“Yes, he will be almost frozen, poor fellow; he will lose his boat, too,” said Harry. “Shall we carry him on to his place, or back to our own?”
“Certainly, to ours. In his own hut he has no one to look after him properly; while with us he will have no lack of nurses,” remarked Philip. “Paddle away, Harry; he sees us.”
“Hurrah, D’Arcy!” cried Harry, “we are coming to you, old fellow.” A hand was seen to wave in return to Harry’s cheer. “All right—all right!” cried Harry, delighted, “he is there and alive!”
D’Arcy had managed to get one of his boots off, but he had great difficulty in clinging to the keel. He did not cry out to his friends to make haste, for he knew that they were doing their utmost to reach him. They encouraged him, however, to hold on; for they judged, by the chilly blast which swept across the lake, that he must be numbed and fainting. At length they got alongside the boat; and now the greatest caution was necessary, lest, in taking him in, the canoe should be capsized. The boat likewise, on being touched, might roll up, and with her mast stave in the fragile side of the canoe. It seemed almost impossible to accomplish their object without upsetting themselves. Those who know what a birch-bark canoe is like will best understand the difficulty.
“Take me in by the head,” said D’Arcy; “I’ll crawl in.”
They accordingly paddled round to the stern of the boat, to which Philip made the bow of the canoe fast, and he was then able to reach over sufficiently to take hold of D’Arcy’s hands, and to drag him on till he could place one foot on each gunwale of the canoe, and then, by drawing himself back, he took the weight off the bow and gradually drew his friend on board. D’Arcy’s knees, however, very nearly went through the thin bottom. He asked them to continue on to his clearing, that he might get off again and try to save his boat; but Philip would not hear of it.
“No, no,” he answered, “she will drift on shore not far off, and we shall easily be able to find her; and you will catch your death of cold if you are not looked after immediately.”
“But poor Terry will go out of his mind if he supposes that I am lost,” argued D’Arcy.
“We will try to let him know,” said Philip. “Besides, at our place, if we go on, they will not know whether we are all lost, or you are saved.”