Bobby Blake on a Plantation; Or, Lost in the Great Swamp

by Frank A. Warner

  CHAPTER II

  JUST IN TIME

  There was a wild shout as the other boys followed, and they were closeon Bobby’s heels when he reached the boathouse.

  There were several boats in the house, most of them laid up in canvascoverings, as the weather was becoming so cold that the lake offered nospecial attraction. One boat, however, and luckily the one nearest thedoors, was available, and to this Bobby rushed.

  “Lend a hand, some of you fellows!” he called. “Some one get two pairsof oars from the rack. Hurry now! We can’t waste a second.”

  In a moment the oars were handed down and put in the boat and Bobby hadthrown open the sliding doors.

  Willing hands helped him to push the boat down the slanting way that ledto the float.

  “Four of us can go in this,” cried Bobby. “You, Fred, and you, Sparrow,and—”

  “Let me go,” begged Lee, whose eyes were burning with excitement. “I’vehad a good deal of practice in rowing and I can handle an oar as well asany one.”

  “All right,” agreed Bobby. “Into the water now with the boat.”

  The rowboat was shoved into the water and held to the float by Skeetsand Shiner, while Bobby and his three mates tumbled in, grasped the oarsand pulled off.

  By this time it was plainly to be seen that the endangered boat was muchlower in the water than it was when it had first been seen. The gunwaleswere almost flush with the level of the lake, and the two who had beenrowing had abandoned the oars, as it was impossible to drag the heavilyladen water-logged boat through the water. The occupants had thrown offtheir coats, and two of them were tugging away at their shoes,preparatory to the swim for life that seemed inevitable.

  The boys who were left on the shore waved their hands frantically,shouting to the boys in the sinking boat not to jump, and pointing tothe other boat that was coming to their assistance.

  In the meantime, Bobby and his companions were bending to the oarslustily and putting all their strength into every stroke.

  “Keep at it, fellows!” panted Bobby, while the perspiration rolled downhis face. “Don’t stop to look behind. I’ll take a look once in a whilejust so as to keep the boat steering right. Pull with all your might!”

  His comrades needed no urging, and the boat leaped through the waterwith a speed that rapidly cut down the space that still intervenedbetween it and the sinking craft.

  For sinking it was now beyond a doubt. The occupants had for the momentabandoned the design of springing overboard, and were balingfrantically, using their caps and sweaters and hands in the effort tokeep the doomed boat afloat until their rescuers could reach them.

  “If they can only keep afloat two minutes more!” gasped Bobby, as aglance behind showed him the awful danger. “Don’t spare yourself,fellows. It may mean life or death. Just two minutes more and we’ll getthem.”

  But the two minutes grace could not be granted. They had got withinperhaps a hundred feet, when there was a desperate cry from the inmatesof the sinking boat, which was echoed from the watching crowd on theshore. The next instant the boat went down by the bow, and its fouroccupants were struggling in the lake.

  “Pull, fellows, pull!” Bobby fairly screamed, bending almost double withhis own exertions.

  And while the other rescuers were following his example, it may be wellfor the benefit of those who have not read the earlier volumes of thisseries, to trace briefly his adventures and those of his friends up tothe time this story opens.

  Bobby Blake was a bright, wide-awake American boy, who had been broughtup in the small but prosperous inland village of Clinton. He was theonly son of parents who were in comfortable circumstances. Bobby wasfrank, merry and straightforward, and a great favorite with the boys ofhis own age, of whom he was the natural leader.

  Bobby’s special chum was Fred Martin, son of a Clinton business man, wholived only a few doors away from the Blakes. Fred was freckled,redhaired, and had the hot impulsive temper that often goes with thatcolor of hair. But he was good and generous of heart, and he and Bobbygot on famously together. Fred was constantly getting into trouble ofone kind or another, and Bobby was kept busy trying to prevent hisfriend from reaping the consequences of his quick temper. Bobby neverlooked for trouble, though he was always ready to defend his rights andwould not let himself be imposed on. The boys were inseparable, andwherever one was found the other was pretty sure not to be far away.

  When Bobby was ten years old, Mr. Blake was suddenly called away onbusiness to South America, and as Mrs. Blake was going with him, itbecame necessary to send the lad away to boarding school. Bobby and Fredwere feeling very badly over the prospect of their being separated,when, to the delight of both, their parents decided to send them toRockledge School together. The school was a fine one, located on abeautiful sheet of water called Monatook Lake. Here the chums found thatthey had to study hard, but they also had lots of fun and adventure.Some bullies tried to tyrannize over them, but failed in the attempt,and how Bobby came out ahead of them is told in the first volume of theseries, entitled: “Bobby Blake at Rockledge School.”

  Vacation time found Bobby spending a few weeks at the summer home ofPerry Wise, or “Pee Wee,” the big, fat boy whose laziness and enormousappetite were a source of good-natured fun for all the Rockledge boys.Here they had a great variety of sports, for the home was on the seacoast and there were abundant opportunities for swimming, boating andfishing. The hunt for a missing motor boat added greatly to theexcitement of their visit.

  Their stay was cut short by a message from Bobby’s parents to meet themat Porto Rico, where they expected to stop on their homeward journey.Bobby was wild to meet them, the more so because at one time their shiphad been reported as shipwrecked and lost. It was arranged that Fredshould go with him, and the boys embarked in high spirits. Their shipcaught fire, however, and they with others found themselves adrift,landing at last on a volcanic island, narrowly escaping with theirlives.

  “The fellows at Rockledge will hardly believe us when we tell them allwe’ve gone through,” declared Bobby, as they were on their way home.

  “It will sound as if we were stretching things,” admitted Fred, “but Iguess they’ll believe us when we cross our hearts. Anyway, we know it’strue.”

  They found the Fall term at Rockledge full of sport and interest andthey had some surprising experiences. Many of these were due to the warmrivalry that existed between Rockledge and Belden School, a rivalinstitution on the further side of Monatook Lake.

  When the Christmas holidays came, Bobby and a number of his specialchums were invited to visit Snowtop Camp belonging to an uncle of“Mouser” Pryde. This was up in the Big Woods. There were wildcats nearthere, to say nothing of a big bear that made lots of trouble for thembefore the boys got the best of him. There was a snowslide too thatburied their house and gave them some lively work to dig themselves out.

  With the coming of Spring, the boys of Rockledge were alive withenthusiasm over baseball. Bobby and Fred became members of the Rockledgenine, and it was Bobby’s fine work as a pitcher in the most importantgames that enabled the Rockledge boys to beat Belden out and win thebaseball championship of the school league.

  “I tell you what, he just had the Belden fellows eating out of hishand,” was the way Jimmy Ailshine, or “Shiner,” as he was called,expressed his opinion of Bobby’s work in the box.

  An entirely new experience came to Bobby when he and Fred and several oftheir schoolboy friends went out West to a ranch owned by a relative ofSparrow Bangs. Here they made friends with the cowboys and learned toride, and they also fell in with a moving picture company and took partin the making of a film. The way they discovered the plot of someMexicans and lawless characters and were able to thwart it forms thesubject of a very exciting story.

  There was still a part of their vacation left, when they returned fromthe ranch, and Skeets Brody urged them to spend this in making a trip inhis father’s automobile. A copperhead snake that took possession oft
heir cave furnished an exciting feature of the trip, which was furtherenlivened by an encounter with gypsies. They rescued two little childrenfrom these vagabonds of the road, though at considerable risk tothemselves, and had the good fortune to restore them to their father.

  The boys returned to school in high spirits, and in the intervals oftheir studies practiced strenuously in order to “make” the footballteam. This time there were two other schools besides Belden that theyhad to battle with, and they found their work cut out for them. In factthey came within an ace of losing the deciding game, but how Bobby roseto the occasion and carried the ball over the goal line for a touchdownand a glorious victory is told in the volume preceding this, entitled:“Bobby Blake On the School Eleven; or, Winning the Banner of Blue andGold.”

  And now on the very day following that victory, we see Bobby working ashe had never worked before, to save the inmates of the sinking boat fromdeath in the icy waters of the lake.

  The boys who had been thrown into the water when the boat went down roseto the surface, dashed the water from their eyes and looked wildly aboutthem.

  They spied the advancing boat, which was now close at hand, and two ofthem struck out for it. A third tried to swim, but seemed to be sochilled and bewildered that he could make no progress. He did manage,however, to keep his head above water. The fourth, it was evident couldnot swim at all. He splashed about feebly for a moment and then sank.

  By this time Bobby’s boat was right among them. The two foremostswimmers grabbed the stern, as the boys suspended rowing. Bobby reachedover and grabbed a third one, who almost pulled him out of the boat.

  Just then the water broke alongside and the head of the boy who had gonedown appeared. His eyes were glassy, and he was almost unconscious. Leewas the nearest one to him and reached over to grab him. He caught hishair, but the drowning boy’s weight was too great, and the boat tippedso sharply that Lee was dragged over the gunwale.

  He came up spluttering and gasping, but still holding on to the other.Bobby surrendered the boy he was holding to Fred, and grasping an oarheld it out to Lee. The latter caught it and Bobby pulled him up to theside of the boat.

  “Take him in first!” gasped Lee, indicating his helpless burden. “I canhold on to the boat.”

  By using all their strength and being especially careful not to upsetthe boat, the rescuers lifted the half drowned boy on board. Then cameLee’s turn and that of the other three, two of whom managed to clamberover without help.

  “Now,” said Bobby with a sigh of relief, when all were safely in theboat. “We’ve got to work like beavers to get back to shore. It’s no joketo be soaked to the skin on so cold a day as this. Here, Lee,” he wenton, turning to the shivering lad, “take this coat of mine.”

  “I won’t do it,” said Lee, “You need it yourself.”

  “Not a bit of it,” replied Bobby. “I’ve been rowing so hard I’m all in asweat, and the work getting home will keep me warmer than I’ll want tobe. You’ve just got to take it.”

  Despite Lee’s protest, Bobby put the coat around him. Fred and Sparrowfollowed suit with regard to the other boys, whom they made lie down inthe boat so as to escape the wind. Then they took the oars and pulledvigorously for the shore.

  Cheers greeted them as they approached. The news of what was going onhad spread like wildfire, and all of Rockledge School was down at theshore, including Doctor Raymond, the head of the institution, and Mr.Leith and Mr. Carrier, two teachers. A doctor also had been summoned andmany of the townspeople had hurried on foot and in autos to the spot.

  There was a hubbub of excited exclamations, as the boat reached thelittle landing stage. The spectators had seen the figures draggedaboard, but from that distance could not tell whether some of them werealive or dead.

  The moment the boat slid alongside the float, eager hands wereoutstretched to help, and great was the relief when it was found that nolife had been lost.

  The rescued ones were hurried up to the school, where their wet clotheswere stripped from them and they were given hot drinks and placedbetween warm blankets.

  Doctor Raymond was so busy in supervising this work that he had no timemore than to tell the rescuers that he was proud of them and would seethem later in his study. But others crowded around them and made much ofthem, while showering them with questions.

  “It was nothing at all,” said Bobby with characteristic modesty. “Wesimply happened to be nearest and the boat was handy and we piled in androwed out to them. Any one else would have done the same if the chancehad come to them, and you fellows are making too much out of it.”

  “That’s all very well,” said Skeets Brody with a grin, “but I noticejust the same that when anything has to be done and done in a hurry it’sBobby Blake that’s ‘Johnny on the spot’.”