Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/18

Rh phone. Jack Folsom came up, shaking his head, and Floyd Halket dove.

"It's Stewart," Bob Dunbar called through the megaphone to the approaching boat. "Bow ashore, Steve; tell them we'll get him."

The boat turned; another, in which were two boys, was approaching. There came from the shore a woman's piercing cry, "Where's Stewart? I don't see Stewart!" After that there was silence.

Lydia could not bear the anguish of that cry; she turned her face imploringly toward the shore. And then she saw a woman in a white dress start from the crowd and run forward wildly. Two men sprang out and stopped her, and began leading her away.

"Don't look," Floyd Halket said to Lydia. "Just keep the boat steady. You other fellows get into that boat." He pointed to the one which had drawn near. "We can't all do this; Folsom and Blair and I will take turns." Then, as Blair's head reappeared above the surface, he jumped, and Lydia braced with her oars while the boat rocked.

"If I were only of some use!" groaned Dunbar. "These clothes!"

"It's all eel-grass," Jack Folsom said. "If a fellow goes down into that—to the bottom—"

Floyd emerged and swam up with great lunging strokes.

"Could you see him?" Blair asked, and Floyd shook his head. Then Folsom jumped.

"We'll have to go into the eel-grass to get him," Blair said.

"I think so," Floyd answered. He pulled himself up and into the boat. "The stuff's thick; the only chance is to go in."

Lydia hardly heard the words; they were subdued to the endless, hopeless reiteration of her unspoken thought, "He is drowned by now—he is drowned by now." She