CHAPTER II
WHAT CAME OF A COLD PLUNGE
Five girls and their guardian struggled free from the sinking motorcar and began paddling for the surface. All knowing how to swim, theyinstinctively held their breath when they felt the water closing overthem. Fortunately for the Meadow-Brook Girls, the top had been removedfrom the car, else all would have been drowned before they could haveextricated themselves. Jane had the most difficulty in getting out.She was held to her seat by the steering wheel for a few seconds, butnot so much as a thought of fear entered her mind. Crazy Jane went towork methodically to free herself, which she succeeded in doing a fewseconds after her companions had reached the surface.
"Thave me, oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy Thompson chokingly.
There followed a great splashing, accompanied by shouts and chokingcoughs. About this time Jane McCarthy's head appeared above the water.She took a long, gasping breath, then called out:
"Here we are, darlin's! Is anybody wet?"
"Girls, are you all here?" cried Miss Elting anxiously. "Call yournames."
They did so, and there was relief in every heart when it was foundthat not a girl was missing. But they had yet to learn how theyhappened to be in the water. The latter was cold as ice, it seemed tothem, and their desire now was to get to shore as quickly as possible.Which way the shore lay they did not know, but from the looks of thesky-line it was apparent that they would not be obliged to go far ineither direction to find a landing place.
"Follow me, girls," directed the guardian. "We will get out of hereand talk about our disaster afterward. Harriet, please bring up therear. Be sure that no one is left behind."
The splashing ceased, each girl starting forward with her ownparticular stroke: Tommy swimming frog-fashion, Margery blowing,puffing, and groaning, paddling like a four-footed animal.
"Oh, help!" she moaned.
"I'm glad I'm not tho fat ath you are," observed Tommy to the puffingMargery.
"That will do, Tommy! Buster is quite as well able to take care ofherself as are you. I've touched bottom! Here we are, girls. Oh, I amso glad!"
"Where ith it? I can't thee the bottom."
"Stop swimming, and you'll feel it," suggested Jane, who, havingreached the shore, waded out of the water and ran, laughing, up thebank. "My stars, what a mess!"
One by one the others emerged from the cold water and stood shiveringon the beach.
"Wring out your clothes," directed Miss Elting. This, some of themwere already doing. Margery sat down helplessly. Harriet assisted herto her feet.
"You mustn't do that. You surely will catch cold. Keep moving, dear,"ordered Harriet.
"I can't. My clothes weigh a ton," protested Margery.
"Buthter thinkth it ith her clotheth that are heavy," jeered Tommy."It ithn't your clotheth, Buthter; it'th you."
"Make her stop, Miss Elting. Don't you think I am suffering enough,without Tommy making me feel any worse?"
"Yes, I do. Tommy, will you please stop annoying Margery?"
"Yeth, Mith Elting, I'll thtop until Buthter getth dry again. But I'mjutht ath wet at thhe ith, and I'm not croth."
"Girls, we have had a very narrow escape. I dread to think what wouldhave happened had that automobile top been up. We should give thanksfor our deliverance. But I don't understand how we came to get inthere, or what it is that we did get into," said the guardian.
"I know. It wath water," Tommy informed her. "It wath wet water, too,and cold water, and--"
A shivering chorus of laughs greeted her words. Some of the girlsbegan whipping their arms and jumping up and down, for all were verycold.
"Can't we run?" asked Harriet.
"Yes, if we can decide where the water is, and where it isn't,"replied Miss Elting. "Suppose we find the road? We can run up and downthat without danger of falling in."
"It is just to the left of us; I can see the opening between thetrees," answered Harriet. She moved in the direction she hadindicated, "Here it is. Come on, girls."
The others picked their way cautiously to her. Harriet started up theroad at a run, followed by the others and accompanied by the "plush,plush, plush!" of shoes nearly full of water. Tommy sat down.
"What are you doing on the ground?" shrieked Margery, as she stumbledand fell over her little companion. "Why don't you tell me when youare going to sit down, so that I won't fall over you?"
"You wouldn't, if you weren't tho fat."
"Tommy!" broke in Miss Elting. The whole party had come to a halt,following Margery's mishap.
"I beg your pardon, Mith Elting. I forgot. Buthter ithn't dry yet.What am I doing? Yeth, I'm bailing out my thhoeth. Ugh! How they dothtick to my feet. Oh, I can't get them on again!" wailed Tommy.
"What a helpless creature you are," answered Harriet laughingly."Here, let me help you. There. You see how easy it is when once youmake up your mind that you really can."
"No, I don't thee. It ith too dark. Help me up!"
"Take hold of my hand. Here, Margery, you get on the other side. Wethree will run together. Everyone else keep out of our way."
"Yeth, becauthe Buthter ith--" Tommy, remembering her promise, checkedherself. The three started up the road at a brisk trot. Reaching themain road, Harriet led them about, then began running back toward thewater.
"Look out for the water," warned Jane shrilly, after they had beengoing for a few minutes. But her warning came too late. Harriet, Tommyand Margery had turned to the right after reaching the open. The threefell in with a splash and a chorus of screams. The water was shallowand there was no difficulty in getting out, but the girls now were aswet as before, and shivering more than ever. At this juncture theguardian took a hand. She directed them to walk up and down the roadin orderly fashion, which they did, shivering, their teeth chatteringand the water dripping from their clothing. Reaching the main highwaythe guardian turned out on this, walking her charges a full mile inthe direction they had been following before turning off into thebyway.
"This part of the country appears to be deserted," she said. "I thinkwe had better return. In the morning we will try to find some one."
"Thave me!" moaned Tommy. "Mutht we thtay here in our wet clotheth allnight?"
"I fear so. What else is there for us to do?"
"But let uth get our dry clotheth and put them on," urged Tommy. Thegirls laughed at her.
"Our clothes are down under the water in the car, darlin'," Janeinformed her.
"Of course, they are soaked," reflected Miss Elting.
"I do not think so. The chest on the back of the car is water-proof aswell as dust-proof," said Jane. "If it weren't water-proof the thingsin it would get soaked every time there was a driving rainstorm. No;our other clothing is as dry as toast. You'll see that it is when weget it."
"Yes, when we do," groaned Margery--"_when_ we do!"
"It might as well be wet," observed the guardian. "We shan't be ableto get it out. Do you think the car is ruined, Jane?"
"It's wet, like ourselves, Miss Elting. I reckon it will take a wholesummer to dry it out thoroughly. I've got to get word to Dad to comeafter it."
"What will he say when he learns of the accident, Jane?" questionedHarriet.
"Say? He will say it served the old car right for being such a fool.My dad has common sense. He will have another car up here for us justas soon as he can get one here. By the way, Miss Elting, how muchfarther do we have to go?"
"I don't know, Jane. I hope it isn't much farther. How far do youthink we traveled after meeting the man?"
"Five miles, I should say."
"And he told us that the third turn-off would lead us to LonesomeCove, did he not?"
"He did, but he made a mistake. This is Wet Cove."
"And a lonesome one, too, even if it isn't _the_ Lonesome one,"chuckled Harriet.
"Then we cannot be so very far from our destination. I am sure thisisn't the place. We haven't come far enough. Why didn't we think ofthat before we turned into this road?"
"If I knew where you wanted to go, I might be better able to answerthat question," reminded Jane. But the guardian was not to be caughtin Crazy Jane's trap, though it was too dark to reveal the quizzicalsmile that wrinkled Miss Elting's face.
"I am not sure that I know myself, Jane," was her reply.
"You fully expected to find some one here, did you not?" teasedHarriet. "I might say that you looked to find a number of personshere?"
"We won't discuss that now. Do you wish to spoil the little surprisethat I have been planning for you?"
"If this is your surprise, I don't think much of it," declared Janebluntly.
"Nor can I blame you," agreed Miss Elting. "But this is not thesurprise."
"Maybe if we wait we will fall into thome more pondth," suggestedGrace. "Ith your thurprithe ath wet at thith one wath?"
"I admit your right to tease me, Tommy," laughed the guardian.
"Come on, everybody!" urged Harriet. "We must walk briskly and keep itup. That will be the only way to keep us from catching cold as aresult of our wetting." Having paused for a moment to discuss theirsituation the girls began tramping once more. As the hours draggedalong all became weary and drowsy. Their joints were growing stiff,too, which condition was not improved by the chill of the night air.Most active of all the party was little Tommy Thompson, who skippedalong, talking incessantly. Margery was scarcely able to keep up withthe party. Twice she leaned against a tree, closing her eyes, only tofall to the ground in a heap. Harriet, though nearly as tired andfootsore as her companions, summoned all her will power and trudgedbravely along.
Had the Meadow-Brook Girls not been so well seasoned to hardship,serious results might have followed their unexpected bath in the chillwaters, followed by their exposure to the searching night wind. Butthey were healthy, outdoor girls, as all our readers know. The firstvolume of this series, "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS,"told the story of their first vacation spent in the open, when, asmembers of Camp Wau-Wau in the Pocono Woods, they served theirnovitiate as Camp Girls, winning many honors and becoming firmlywedded to life in the woods.
When that camping period came to an end Harriet and her companions, asrelated in "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY," set outon the long walk home, meeting with plenty of adventures and manylaughable happenings. It was during this hike that they becameacquainted with the Tramp Club Boys and entered into a walking contestagainst them, which the Meadow-Brook Girls won.
Our readers next met the girls in "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLSAFLOAT," a volume which contained the account of their houseboatlife on Lake Winnepesaukee. It was there that they again outwitted theTramp Club, who took their defeat good-naturedly and by way ofretaliation aided the girls in running down a mysterious enemy whosemalicious mischief had caused them repeated annoyance.
Then, as their summer was not yet ended, the Meadow-Brook Girlsaccepted an invitation from Jane McCarthy to accompany her on a tripthrough the White Mountains, all of which is fully set forth in"THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS."
It was there that they met with a series of mishaps which they laid atthe door of an ill-favored man who had vainly tried to become theirguide. The disappearance of Janus Grubb, the guide who had beenengaged by Miss Elting during their mountain hike, and the surprisingevents that followed made the story of their mountain trip well worthreading.
And now, once more, we find the Meadow-Brook Girls ready to take thetrail again wherever that trail might lead. At the present moment,however, it did not look as though Harriet Burrell and her friendswould reach their destination in the immediate future unless it werenearer at hand than they thought.
Not once during the night did the moon show her face, though about twoo'clock in the morning the clouds thinned, the landscape showing withmore distinctness. The girls, when they walked down to the shore, sawa sheet of water covering several acres. Leading down to the water wasa pier that extended far out into the little lake or pond, whatever itmight be. Harriet, Jane and Miss Elting walked out to the far end ofthe pier.
Harriet pointed to the end of the pier as she stood above it. "It hasbroken down," she said.
"No; I think not," answered the guardian. "I think, too, that Iunderstand what this is. It is an ice pier. Ice is harvested from thispond and carried up over that sloping platform and so on to the shoreor to conveyances waiting here. But how narrow it is. How ever did youmanage to keep on the pier until you reached the end, Jane, dear?"
"I really don't know, Miss Elting," replied Jane, evidently impressedwith the feat she had accomplished. She leaned over and peered intothe water to see if she could find her car. It was not to be seen.Dark objects, floating here and there about the surface, showed thegirls where part of their equipment had gone. Harriet was regardingthe dark objects with inquiring eyes.
"I wish we had a boat," said Miss Elting. "We could gather up ourstuff. We can't afford to lose it."
"We don't need a boat. Jane and I will get it out. What do you say,Jane?" answered Harriet.
"I don't know what you have in mind, darlin', but I'm with you,whatever it is."
"You and I will go in after the things."
"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Jane. "And in this cold water.Br-rr-r!"
"No; you must not do that," objected the guardian. "At least not now."
"What is it you folks are planning?" questioned Hazel, who, with Tommyand Buster, had joined the party at the end of the pier. Janeexplained what Harriet had proposed. Margery's teeth began to chatteragain.
"My--my weak heart won't stand any more," she groaned. "Don't ask meto go into that horrid, cold water again. _Please_ don't!"
"You won't feel the cold once you are in," urged Harriet.
"No. I didn't feel it the other time, did I?"
"What? Go in thwimming," demanded Tommy. "I wouldn't go in that wateragain for a dollar and fifty thentth; no, not for a dollar andtheventy-five thentth." Tommy began backing away, as though fearingthe others might insist and assist her in. Suddenly she uttered ascream.
"Thave me!" yelled Tommy.
They saw her lurch backward; her feet left the pier; then came asplash. Tommy Thompson had gone over backward and taken to the waterhead first.
The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea; Or, The Loss of The Lonesome Bar Page 2
