“If I were you,” said Frank, with a return to his pompous manner once more, “I’d stay out of the water unless it was pretty warm. I guess if a fellow has cramps once he might have them any time. I’d be afraid to take chances if I were you.”
“I never had a cramp before in my life,” responded Arnold. “And I’ve been in water colder than that, too. What I did, I guess, was get cold watching you fellows race to the landing. Anyway, I’ll be mighty careful the rest of the summer, you can bet! Pass me that boat-hook, Frank.”
Toby watched Arnold and Frank disappear up the bluff and then chugged his way thoughtfully back to the town landing. Now that it was over, he found that the morning’s misadventure had left him feeling a little bit like a rag. He had swum very nearly a half-mile at top speed, although, to be sure, a brief rest had halved the performance, and that was no slight task for a boy of his years. But the result of the exertion had told on him less, perhaps, than those minutes of fear and anxiety when, plunging from the lighthouse landing, he had raced to Arnold’s rescue. He didn’t feel the least bit in the world like making that eleven o’clock trip to Johnstown.
When he had tied up at the landing he had still more than fifteen minutes to wait, and, after a reference to the contents of his pocket and a minute of consideration, he climbed the lane and made his way to a little lunch room nearby. There, seated on a high stool at the counter, [he consumed a large piece of apple pie] and drank a cup of hot coffee. Pie and coffee as a remedy for physical and nervous exhaustion may sound queer, but they did the trick in Toby’s case, for he went whistling back to the launch and a few minutes later ferried two passengers across the bay in the best of spirits.
[He consumed a large piece of apple pie.]
Two days later Arnold came over from the Head in the morning wearing an expression that informed Toby that something of moment had occurred. He looked at once subdued and important. When they were in the launch he asked: “I suppose you didn’t say anything to any one, did you, Toby?”
“About what?” asked the other.
“About my trying to drown myself the other day.”
“No, I didn’t. Why?”