbed the paddles and we just made that canoe fly! It isn’t far, you know, but it seemed an awful long way this afternoon. I was afraid he’d die before we got to the boathouse. We kept shouting all the way down and finally some fellow heard us and came running down to find out what the matter was. We told him and he scooted up to the Office. We got him out of the canoe at the boathouse and started to work on him again. And then some fellows came and helped, and I keeled over in a faint. And the next thing I knew they were carrying Harry and me up the hill. I was all right by that time, though, and I made them put me down. Thompson and I waited around a minute to see how Harry was, but the doctor found us and gave us some stuff to drink and sent us home. Said we must go to bed, and not get up until to-morrow morning. That’s nonsense, isn’t it?”
“Maybe,” said Dan dryly, “but I advise you to do it just the same. You won’t feel so chipper after you get over your excitement.”
“But what was the matter with Merrow?” asked Alf. “Why didn’t he come up?”
“I don’t know for certain, but Thompson says he was caught on a big branch down there.”
“But how did he happen to sink? Of course he could swim.”
Gerald hesitated. Then:
“You fellows mustn’t tell Faculty,” he said, “but I have an idea that he can’t swim a stroke. He never actually told me he could, but he gave me to understand it. He said, I remember, that Faculty wouldn’t let any one go in a canoe who couldn’t swim. But afterwards, when we went out together at first, he was awfully nervous if we went more than a few yards from shore, and once when I accidentally rocked the canoe a little, I thought he was going to jump down my throat. He got over that after awhile, though. I think that when he went over he was so scared that he just sort of—of fainted, maybe, and then got so much water in him that he was down and out.”
“Your language, Gerald, is getting more picturesque and breezy every day,” laughed Dan.