“I guess now that if any of us happened to be in that shaky old trap, expecting it to roll over any minute, we’d feel scared pretty bad, too,” remarked Tip Lange, as if he thought it his duty to make apologies for the fright of the helpless inmates.
With the three “childer” was the poor mother, who had seemed just as badly alarmed as her crying brood, though she had not called out to the approaching rescuers.
Hugh saw that his chance had come. He proceeded to lay the launch alongside the building in such a way that he could keep the propeller constantly moving, and thus be in a state of preparedness, so that should the house give signs of toppling over, it would be possible for them to escape a catastrophe.
“I’ll have to stick to my engine, boys,” Hugh told them. “So you must do the work. First thing is to get all of them aboard. After that we can try to save a part of their things, particularly clothes and bed coverings. Get that?”
All of the others answered in the affirmative. Every fellow had his teeth set, and grim determination could be seen in their eyes as they prepared to cheat the flood out of its prospective victims.
Hugh calculated to a nicety when he brought the boat against the quivering wall of the doomed dwelling. The three children filled the window just alongside, and the eager mother crouched further back, bent on seeing them safe before she would think of leaving. That was the mother spirit every time, Billy Worth told himself, sacrificing her own chances for the sake of those she loved.
“Here you are!” he cried, as standing there he held out his hands toward the almost wild youngsters. “One at a time, now, and don’t crowd so. Give me the smallest first, the baby! There. Now the next one, and plenty of time for all!”
Although Billy said this, he was not quite so sure of it in his own mind, for he could see the building swaying back and forth in a terrifying manner, and did not know but that it might be lifted off its foundations at the next surge.
He succeeded in placing the three children safely in the launch. Then only would the relieved mother consent to clamber through the open window and join her little family in the rocking boat.
“Shall we try for some of their stuff, Hugh?” asked Monkey Stallings, who, being as agile as the animal after which he had been named, was better fitted for climbing into the house and taking chances with its upsetting than possibly any of his mates.