The Battery and the Boiler | Page 7

willow overhung the water, there was a deep broad pool. The stream entered the pool with a headlong plunge, and issued from it with a riotous upheaval of wavelets and foam among jagged rocks, as if rejoicing in, and rather boastful about, the previous leap.
The game was extremely simple. The pool was to be the German Ocean, and a piece of stout cord was to serve as a submarine cable.
The boy and girl were well-matched playmates, for Madge was ignorant and receptive--in reference to science,--Robin learned and communicative, while both were intensely earnest.
"Now, this is the battery," said Robin, when he had dug a deep hole close to the pool with a spade brought for the purpose.
"Yes, and the muddy water in it will do for the mixture of acid and water," said Madge.
As she spoke, Robin's toe caught on a root, and he went headlong into the battery, out of which he emerged scarcely recognisable. It was a severe, though not an electric, shock, and at first Robin seemed inclined to whimper, but his manhood triumphed, and he burst into a compound laugh and yell, to the intense relief of Madge, who thought at first that he had been seriously injured.
"Never mind, Madge," said Robin, as he cleansed his muddy head; "cousin Sam has often told me that nothing great was ever done except in the face of difficulties and dangers. I wonder whether this should be counted a difficulty or a danger?"
"At first I thought it a danger," said Madge, with a laugh, "but the trouble you now have with the mud in your hair looks like a difficulty, doesn't it?"
"Why, then, it's both," cried Robin. "Come, that's a good beginning. Now, Madge, you get away round to the opposite side of the pool, and mind you don't slip in, it's rather steep there."
"This is England," cried Robin, preparing to throw the line over to his assistant, who stood eager to aid on the other side, "and you are standing on--on--what's on the other side of the German Ocean?"
"I'm not sure, Robin. Holland, I think, or Denmark."
"Well, we'll say Denmark. Look-out now, and be ready to catch. I'm going to connect England and Denmark with a submarine cable."
"Stay!" cried Madge, "is that the way submarine cables are laid, by throwing them over the sea?"
"N-no, not exactly. They had a steamboat, you know, to carry over the telegraph from England to France; but we haven't got a steamer--not even a plank to make-believe one. Cousin Sam says that a good workman can do his work with almost any tools that come to hand. As we have no tools at all, we will improve on that and go to work without them. Now, catch!"
Robin made a splendid heave--so splendid indeed that it caused him to stagger backward, and again he stumbled into his own battery! This time, however, only one leg was immersed.
"Another danger!" shouted Madge in great glee, "but I've caught the cable."
"All right. Now make fast the shore-end to a bush, and we'll commence telegraphing. The first must be a message from the Queen to the King of Denmark--Or is it the President?"
"King, I think, Robin, but I'm not sure."
"Well, it won't matter. But--I say--"
"What's wrong now?"
"Why, the cable won't sink. It is floating about on the top of the pool, and it can't be a submarine cable, you know, unless it sinks."
"Another difficulty, Robin."
"We will face and overcome it, Madge. Cast off the shore-end and I'll soon settle that."
Having fastened a number of small stones to the cable, this persevering electrician would certainly have overcome the difficulty if the line had not, when thrown, unfortunately caught on a branch of the willow, where it hung suspended just out of Madge's reach.
"How provoking!" she said, stretching out her hand to the utmost.
"Take care--you'll--ha!"
The warning came too late. The edge of the bank gave way, and Madge went headlong into the pool with a wild shriek and a fearful plunge.
Robin stood rooted to the spot--heart, breath, blood, brain, paralysed for the moment--gazing at the spot where his playmate had disappeared.
Another moment and her head and hands appeared. She struggled bravely for life, while the circling current carried her quickly to the lower end of the pool.
Robin's energies returned, as he afterwards said, like an electric shock, but accompanied with a terrible sinking of the heart, for he knew that he could not swim! His education in this important particular had been neglected. He sprang round to the lower end of the pool just in time to hold out his hand to the drowning girl. He almost touched her outstretched hand as she swept towards the turbulent waters below, but failed to grasp it.
For the first time in his life our little hero was called on to face death voluntarily.