“Can’t swim to the shore, that’s sure.  I suppose we’ll just have to slip in again and make another turn of it.  Thank goodness! the bottom of the old rapids is in sight, and as Bluff and Reddy have picked up our boat and the paddle, they could turn their hands at life saving when we came bobbing along.”

“Hold on!  Don’t be rash, Jerry!” called Frank.

“Well, have you got anything better to say about it—­any bright scheme to propose that offers to soften the blow?” demanded the other, pausing in his movement toward slipping off his unstable seat.

“I’ve just thought of something,” answered Frank.

“Good for you, then.  I guess I’m too badly rattled just now, for once, to do much thinking.  What’s the game, Frank?”

“Why not let Reddy and his reliable old rope come into play again?”

“Say! we’ll have to beg or buy that clothesline from Reddy when we go away from here, and hang it up in our clubroom, as the most valuable asset we have.  Without it what would become of us, eh?  Talk about your trained nurses!  That fellow is a whole hospital to the tenderfoot crowd.  Call to him, please, and enlist his sympathy in the noble cause of yanking us in out of the wet.”

So Frank did shout to the cowboy, who, having beached the two boats below the rapids, was hurrying up the shore.  Mr. Mabie, too, had joined Will, so that presently the entire balance of the little party had gathered opposite.

Reddy entered into the game with spirit.  He seemed to believe that these tragic occurrences must have just happened to give him a chance to show his skill in launching his rope.

“Jerry first, please!” called Frank.

“And why?  Is it because I’m more valuable, or better-looking?” demanded Jerry.

“Oh, perhaps I want the pleasure of seeing how you look as you flounder through the rapids; and then, again, I may pick up a few points as to how not to do it.”

“Tell me about that, will you!  Some people have all the nerve!” shouted Jerry, for the rushing water made so much noise that an ordinary call could not have been heard.

Nevertheless, he accepted the flying noose that came shooting straight toward him, placed it under his arms, made sure that his gun was still fast to his back, and then fearlessly dropped off his perch.

There was considerable floundering on the part of the swimmer, much straining among the others who manipulated the rope, after which Jerry was assisted up the bank.  His first act, after coughing up a lot of water, was to shake his fist at the grinning Frank, and then call out: 

“Now you come on, and see how you like it!”

Frank did not wait upon the order of his going.  As soon as he had the rope secured under his arms he slipped down into the foamy water, and began to buffet the current like a water spaniel.

After an exciting experience he, too, was drawn ashore, really none the worse for his adventure.