THEIR TROUBLES MULTIPLY

Miss Elting and Jane McCarthy had climbed down the embankment, and, standing at the river’s edge, scanned the water with pale faces and anxious eyes.  Dark shapes drifted past them, shapes that caused them to start apprehensively as they caught sight of them.

Nearly all of the bridge that had been on fire was now in the water.  The structure had broken off short, taking most of the fire with it into the river.  The broken end, still in the air, glowed here and there, the glowing spots fading and dying out one by one.  Of this the two women saw nothing.  They were heavy with anxiety.  It did not seem to them possible that Harriet Burrell could have escaped alive.  Janus and Jim, who had run to the river bank, were now plunging here and there, stumbling, groping, wading or swimming about in the river to have a look at some bit of wreckage that resembled a human form.  They believed that Harriet had been swept down to her death with the burning bridge.

All at once Jane raised her voice in the cry of the Meadow-Brook Girls.  “Hoo-e-e-e!” she called shrilly.  But no answering cry from the missing girl relieved their suspense.

“I’m afraid we can do no more,” said Miss Elting with a catch in her voice.  “Oh, why did I leave her?  Why did I not insist on Harriet’s leaving that awful place with me?”

“You couldn’t help it,” soothed Jane.  “But you mark me, Miss Elting, Harriet is alive and sound, just like the rest of us.  You leave it to Harriet Burrell to take care of herself.  I tell you it’s all right.  Hoo-e-e-e-e!”

“Don’t!  Oh, don’t!” begged the guardian.

“Why not?  She’ll hear me and she’ll know which way to go when she comes up from the water,” answered Crazy Jane breezily.  She was putting on a brave show of cheerfulness, and somehow this cheerfulness began to take hold of Miss Elting.  Her shattered hopes began to rise; she began to take courage even against her better judgment, which told her that Harriet could not possibly have escaped.  Even granting that she had, they would have seen or heard from her before this.

Janus stood dripping beside them.

“Now, you ladies go back.  I’ll do all the looking that’s necessary.  Candidly, I don’t think Miss Harriet escaped.  She was caught when the old bridge fell down, but I’ll keep on looking for her.  I’ll keep right on looking all the rest of the night.”

Jane led Miss Elting up the bank despite the protests of the guardian that she did not wish to go, but preferred to remain where she was.

“We can do nothing here,” urged Jane, more gently now.  It was all that she could do to keep from breaking down and crying, but she knew she must keep up her courage.  Besides, she was still hoping, at times almost believing, that they would find Harriet Burrell awaiting them on shore.

“Didn’t you find her?” cried Hazel.  They had climbed the steep bank and returned to the girls.