The "dog" had
loosened suddenly, and the men were flung violently to the ground. For a
second they were stunned both by the surprise and by the shock of the blow,
but in the same moment the cry of the crowd swelled louder. Alcestis Crambry
had stolen, all unnoticed, to the rope, and had attempted to use his feeble
powers for the common good. When the blow came he fell backward, and, making
no effort to control the situation, slid over the bank and into the water.
The other Crambrys, not realizing the danger, laughed audibly, but there was
no jeering from the bridge.
Stephen had seen Alcestis slip, and in the fraction of a moment had taken off
his boots and was coasting down the slippery rocks behind him; in a twinkling
he was in the water, almost as soon as the boy himself.
"Doggoned idjut!" exclaimed Old Kennebec, tearfully. "Wuth the hull
fool-family! If I hed n't 'a' be'n so old, I'd 'a' jumped in myself, for you
can't drownd a Wiley, not without you tie nail-kags to their head an' feet an'
drop 'em in the falls."
Alcestis, who had neither brains, courage, nor experience, had, better still,
the luck that follows the witless. He was carried swiftly down the current;
but, only fifty feet away, a long, slender log, wedged between two low rocks
on the shore, jutted out over the water, almost touching its surface.
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