remarked. “I meant to give them one more caution about risking that fierce current out there. The river is unusually high for early summer, on account of recent rains, and I would hate to get caught in that swirl myself, stout swimmer that I am.”

“Same here, Hugh!” declared Billy Worth, as he started to get on his feet. “Let’s walk over there, and you can tell the fellows what you think about it. I’m more concerned about that new tenderfoot, Tremaine, than any of the old members. He seems to be a bundle of nerves, and inclined to be rash. That’s just the kind of chap to take chances, so as to make the rest think him some punkins.”

“All right! Come on, Billy. I’ll feel easier in my mind——”

Hugh stopped short in what he was saying. A sudden chorus of excited cries rang out, coming from the river where the scouts were bathing.

“Scoot for it, Hugh!” barked Billy, often called “Billy the Wolf” by his chums. “I reckon what we were just talking about has happened. I heard someone shriek that Tremaine was drowning! I’m at your heels, Hugh, all right!”

CHAPTER II.
A CLOSE CALL IN THE RAPIDS.

It took Hugh and Billy only a dozen seconds to clear the intervening ground to reach the scene, such was the speed with which they ran.

On reaching the bank of the river, Hugh saw that it was just as he had feared. Out in the midst of the boiling current, where the foam leaped and there were evidently dangerous rapids of some sort, a boy was struggling madly. He had evidently been attempting to swim across that dangerous place when attacked by cramps; either that or else he had been thrown against a concealed rock and struck his head so as to become staggered and frightened.

Billy Worth may have wondered why Hugh led him to the river below where the outcries arose, instead of heading directly toward them; but he now realized the wisdom of the move.

As usual, Hugh had grasped the situation and understood that there would be an advantage in reaching the river bank below the scene of the accident, rather than further up the current. It was always this way with the scout master; and many of his successes were due to his ability to do the right thing in the start.

As he ran, Hugh had thrown off his hat, and even unfastened his flannel shirt, for he had a premonition that it might be necessary for him to plunge into the river. Now he tore off his shoes, and his trousers followed suit; all this taking but a very few seconds of time.

All of the other scouts had not been paralyzed with fright, for Ralph Kenyon, Bud Morgan and Alec Sands were even then splashing through the shallow water close to the shore, and evidently trying to make their way below the spot where the boy was struggling with the current.

Hugh shouted to them even as he sprang into the water:

“Keep on going down, and make a chain out as far as you can, everybody! Billy, you follow me!”

Billy had been just as rapid in disposing of his clothes as Hugh, so that he was close at the other’s heels when the scout master hurried into the stream.

It grew deeper as Hugh pushed on. Presently he was compelled to swim, and that was where his knowledge of aquatic sports served him well. His sturdy strokes allowed him to buffet the waves of the rapids; while his quick eye figured the course he must take in order to keep below the drowning boy.

Hugh realized that there was every probability that the struggles of the tenderfoot would cease before he could reach him. That was the main reason why he wanted to be where he might intercept the helpless form of Tremaine when it was borne along with the current.

He shouted encouraging words when he could do so without having his mouth filled with the foamy water. It is doubtful whether the imperiled scout heard these cries. At least he was too far exhausted to keep up the struggle long enough for Hugh to reach his side.

“Oh, he’s sunk, Hugh!” came a shout behind the leader of the Wolf Patrol.

Hugh knew this without being told. He had figured it all out, and understood just when the helpless figure would reach him. In imagination he was following its rapid progress with his eye; and with such precision that, sure enough, he was enabled to seize hold of the boy.

Then came a desperate struggle, for it was difficult to keep his clutch on the slippery form of the helpless lad and at the same time buffet the current of the worst place in the rapids.

Fortunately, indeed, for them both, Billy Worth was close at hand to lend his aid. Billy was a stout swimmer, and between them they managed to keep Tremaine’s head out of the water as they allowed the current to carry them down.

Presently they had arrived at a stretch where the river broadened out somewhat, and here Alec Sands and the others had stretched themselves in a human chain with the leader of the Otters as the outermost link.

Once upon a time Alec Sands had been a bitter rival of Hugh, and had even done numerous mean things in order to overreach the latter; but since then Alec had learned to esteem his former enemy because of his manly nature, and nowadays they were the best of friends.

It was meet that Alec’s should be the hand to obtain a grip on Hugh and begin to tow the two swimmers ashore, bearing their limp burden between them.

“Oh, is he dead, Hugh, and is our summer outing going to be broken up right in the very start?” cried Tom Sherwood, who had run down from the camp by this time and was waiting for them on the shore.

“I hope it isn’t as bad as that,” replied Hugh. “Carry him up on the bank, so we can get busy. He wasn’t under the water long, and I expect he will soon be all to the good. I think he must have struck his head on a sunken rock, and that made him dizzy. Then he became frightened, and when a swimmer gets in a panic, it’s going to be a bad lookout for him.”

They laid young Tremaine down on his stomach, with his head raised a little. Hugh placed himself over him, with his knees planted against the ribs of the unconscious boy. He commenced pressing downward regularly with both hands, pumping just as one might breathe. This was to force the water and air out of the lungs, and allow them to fill again with oxygen. It took the part of natural respiration.

Meanwhile the others were all doing something to assist in the work of restoration. Alec vigorously rubbed one of Tremaine’s legs to induce a warmth and get the blood circulating. Another was holding the boy’s head in such a way that his tongue might not slip back.

Fortunately, the time of Tremaine’s immersion had not been of long duration; and under these vigorous efforts of the energetic life-savers, he soon opened his eyes.

Shortly afterward he was able to sit up, though he still felt weak. Everyone experienced a great sensation of relief. The sudden black cloud that had fallen on the new camp had drifted away, thanks to their intimate knowledge of what was required in a case of near-drowning.

There is not a summer passes but that the precious lives of scores of boys are imperiled when in swimming; and since the scout movement took root in this country, the records show that in innumerable instances fatal results have been avoided simply through the knowledge that membership in that organization entails on all who expect to attain the rank of second or first-class scout.

Tremaine admitted that he had been very unwise to undertake that passage of the rushing