The effect on the boys was startling.

In the confusion of the moment, George probably took it for one of his “sprites;” and he dropped Steve’s bow, stepped on it, and broke it.

Marmaduke felt that there must be something ghostly and necromantic in such a cry, coming, in the hush of evening, from a shapely evergreen that rose beside a rolling, moonlit river.

Jim was seized with a painful attack of his chills, and ran bellowing homewards.

Stephen, impetuous and heedless as ever, picked up a stone and threw it furiously into the tree.

The reader of fiction does not need to be told that “all this happened in an instant.”

Where the stone struck Mr. Herriman is not known; but with a crash he fell headlong to the ground, rolled over twice,—roaring, meantime, with rage, pain, and terror,—and before the thunderstruck boys could recover from their stupefaction, he had disappeared in the water.

Then Stephen, with great presence of mind, exclaimed: “Boys, I told you that tree was inhabited!”

“Save him! Save him! Whoever he is, save him!”[223] Charles cried. “Get George’s rope, and throw it out to him!”

He and Stephen made a rush for it, and stumbled over each other, but finally managed to get all but a few inches of it into the water. There their rescuing ceased.

Mr. Herriman, whose feet touched bottom, floundered and sputtered about in the water like a madman. He could easily have made his way to the shore, but apparently he had lost his wits. Every other second he gave utterance to some pithy interjection. Doubtless he would have yelled continually; but every time he opened his mouth a small cupful of water and animalcules poured down his throat, and well-nigh choked him.

A panic seized upon the boys, and although chattering and gesticulating like monkeys, they were powerless to help him. And so Bob struggled in the river, in some danger of being drowned.

But a deliverer was at hand. Carlo awoke to what was going on, and, more sensible than the boys, plunged into the river, and an instant later was beside demoralized Bob. He caught first his coat, then his pants, then his coat again, Bob insanely striking him off each time.

The truth is, it galled the boy to be rescued by Tip’s successor.

The noble dog persevered in his efforts, however, and Bob, eventually seeing the folly of resisting, suffered himself to be towed to the bank.

Then the brave boys exerted themselves, and succeeded in hauling bewildered Robert Herriman on shore.

His first act betrayed his cowardly nature.

“Get out, you brute!” he said, and struck the gallant dog which had just saved him, and which stood by, wagging his tail to express his delight.

Then, with a jeering laugh at the dog’s low growl, he darted away from the now enraged boys.

He ran a few’ steps, then halting, he picked up a stone, and heaved it among the experimentalists.

“Take that for throwing stones at me!” he said derisively, as he took to his heels again. “Look out for your dog, Stepping Hen, and good-bye till I see you again,” he shouted as he ran.

[224]

This was more than human nature could bear. With fury in their eyes, and uttering a warwhoop that electrified the flying wretch, they all broke into a run and gave chase, determined to wreak dire vengeance on him.

Bob yelled fearfully,—well he might,—and redoubled his speed.

The pursuers were gaining on him, when a wild cry, a beseeching, almost despairing, appeal for help, reached their ears.

They stopped and stared vacantly at each other. The look each one put on seemed plainly to inquire, “What next?”

“It’s Will,” Charles said. “Where on earth is he?”

“Follow the sound,” the Sage said, philosophical as ever.

The pursuit was instantly given over, for all the boys bore Will too much love to neglect him. One and all, the four ran back to the scene of their late exploits, and Herriman escaped.

“Who saw Will last?” George asked anxiously.

“The last I saw of him,” said Steve, “was when you told him to bring the paddles.”

In fact, poor Will was so startled at Bob’s appalling cry that he had tumbled backwards into the pit. He and his paddles. In the confusion that ensued he was not missed, but was left to his own resources while the others were engaged in “rescuing” and dealing with Rob.

Unhappy boy, he found himself in narrow quarters. The hole was large at the top, but small at the bottom, and he was unable to climb out of it. Soon he found himself sinking into the horrible, sickening mire, which gave way beneath him.

He heard the shouts of his companions, and struggled manfully to save himself—and his paddles.

Why didn’t he cry out for help immediately? That is very easily explained.

Will got into trouble so often and made so many egregious blunders—which invariably provoked the laughter of others—that he had fallen into the habit of keeping as many of them secret as possible. He had a[225] preternatural horror of being made a laughing-stock, and consequently, when he found himself out of sight in a pit, he was desirous to work his way out of it before he should be missed.

Besides, after his exploits in the cave, this experiment of the Sages was but ignoble pastime, and it would ill become him, the hero who had delivered and cured his insane uncle, to come to grief in this slimy hole.

He struggled heroically to gain dry land, but the more he struggled the deeper he sank in the mire. At last, hearing his comrades chasing some one, he concluded that he should have to cry out for help, or else be left to a horrible fate.

But it grieved him to think that he was not missed and searched for.

“Whatever is the matter, among so many there might be one to think of me,” he muttered, sadly. “Don’t I amount to a button, that they don’t miss me? Or is something awful going on?”

Then, with great reluctance, he shouted for help.

When the four gathered round the hole, they beheld its tenant with wonder.

“How in this world did you get down there?” Steve asked.

“Fell down,” Will said, laconically. “I knew there was a hole in these regions, and, botheration! I found it, and tumbled overboard into it! But say, what was all that row about?”

“So you’ve missed all the fun!” Charles said, pityingly.

Then the boys told him all that had happened.

“But why didn’t you yell for us to help you at first?” Steve asked.

“Why didn’t you miss me?” Will retorted, sourly.

The boys could not be blamed for this. Probably not more than ten minutes had elapsed from Bob’s first cry of terror till Will’s cry for help; and they had been very much excited and distressed all that time.

“This is no way to get Will out!” Charles said, angrily. “Stop talking, Steve, and bring George’s rope here.”

[226]

“George’s rope!” said Will. “That will be the very thing! Get it, Steve; you’re used to hauling donkeys out of pits, you know, so show us your skill.”

The boys laughed for a full minute, and Steve said, as he darted away for the rope, “Will, that’s blunder number ten thousand seven hundred and one for you.”

The rope was found, but it was wet from end to end. However, it proved more useful than when the boys attempted to rescue Herriman with it, and Will, with considerable detriment to his clothes, was pulled out of the hole—his paddles, too.

Although coated with disagreeable slime up to his watch pocket—which, by the way, contained fish-hooks instead of a watch—he took it coolly, as became a redoubtable hero.

In order to turn the conversation from himself, he said, hurriedly, “Now, go into details about Herriman, and then I must pack off home.”

Foolish boy, he need not have been alarmed; he was an object of pity rather than of laughter.

“We told you about Herriman,” growled Steve. “I wish I could have got my claw’s on that boy; I would have made him strain his voice and his muscles!”

“You had better go home this minute, Will,” Charles said, kindly. “As for Herriman, Steve, I guess he has strained his voice and his muscles and his joints enough already. Well, Will, I’ll go home with you, and tell all about Herriman as we journey along. Stephen, I suppose you will stay here to go on with the necromancy business, which was so meanly interrupted. Be sure to bring home Will’s paddles and everything else.”

“Ye............