The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-05-02
The odlehia Iau Eagle Tuesday 5flornro 7lau 2 1893

MS chilled frame and ha managed to
call out brokenly:
Johnnie. the boat! quick! quick.
Willie IS gone,'
But Johnnie had just dragged him
self By a supreme effort ashore. and
could not have stirred, at the moment,
to save world.
''Oh! Willie. Willie" cried Alf. as if
his friend could hear hin: Il can't dive
for you. / must die. too. There's no
hopel'
Is there. indeed. none? All. yes, By
Heavens mercy, one, slight though il
may be as a gosSaner thread; for al
this instant there came, running swift
Il down the slope to the waters edge.
the two men who owned the boats N d
who. from the window of an overlook
ing house, had seen the exhausted boy
go down
Never Pausing in their eager race, not
even stopping to ask { question, they
sprang into the ready skiff and shot
ike an arrow from the shore.
Don't stopl Don't stop for me-" fal-
tered ALI Hughes, as they swept along
side. "A few yards further out
straight in line with the other boat!
Oh, hurry good men, hurry
One man IS rowing, the other watch
ing, and now, ten yards beyond the
self-forgetful Hughes. he sees, while
peering anxiously over the side, white
body lying motionless on the bottom
twelve feet below the surface.
"Back-waterl steady her, George" he
cries to his mate, and down like plum
met he darts to the rescue. In two sec
onds he is mp again, his hand twined
in the boys long hair. Another second
and both are in the boat.
Willie has been submerged one and
half, possibly two, minutes. He may
yet be savedl No breath is wasted in
words, no fraction of time in dallying.
The hardy fisherman who still holds
the oars, with one long. sweeping
stroke turns the bow shoreward; his
companion picks up the exhausted ALI
as the boat flies along, and the fifty in
tervening yards are passed over in Q
fash
Then the dry man lifts the drowned
youth out to the hot sand, takes off his
own upper garments and wraps him up.
while his friend goes for the anchored
skif. Quickly returning, the two bear
the still form tenderly to the house
whence they themselves have lately
come, leaving the now reviving John
and Alfred to resume their clothing and
follow when strong enough.
While one of the rescuers assists the
good people OF the house in their efforts
at resuscitation, the other hurries off to
the village for doctor, and soon every
thing which skill can suggest is being
done for the unconscious sufferer.
Meantime swift-footed messenger
had been sent to Mrs. johnson S, and
the distracted mother arrives to find
her only son apparently beyond all hui
man help. Not sob, nor murmur, nor
complaint does she utter-nothing to
disturb the work in hand-but with
fearless eyes and pale cheeks lends her
self to the doctors aid with an enforced
calmness sadly belied by her bursting
heart.
Minutes pass away-a quarter, half
hour has gone-and yet there is no sign
of ofreturning life. John and Alf arrive,
and with unwonted solemnity seat
themselves in an outer room, awaiting
in awe-stricken silence the DIR cad ver-
dict which to both seems inevitable.
But the skilled physician, man of
large experience in such cases, works
steadily on, never despairing, yet dar-
ing to whisper to the self-repressing
mother only vaguest words of hope.
The labor is hard and the perspiration
pour5 down the good mans face as he
tries, by alternately pressing and re-
leasing his patients chest and raising
and depressing his arms, 10 restore the