Harry Watson's High School Days: or, The Rivals of Rivertown

“At any rate,” said Paul, as he separated from his chum at the Watson gate, “we did have a great time of it; and I reckon it’s done you a heap of good, Harry,” in which opinion the other certainly shared; and declared that he was glad he had accepted the invitation to try the new iceboat.

CHAPTER XXV – “ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

Keeping more and more to himself, Harry finally gave up the pleasure of skating with his friends after school, preferring to go on long runs alone.

As he was gliding over the ice on one of these occasions, he saw a girl and a boy skating well out toward the middle of the river, so far from him that he could not recognize them.

For two days before, there had been a decided thaw and the ice in the middle of the river was not considered safe by the majority of the skaters. Accordingly, when Harry beheld the two figures, he was amazed.

“Must be from Lumberport or Cardell,” he told himself. “None of our people would be foolish enough to go out there. Guess I’ll see who it is.”

And without delay, he started toward the couple.

“Good gracious! It’s Viola and Craven!” he gasped, when he was near enough to get a good look at them. For a moment, the boy was uncertain what to do. The girl had been keeping more and more aloof from him, and correspondingly more and more in the company of the rich student; and well he knew that Elmer would resent his advice in some insulting manner.

To his relief, however, the couple seemed to be so engrossed in one another that they did not see him, and after watching them for several minutes he was on the point of turning away when he saw them both sink, and then heard terrified screams for help.

The cries also reached some of the other boys and girls farther down the river, and they set out to the assistance of the struggling skaters. But none of them had the speed of Harry.

With a swiftness that was astounding, the boy rushed over the ice toward the hole that was constantly growing larger.

Badly frightened, both Viola and Elmer clutched frantically at the edges of the ice, only to have them break away, sometimes in small chunks, again in large pieces.

“Let Viola hang onto the edge by herself. Go farther down, you Craven!” shouted Harry as he dashed toward them.

But instead of obeying, having found a piece that would hold, the rich boy clung to it, allowing Viola to be carried past him.

“Oh, if I were only in the water with him, I’d fix the coward!” cried Harry. “I only wish the others were near enough to see what he did.”

Thanks to his speed, our hero was so close to the hole that he was obliged to exercise caution lest he, too, break through.

“Here, give me a hand. That ice’ll hold you!” shouted Elmer, as his rival approached.

But Harry seemed not to hear him.

“Hey, you fool, get me out of this; then we two can get Viola.”

His pleading, however, was without avail. Straight along the edge of the hole Harry skated until he was abreast of the girl of whom he was so fond.

“Just keep hold of that ice cake a few moments longer,” he called encouragingly. “I’ll have you out in no time.”

“But I’m too far from the edge. You never can reach me!” sobbed Viola. And as she saw the firm ice so close to her, she made a frantic effort to swim out, with the result that she lost her hold on the floating ice cake.

Harry had been hoping that the current would carry the girl in toward a part of the river where it would not be so difficult for him to get to her. But the instant he saw her hands slip from the cake, he sprang into the water.

Being a good swimmer, it required only a few strokes for him to reach the side of the girl, but as he did so his troubles began.

Handicapped by his clothes and his skates, when Viola seized him in the despairing clutch of a drowning person, he was almost drawn under.

“No, no, you mustn’t grab me around the throat, Viola!” he gasped. “Put your hands on my shoulders. If you don’t, you’ll drown us both. I won’t let you sink – and if you’ll only do as I tell you, I’ll have you safe and sound in a jiffy.”

Something there was in the tone in which the boy spoke that not only soothed the frenzied girl, but gave her confidence, and though she did not remove her hands from around Harry’s neck, she ceased her struggles, permitting him, by means of the ice cakes, and treading water, to make his way toward the firm ice.

The other boys and girls who were hastening to the assistance of their schoolmates had watched the rescue eagerly, and when they saw the boy half roll, half lift the girl out onto the solid ice, they cheered lustily.

But in saving Viola, Harry had overtaxed his strength. Indeed, it had only been by putting every ounce of his power into the effort that he had been able to raise the girl from the water; and the instant he saw her safe, he sank back.

The realization that she was on sound ice, however, restored the girl to her senses; and as she beheld the boy who had saved her from the icy waters lose his hold, she spun about; and with a quick move, caught his coat sleeve as his arm went up in the air.

To the task of pulling Harry from the water, however, Viola was not equal.

“Hurry! Hurry! Help me!” she shouted to the leaders of the other would-be rescue party. “I can’t hold him much longer!”

“Hey, you, come and get me first! I’ve been in the water longer!” yelled Elmer.

But fortunately for Harry, it was Paul and Jerry who were in the van of the skaters, and at Viola’s cries, they put on every ounce of speed they had, relieving her of her hold just in the nick of time.

Harry, however, was more used up than the others had believed, and it was several minutes before he opened his eyes.

“Is – is Viola safe?” he gasped.

“Indeed, I am, Harry!” returned the girl, bending over him. And there was a light in her eyes that thrilled the boy who had rescued her.

When he tried to get up, Harry found he had no strength.

“Somebody go get a sled,” commanded Longback.

“And let him lie here cold and wet, while you’re going for it?” stormed Viola. “Pick him up and carry him, some of you.”

Instantly Paul, Jerry, Dawson and another boy seized Harry, and half supporting, half carrying him, they got him to the shore, while Nettie and the other girls helped Viola, leaving Elmer to the tender mercies of Pud and Socker, who had finally arrived in time to drag him from the water.

But even they wasted few words on him, ashamed as they were to think that he should have sought to save himself at the sacrifice of Viola.

Straight to bed did Mrs. Watson put Harry when he was brought to the house, giving him warming drinks; while his chums rubbed his benumbed arms and legs. But he did not respond to their treatment as quickly as he should, and in alarm, his aunt finally sent for a doctor.

Grave, indeed, did the man of medicine look after he had completed his examination of the boy.

“If he’d been exposed for another half hour, I doubt if we could have brought him around,” he announced. “As it is, it will be several days before he will be up and about.”

But the physician was mistaken – his days were weeks.

His nervous system overtaxed because of his worry in regard to his father, Harry’s physical condition had run down, and the chill he received caused him to go off into pneumonia.

Harry’s illness, however, served one good purpose – it caused a reaction in the feelings of his schoolmates. When it became noised around that he had endangered his life to rescue the girl who was skating with his implacable enemy, the boys and girls of Rivertown High realized that he was made of good material. And their change in feelings was shown by calls they made to ask about his condition, and the delicacies they sent in. But only Paul, Jerry and finally Viola were allowed to see him, though they were forbidden to talk to him.

Little, indeed, did he talk, and then only to ask if word had come from Jed Brown. And as his aunt was forced, day after day, to declare that she had heard nothing, the boy seemed to lose all interest in getting well.

But the crippled veteran, though silent, had not deserted the boy who had rescued him from the bully.

Arrived in Lawrenceburgh, he had vainly pleaded with several influential men to arrange for a stay in the execution of sentence upon Harry’s father. But one and all, they turned a deaf ear to his pleadings, and Mr. Watson was forced to go to prison.

But on the very day he entered upon his term of punishment, old Jed stumbled upon a clue which was to prove his innocence.

Chancing to drop into a tobacco store which was kept by one of his war comrades, he was amazed to find still another member of his old company dressed in handsome clothes and wearing a diamond ring. As the man had always been a ne’er-do-well, the change in his circumstances puzzled Jed, and when the fellow had taken his departure, he asked the shop-keeper what had caused it.

“That’s what I’d like to find out,” returned the tobacconist. “For the last six months, Bill has been going around with his pockets full of money. He’s living at the Ransom House, too.”

This being one of the chief hotels in Lawrenceburgh, the fact still further emphasized the turn in the veteran’s fortunes.

“Ever give you any idea how he got the money?” asked Jed.

“Says he done it by writing. Bill always was a good writer, you know. Don’t you remember how he used to forge pass orders for some of the boys when they wanted to leave camp?”

The words sent an idea to Jed’s mind, and bidding the shop-keeper a hasty good-bye, he hied himself to the Ransom House, where he made many inquiries about the former soldier. At first he made little headway; but just as he was giving up in despair, he saw another old comrade.

“Say, what’s the matter with you Rivertown folks?” asked this man. “Have you come down to see Bill Hawkins, too? Ned Snooks visits him about once a month.”

At the mention of the Rivertown butcher, the crippled veteran gasped. Then he remembered that bad feeling had sprung up between the butcher and Mr. Watson over a real estate deal in which the former maintained that he had been swindled – and Jed immediately concluded that Ned Snooks was at the bottom of the charges against Harry’s father.

But it was one thing to believe this, and quite another to prove it – yet with that perseverance which had distinguished him as a soldier in the ranks, Jed set about obtaining evidence; and finally succeeded in extracting a confession from Hawkins, that, acting for the butcher, he had forged the name of Snooks to some checks, and managed to lay the blame on Amos Watson.

Elated, Jed again approached the influential men who had refused to intercede for their fellow townsman, and after convincing them of the truth of the confession, received their aid in obtaining Mr. Watson’s release from prison, and subsequent exoneration from the charge of forgery.

Ignorant of the illness of Harry, the old veteran did not report on his progress, and the first news the boy had of the change in his father’s condition was when a telegram was brought to him.

With trembling fingers he opened it, then uttered a faint cry of joy, as he read:

“Harry Watson,

Rivertown.

Charges against me proven false. I want you to come to Lawrenceburgh to spend Sunday with me.

Father.”

Better than any tonic or care was the news to Harry, and though he was not able to go to his father, Mr. Watson came to him, bringing good old Jed Brown with him, and happy, indeed, was the reunion.

Despite his villainy, Mr. Watson refused to prosecute Ned Snooks; but public opinion was so aroused against the butcher that he sold his property, and moved away from Rivertown, while the man he had so wronged decided to live in the town, and in due course opened a real estate office.

“But didn’t Pud know about this forgery from the first?” asked Harry, of his parent, one day.

“I think not, my son,” replied Mr. Watson. “Mr. Snooks was a man who kept his affairs to himself. Had Pud known he would have taunted you long before he did.”

“It was grand of old Jed Brown to act as he did,” murmured our hero. “We owe him a great deal.”

“He is to live with me and your Aunt Mary after this,” said the father. “He is going to help me in my real estate business. As he is getting old, I shall let him take it as easy as he pleases.” And so it was arranged.

When Harry returned to Rivertown High he was given an ovation that made him blush like a girl. The only person who remained in the background was Elmer Craven. He had nothing to say; and when, during the following Fall, the Craven family moved to Boston, Elmer was glad to go along, so he would not have to return to a school where he was in such bad odor.

Harry continued at Rivertown High School for the full term of four years; and when he graduated he did so at the top of his class. Then he went into the real estate business with his father, and both made money rapidly. His friendship for Viola ripened into a much more tender feeling; and it is reported that some day the pair will be married. But though Harry was successful as a land dealer he never became tired of talking about his high-school days.

“We had some great times,” he said, one day, to Paul.

“We sure did!” replied his chum. “In my opinion there is no better school in all the world than Rivertown High!”

“Right you are!” responded Harry. “And as matters have turned out I am very glad that I came here.”