Alec sprang to his feet before the train stopped. He looked wildly around and back to the place where he had last seen Billy and the girl. They had disappeared!
“What has happened?” he wondered, in a stupor of dread. “Did the train hit them, or did they jump off the trestle into the water? I must go back and find out! Oh, there’s Chester at the other end of the bridge. He’s waving his arms and shouting.”
Alec wheeled and ran back swiftly down the track and out on the trestle. The train blocked his way, but he climbed up a small iron ladder at the rear of the last car, ran along the roofs of the cars, and dropped to the ground just behind the tender, on the left side of the track. There, stretched out flat on one of the ties, he peered over, and his eyes met those of Billy Worth, full of the strain of waiting, upturned to his face.
With one arm around the girl, whose arms clung about his neck, and the other flung over one of the trestle rods under the track, Billy hung there straight downward over the water fully twenty feet below. Alec saw that Billy’s grip was weakening and that there was no time to lose.
Swiftly he twined his legs around the tie and lowered his body as far as he could. Then he stretched out his arms; but it was not enough; he could not reach the girl.
CHAPTER II.
THE RESCUE.
“Can you lift her up a little, Billy?” he asked in a low voice.
“I’m afraid to,” Billy whispered brokenly. “If I move, I’ll—I’ll lose my—grip.”
“Drop, then! Drop into the water, both of you!”
“Don’t dare—she can’t swim—current’s too swift. Guess I’ll have to, though, or else——” He felt the girl’s arms loosen. “Hang on to me!” he said sternly.