CHAPTER II.
FRANK'S WAY.
"My goodness, what a splash!"
"Served him right, that's what!"
"He's gone under, fellows! Dove just like a big frog!"
"Stop the boat! He'll drown!"
Half a dozen were shouting in unison, as the boys crowded to the sideover which the bully had pitched when Frank avoided his forward rush.
But Frank heard only that startled exclamation from Sandy Hollingshead:
"Puss can't swim a single stroke, either!"
With Frank Bird to think was to act. The two things were almostsynonymous in his mind. Forgotten was the fact that the imperiled ladhad been endeavoring to strike him in the face at the time of hissubmersion in the waters of Sunrise Lake.
Not a single word did he utter, but throwing off his coat, he made aleap over the side of the boat, already slowing up as the power was cutoff.
"Frank's gone back after him!" cried one.
"And he'll get him, too," another hastened to say; for they understoodthat when the leader of the team known as the "Bird boys" attemptedanything he usually got there, as some of them said "with both feet."
Meanwhile Frank was swimming with all his might toward the spot in thefoamy wake of the boat, where he knew the unfortunate Puss must bebattling for his life.
It seems strange that occasionally a boy may be found who has nevertaken the trouble to learn how to swim. In the country this is a rareoccurrence; which would make the neglect of such an athletic fellow asPuss seem more remarkable.
He was threshing about in the deep water like a cat that has fallenoverboard; and managing to keep partly afloat after a fashion; though itwould have been all over with him long ere the power boat could beturned around and arrive at the spot where he struggled, gasping forbreath, and sucking in much water.
Frank was wise enough to understand that it is always desirable toapproach a drowning person from the rear, so that a grip may be takenbefore the would-be rescuer's presence is discovered. Once let thosefrenzied fingers clutch hold of him, and the chances of a double tragedywould be good.
So Frank was keenly on the watch as he swam toward the splashing andgurgling that announced Puss Carberry's fight for his life.
He could see him by now, and never would Frank be apt to forget the lookof absolute terror he discovered upon the agonized face of thebully. Puss had detected the presence of some one near by, and wastrying to shout, as well as stretch his appealing hands out, though notwith much success.
He actually went under while Frank looked; and the heart of the would-berescuer almost stood still with a terrible fear that that was the end.
But he kept on, and in another moment a head once more bobbed up, withPuss threshing the water frantically. Once he had gone down. Accordingto what most people said, he would possibly vanish twice more, and afterthat never rise again.
If anything was to be done, there was no time for delay. Frank waswithin ten feet of the struggling figure when it came up. He immediatelydove, and managed to rise to the surface behind Puss. Then, just as theother was floundering beneath the surface of the agitated water again,Frank caught hold of his sweater close to his neck, and held on withmight and main.
He had a serious job of it, for the half-drowned lad made a desperateattempt to turn around, doubtless with the intention of throwing hisarms around his rescuer. This was just what Frank was desirous ofavoiding. He simply wanted to keep the head of Puss above water untilthe boat could come and willing hands be stretched down to relieve himof his burden.
So he kept treading water and fighting Puss off as best he was able. Itwas no easy task, since he still had his baseball shoes on; and swimmingin one's clothes is always a difficult proposition. But Frank knew nosuch word as fail and continued to strive, keeping one eye on Puss andthe other on the approaching power boat.
"Steady now, Puss!" he kept saying, again and again, trying to instillsome sense in the head of the frantic boy, who still believed he must begoing down again. "Keep your breath in your lungs and you'll float!Don't kick so; I'm going to hold you up till the boys come. It's allright, Puss; you're safe!"
All the same Frank was mighty well pleased when the launch did swingclose alongside and half a dozen hands reached out to clutch hold ofthem both.
"Puss first, fellows!" he said, with a half laugh. "I can crawl inmyself, I guess." But they would not hear of it, so willing hands liftedhim up as soon as the other dripping figure had been deposited in thebottom of the boat.
Frank made light of the adventure, after his usual style.
"Oh, come, let up on that!" he remarked, when some of the fellows werepatting him on the back and calling him a hero and all such things thatwere particularly disagreeable to Frank. "It was just a cinch to me, youknow. I'm half a water spaniel, anyway. Besides, if it hadn't been forthe way I riled him, Puss wouldn't have fallen overboard. Drop it,please."
By the time the boat reached the landing near the dock where the lakesteamer touched, Puss seemed to have discharged his cargo of water,swallowed unintentionally.
He made his appearance, with several cronies clustered about him. Frankwas not the one to hold a grudge. Besides, he had come out of the affairwith flying colors and had nothing to regret. So he strode up to Puss atonce, holding out his hand.
Every boy on board crowded around, eager to see how the bully wouldbehave, for they knew his natural disposition and wondered whether anysort of miracle had been wrought in his disposition because of hisrecent submersion.
"I hope you're feeling all right now, Puss," Frank said, pleasantly. "Iwanted to ask your pardon for treating you so roughly; but knowing youcouldn't swim, I was afraid that if you closed with me we'd both godown."
"But you struck me once right in the face, you coward!" exclaimed theother, as he put his still trembling hand up to where a bruise of somesort could be seen.
"Yes, I admit it," returned Frank, quickly; "and that was what I wantedto apologize for. You grabbed me and it was the only way I could breakyour hold. I've been told by life savers that often they have to strikea man and knock him senseless to save themselves from being draggeddown. You must understand that it was no time to be particular. I had tosave myself in order to help you!"
The other stared hard at him. Evidently Puss had not yet entirelyrecovered after his close call. At any rate it was positive that hecould not understand how he actually owed his very life to the speedyaction of this boy whom he hated so bitterly.
They saw him shake his head, much as a dog might that is worrying a rat.
"Well, you only undid your own dirty work. You pushed me in and thenyou got cold feet. For fear that I'd drown and you'd be hung you jumpedin to do your usual grandstand act of hero! Didn't I hear these softiescalling you that right now? No, I don't want to touch your hand. Keepyour friendship for those who can appreciate it. There's a long accountbetween us that's going to be settled some fine day."
And with these ungrateful words Puss Carberry strode off the boat,surrounded by his cronies, who were doubtless pleased with the course ofthings.
"Well, did you ever hear of such base ingratitude in all your borndays?" exclaimed Larry Geohegan, making a gesture of supreme disgust.
"And to think of the skunk saying Frank pushed him in!" echoed Elephant,"when he actually risked his life to save the cur. Ain't I glad now Ididn't carry out my first impulse and jump after Puss, even before Frankwent. Why, maybe he'd have even said I tried to drown him!"
The idea of that proverbial slow coach of an Elephant ever doinganything on the spur of the moment was really too much for the rest ofthe boys and a general roar went up. "Don't bother your heads about me,fellows," remarked Frank, quietly, when the laughter had ceasedagain. "That was just about the kind of treatment I should have expectedto get from Puss Carberry. Still, I'm not sorry I did it. Life wouldseem very tame without that schemer around to try and liven things upfor me. But I hardly expected him to accuse me of pushing him in whenall I d
id was to step aside and avoid a blow at his hands. Forget it,please."
He walked off with his cousin Andy, who had been boiling over at thetime the rescued Puss made his astonishing accusation.
"Wouldn't that jar you some now?" remarked Andy, after his customaryfashion.
"I suppose you're referring to the way Puss turned on me after I wentand got my baseball suit wet just to give him a helping hand?" laughedFrank, good naturedly. "Oh, I don't bear any malice. Perhaps he wasstill a little stunned by that knock I gave him. But I thought he wasgoing to get his arms around my neck, you see, and then it would be allup with us both. It worked, too, for he was as limp as a dishrag fromthat time on. Remember it, Andy, in case you ever jump over after Puss."
"Me after that snake? Why, hang it, I'd see him in Guinea before I'dever lift a hand to save him! I tell you I'd--I'd--" stammered theindignant Andy.
"I don't believe it of you," declared his cousin, quickly. "You maythink you'd stand by and see him drown, but that's all gammon. I knowyou too well to believe you're half as vindictive as you try to makeout. But did you hear what he said about going down there to SouthAmerica, visiting a plantation his mother partly owns and taking hisbiplane along with him?"
Andy was all excitement now.
"Sure I did," he said. "And ten to one he learned somehow that wethought of going down in that region for another purpose. It would bejust like Puss and that sneak of a Sandy Hollingshead to try and beat usout. That fellow wouldn't mind a trip to the other end of the world ifhe thought he could get your goat, Frank. He hates you like poison.Pity you didn't feel a cramp just when you were swimming to him--notenough to endanger your own life, you see, but sort of make you stopshort."
"Shame on you, Andy," remarked Frank. "I hope I'll always carry myselfso that I won't be afraid to look at myself in a glass. But what do youknow about that place--didn't he call it a cocoa plantation or somethingof the kind?"
"Yes," replied the other moodily; "I was told that his mother ownedtwo-thirds of some such place along the Amazon or somewhere downthere. But let them go. It's a tremendous big country and there isn'tthe least danger that we'll ever butt into them, if we _should_ decideto take a run down."
"Still," observed the taller lad, thoughtfully, "you never canknow. I've heard travelers say that sometimes the world seems to be verysmall; when you meet your next door neighbor on the top of some Swissmountain. Puss may know nothing about your plans and this is perhapsonly a coincidence, as they say. Since he has had such poor luckgetting to the top of our mountains around here he wants to try his handon those poor South American Andes."
Andy's father had been a professor in one of the colleges, who, havingtaken up aeronautics, had made many balloon voyages in quest ofscientific information, so that his name had become quite famous. Then,about a year before, he had been lost when attempting to solve the aircurrents on the Panama Isthmus, where the government had thirty thousandlaborers digging the big ditch.
Nothing had ever been heard of the professor from the day he startedfrom the Atlantic side of the isthmus, intending to cross the mountainsand land on the Pacific beach. And it was becoming a positive mania inthe mind of Andy, who lived with his guardian, Colonel Josiah Whympers,to some day go down there and follow in the track of his lost father, inthe hope of discovering his sad fate.
It was with this idea in mind that he had united his forces with Frank'sinventive genius and helped build the monoplane with which they had wonthe race to the top of the neighboring mountain, during Old Home Week atBloomsbury.
And every day he was thinking more and more of what strange things thefuture might have in store for him, if he ever started on that exploringventure.
Aeroplane Boys on the Wing Page 2
