CHAPTER IX
THE INVITATION
"Is he dead, Frank? Is he breathing? Did we get him out in time?" cried Andy, highly excited, as he dropped the oars and began to make his way forward to where his brother was holding Billy. "Do you think we can bring him around?"
"Say, don't ask so many questions," snapped Frank, not because he was cross, but because he realized that seconds counted and he wanted to do all he could for the half-drowned lad. "Get back to your oars," he added. "First thing you know we'll be stuck in the mud bank, or upset in the current. Hold the boat steady, and get over there where it's quieter. Then we'll see what we can do."
Andy obeyed, and while Frank made the now unconscious lad more comfortable, the young Racer boy pulled with all his strength toward a quieter place in the eddy. Soon the boat was floating easily.
"Lively now!" commanded Frank. "Help me turn him over to drain some of the water out of his lungs. Then we'll make a sort of pillow of our coats and rest him, face down, on that."
Frank talked while he worked, and soon Billy's lungs were drained of the water that kept the air from entering them. Next he was placed with his stomach on an upraised roll of coats, across one of the seats, and a little later Frank began using artificial respiration, by working Billy's arms up and down over his head, while Andy pressed on the lower portion of his chest to compress it. The boys had studied first-aid work, and knew the method to be used in restoring half-drowned persons.
Their success was soon apparent, for, after a few seconds, Billy opened his eyes, and looked up at his rescuers.
"Wha—what happened?" he asked feebly.
"You fell in," replied Frank. "But don't talk now. You must be too weak."
"Oh, I'm all right," said Billy, in a stronger voice. "I remember it all now. The limb broke with me, just as I was waving to you fellows. I held my breath, as soon as I struck the water, but I couldn't seem to get to the top."
"No wonder," put in Andy. "Your trousers were caught on a tree branch."
"Oh, that's what it was," went on Billy. "Well, when I couldn't hold my breath any longer, and found that I couldn't get right side up, I thought I was a goner. How did you manage to get me loose?"
Frank told how he had cut the trousers from the entangling limb, and how he had dragged Billy into the boat just in time. The Western boy was gaining strength every moment, and in a short while he had fully recovered from his impromptu bath, save that he was still wet.
"Let's row ashore," proposed Andy, "and get some of the water out of your clothes. Then you won't be so likely to catch cold. What possessed you to go out on that limb?"
"I thought it was a good place to fish," replied Billy. "I could easily throw my line in from the limb, and I never noticed that it was cracked half way through."
"And it was rotten in the bargain," added Frank. "It ought to have been chopped off long ago, or a warning sign put up. Most of our fellows knew about it, though."
"I wish I had," said Billy ruefully. "But I do now. I'm glad I had on an old suit."
By this time Andy had the boat near shore, and a little later the two brothers were helping Billy wring the water from his heaviest garments. It was no easy task to get them on again, and Frank insisted that his own coat be used in place of the wet one of his chum.
"You'll need it yourself," insisted Billy. "It's quite cool to-day."
"No, I can keep warm rowing," declared Frank, passing over his garment.
"Then if that's warming work, me for an oar!" exclaimed Billy, who was shivering in spite of the fact that it was late Spring.
With Billy and Frank pulling at the oars, the craft shot down the river toward the boarding school, aided by the swift current. In a short time Riverview Hall loomed in sight and a crowd of students could be seen gathered on the dock near the boathouse.
"Huh! Great rowers you fellows are!" cried Jack Sanderson, when he saw the water in the bottom of the craft, where it had dripped from Billy, and noticed the damp figure of the Freshman.
"What did you do—upset?" asked Ward Platt.
"No, they've been inventing a new kind of submarine," chimed in John North.
But when the students learned what had happened they offered their congratulations to the rescued lad, and to the Racer boys who had so pluckily pulled him out in the nick of time.
"Run up and get some dry duds on," suggested Frank. "Are you sure you're all right, and don't need a doctor to look you over?"
"Oh, sure I'm all right," insisted Billy. "What do you think I am—a chronic doctor's patient? First I get a whack over the head that lays me out, and then I'm nearly drowned. I wonder when this 'hoodoo' is going to let up?"
"That's right, you have had more than your share," admitted Andy, with a grin.
Billy ran on toward his dormitory, while Andy and Frank remained behind to tell further details of the rescue. Later they joined their new chum in his room, where they found him drinking hot lemonade which the motherly matron, Mrs. Stone, had sent up to him when she heard about the accident.
"Oh, say, that smells good!" exclaimed Frank, sniffing the air.
"Have some," invited Billy, but when Andy tasted it he made a wry face, for the matron had not made it any too sweet, and she had put some ginger in it to further aid in warding off a possible cold.
"Talk about your ice cream sodas!" exclaimed Andy. "Got anything to take the taste of that out of my mouth, Billy?"
"There's a box of crackers on that shelf," replied the host. "They belong to Ray Bentley, my roommate, but go ahead and help yourself. He won't mind. We use each other's things anyhow. I've got some of his clothes on now. He took my best suit—gone to see some girl, I guess."
"Very likely—at the golf match," remarked Frank, while Andy helped himself to the crackers. "But most of the fellows are back from there."
"Oh, Ray'll stay until the last cow comes home when there's a girl in the offing," said Billy, as he took another glass of the hot lemonade. "There, I feel better," he said. "I'm warmed through. Say, I can't thank you fellows enough for pulling me out of the wetness, but——"
"Oh, forget it!" exclaimed Frank. "It was just by luck that we happened to be there."
"By the way, did you get any fish?" asked Andy.
"Not a one," replied Billy. "I had had a few nibbles when you came along, and I was just thinking I was going to have great luck, when——"
"When you had somebadluck," interrupted Frank. "Well, never mind. We'll all go fishing some day, and——"
There came a knock on the door, and the two visitors looked questioningly at Billy.
"I guess it's all right," he said, in a whisper. "It isn't past visiting time, and we haven't broken any rules. Come in!" he called.
The portal opened, disclosing one of the school messengers with a letter in his hand.
"Special delivery for you," he announced to Billy, and the host, with a murmured apology for reading the missive, tore open the envelope. Rapidly he scanned the few lines. Then he uttered an exclamation of surprise and delight.
"Say, fellows" he cried. "This is great! Listen to it. My uncle says his affairs are getting all tangled up, and he wants me to come back West at once and help him. He says to let things here slide for the present, and hustle right out to the ranch. It seems that his rivals are making all sorts of trouble for him."
"And can you help him?" asked Frank.
"Well, I'm going to try. You see I've done quite a lot of business for him, and I know something of the ins and outs of his affairs. I guess I'll have to go."
"And leave school?" asked Andy, dubiously.
"With the term only half over," added Frank, "and the best of the baseball games to come. Oh, that's too bad!"
"Can't help it," replied Billy, still looking over the letter. "I won't have to go for a few weeks, though, as I'll have to close matters up here as best I can. But I've got to go, and—Oh say! here's something else. I didn't read down that far before. Say, this is the best ever!"
"What?" asked Frank and Andy in a chorus.
"My uncle says he wants you two fellows to come out West with me. Out on the ranch."
"Wantsus?" came in another chorus.
"Yes, I wrote and told him how you helped me, and how you've been a sort of bodyguard since that attack, and he thinks that's great. You've got to come; will you? Come out on the prairies and I'll show you a life worth living. Can't you come?"
He looked appealingly at Andy and Frank. They said nothing for a few seconds. Then Billy added:
"You can help me, fellows. I'd rather have you with me than anyone I know of. Besides, maybe we three can find the treasure of Golden Peak!"