tommy tiptop was thinking quickly. he was a plucky lad, and he did not give up hope in the face of danger. but he could not seem to help himself.
again and again he tried to loosen his foot from where it was caught in a crack in the wheel, but he could not get free. he knew what would happen soon. the water, which came into a sort of long, wooden box, from the mill pond, ran underneath the big wheel, and, by striking on the wooden buckets or pockets, turned the wheel over, and had thus, in the times when the mill was running, moved the grindstones.
“i’ll be carried over until i get on the bottom,” thought tommy, “and then i’ll be drowned, or crushed.”
he was not mistaken. the wheel was moving slowly, and he realized that only a part of the force of water was, as yet, striking the buckets. as the boys opened the gate wider, more water would come in the long, narrow box, and the wheel would turn over faster.
“if i could only untie my shoe, and slip my foot out!” thought tommy. he had once read of a boy who got his foot caught in a switch on a railroad track. the lad pulled and tugged, but his foot was held fast, and a train was approaching at great speed.
suddenly that boy had unlaced his shoe, pulled out his foot, and saved himself. tommy made up his mind to try[pg 104] the same trick. he leaned forward to get at the laces, but he found that he could not reach them in the position in which he was held.
“that won’t do,” he decided. he could still hear sam and jakie at the water gate. they seemed to be having some trouble raising it.
and then another thought came to our hero. he must shout for help. why had he not thought of that before? the two boys who had raced after him, though mean bullies, would not want him to be seriously hurt. they had only meant to have fun with him in their rough, cruel way, and they had no idea that he was fast on the mill wheel.
“i’ll call to them!” decided tommy, and, somehow, though it was to save his life, he almost disliked to do it. but there was no help for it. the wheel was moving faster now.
“help! help!” sung out tommy. “i’m on the mill wheel! caught fast! turn off the water! help! help!”
he waited a moment, hoping for an answer.
none came. he could still hear the splashing of the water and the laughter and shouts of the two boys in a distant part of the mill.
“they can’t hear me!” thought tommy. this idea caused him to make harder efforts than before to loosen his foot, but he could not. then he called again.
“help! help! i’m on the mill wheel!”
there was a sudden rush of water, so loud that it almost smothered tommy’s cries in his own ears, and he knew that he could scarcely be heard ten feet away. at the same time the wheel gave a sudden lurch and swung far over. tommy could see down below him a dark tunnel, filled with foaming, rushing water.
“help! help!” he cried, desperately.
then he saw something else. it was a man—a man in rather ragged clothes, who sprang into the mill through one of the broken windows. the man made a rush for the wheel. tommy closed his eyes, wishing it was all a dream, and that he would awaken safe in bed.
he heard the rushing of waters louder now, and above them a man’s voice seemed to shout:
“why, it’s tommy tiptop! who started that wheel? i’ve got to stop it!”
something hit tommy on the head, and everything got black around him. there was a roaring in his ears, and when he opened his eyes he found himself staring up toward the dusty beams of the ceiling of the old mill. he knew that he was being held in the arms of someone, and, when he turned his head, he saw the kindly face of old johnny green bending over him.
“did you—did you save me?” asked tommy.
“i did, and just in time,” answered the old man. “what did you want to get up there for, and who started the wheel?”
tommy told everything that had happened, from the time he went fishing until sam and jakie had chased him, and he had taken to the wheel for refuge, being caught there.
“but how did you shut off the water in time?” asked tommy.
“by pulling on that handle there,” replied johnny green, pointing to one near the wheel. “that’s what it’s there for, to stop the wheel suddenly in case of danger, when you haven’t time to run and close down the water gate. and i didn’t have time.
“i was passing the mill, when i heard the water coming down the flume. i knew some one must have turned it on,[pg 108] so i came in to see about it. i like to come to the old mill. i used to work here when i was a young man.
“well, i saw you on the wheel, and i got in front of you on the big platform. as you turned around you sort of fell over toward me, and i grabbed you, but your head hit on a stick of wood. then i pulled you toward me. i guess i must have yanked your foot out of the hole where it was caught. then i carried you over here. you had fainted, so i got some water to put on your face, and i shut off the wheel.”
“i’m ever so much obliged to you,” said tommy, and, somehow, it did not seem very much to say to the man who had saved his life. “where are sam and jakie?” he asked.
“don’t know,” answered johnny green. “they run away, i guess, after they started the wheel. just like boys, though i don’t suppose they really thought they had put you in danger. that’s just like boys, too. are you all right, tommy?”
“i guess so. my head aches.”
“that’s where you were hit. but come on, i’ll take you home. next time don’t get on the mill wheel.”
tommy promised that he would not. he was quite shaky, and besides the pain in his head, his ankle hurt where it had been caught in a hole in the wheel.
“i wonder if i’ll be able to play ball to-morrow?” he asked of old johnny green, as they walked along.
“play ball! well, i declare! you boys beat all! here you’ve been close to being badly hurt, to say the least, and the first thing you think of is baseball.”
“but i’m the captain of the team,” explained tommy. “i have to be there. i wonder if i can run on this ankle,” and he was about to try a little sprint, when the old man caught him by the arm.
[pg 109]
“none of that, tommy!” he exclaimed. “if you are going to play ball you don’t want to strain your ankle until you have to. just take it easy—go home and rest.”
“will you come home with me?” asked tommy, “and—and tell my mother how it happened—how you saved me?”
“well, yes, if you want me to,” agreed johnny green, slowly, “though i’m not much on calling to folks’ houses. my clothes don’t look very good,” he added.
“my mother doesn’t care for clothes,” declared tommy.
you may well imagine there was some excitement in the tiptop household when tommy’s story was told. and you may also well imagine that old johnny green was thanked over and over again, for the part he had played.
when sam and jakie learned how narrowly tommy had escaped, they were very much frightened, and their fathers came over to tell mr. tiptop that they had punished their sons, though the boys had said that they did not know tommy was on the wheel when they started it, and this was true.
mr. tiptop was rather stern about the matter, and told how jakie had often done mean things, and mr. norton promised to see if he could not make his boy behave himself in the future.
though a bit stiff, tommy was able to play ball the next day, and his nine won from another composed of lads about their own age, from a nearby town.
“oh, we’ve got a fine team!” cried tommy. but, alas! the very next week they met defeat, and at the hands of a team younger than themselves.
tommy was much downcast and nothing his chums could say made him feel better.
“we’ve got to practice more!” he declared, and from[pg 110] then on, nearly every afternoon when school was out, the lads met on the lot, and had practice at batting and catching, sometimes playing a scrub game.
in the meanwhile, neither sam nor jakie bothered tommy any more, though, occasionally, jakie made sneering remarks.
tommy spent all his spare time at baseball, and his mother said he even talked it in his sleep. but he was very enthusiastic about it, and so was every member of his team.
only about half the nine had uniforms, and tommy’s dearest wish was to get them all fitted out. but some of the boys were too poor to afford the suits.
“i wonder how we could make a little extra cash?” asked herbert kress.
“why not give a show?” suggested georgie pennington.
“what kind?” asked tommy.
“oh, a minstrel show, or an indian one. we fellows could do the acting. we could have it in my barn, i guess, and charge a nickel admission, and ten cents for reserve seats. i was in a show with some other fellows once, and we made five dollars.”
“say, it would be great if we could do that!” exclaimed tommy. “we could get the rest of the suits then.”
it was a few days after this, and tommy was thinking hard on the subject of giving a show, when his mother asked him to take a message for her, late one afternoon, to a lady who lived a short distance out of town, on a country road. it was something about a meeting of a new society of women, which mrs. tiptop had joined.
tommy completed his errand, and he was trudging along toward home, munching a piece of cake the lady had[pg 111] given him, when, from behind him, he heard a shout of terror.
looking back, he saw a horse running along the road, dragging something after him in the dust. and it was from this something that the shouts were coming.
tommy felt his heart beating fast. he recognized the voice as that of his enemy, jakie norton, who was in great danger.
“oh, i’ve got to save him!” gasped our hero.
the horse was coming on rapidly, swaying the unfortunate lad from side to side in the dust. tommy did not know much about stopping runaway horses, and he was too small to reach up and try to grasp the bridle, even if he had dared do such a thing. but he remembered once he had seen a man stand in front of a runaway team, and, by holding out his arms, turn them aside into a light wooden fence, where they came to a halt.
“i’m going to try that way!” exclaimed tommy to himself. he stood in the middle of the road. the horse was near to him now, but the boy it was dragging no longer shouted.
“whoa! whoa there!” yelled tommy, waving his arms up and down.
the horse snorted in terror, and then suddenly swerved to one side, almost running into the fence. he came to a halt and then tommy acted quickly.
in a flash he had his pocket knife out, with the big blade newly sharpened, and, while the horse stood close to the fence, trembling in fright, the small lad slipped around and cut the lines loose from the foot of jakie, around which they were caught. and it was done not a moment too soon, for, an instant later, the horse started off again.
