“Yes, but make quick work of it, and if you do go down, get free from the wreck as fast as you can. We’ll stand by to pick you up,” Hugh told him, though he was himself a little dubious about the wisdom of such a course.
“Count on me with you there,” said Tip Lange firmly. He did not mean that all the credit of this rescue should pass from the local troop. If they were to receive the praise that would come later on, they must merit it to some degree.
So the two agile scouts clambered through the window one after the other. It was anything but a pleasant sensation they experienced when the house gave an additionally severe roll.
“She’s going!” whooped Monkey; but as the threatened catastrophe failed to come about he managed to recover himself; and presently they became partly used to that strange sensation which in the beginning had almost made them seasick.
A hurried hunt was made for clothes. Fortunately the woman had gathered these together some time before, when meaning to try and escape from the house, but being deterred when she found that the water was already over the head of her youngest child.
Garments of various kinds, such as poor people might possess, together with a bundle of bed quilts that took the place of more expensive blankets lay handy to the scouts. These the boys quickly seized upon and dumped through the window, being cautious enough to make sure that the boat still rubbed against the side of the building in the same place they had left it.
Altogether Monkey and Tip were possibly not in there more than three minutes, if that long. And, although neither of them said so, it was apparent from the haste with which they clambered out again that both felt considerable relief in being able to leave in good shape.
Hugh saw that it was the height of folly to linger another second, now that they had accomplished all they meant to undertake. Accordingly he put on more speed, and with the others pushing away from the house they quickly left it astern.
The rescued children were all staring at their late home. Humble though it may have been, still they must have cherished feelings of affection for the roof that had lately sheltered them.
All at once they uttered a concerted cry as of terror.