have plunged to the bottom of the creek and the victim of the
accident must certainly have been drowned.

"Why don't he crawl out? Why don't he crawl out?" cried Ruth,
anxiously.

"How's he going to do it?" sputtered Tom.

"Can't he dive down into the water through the hole in the tree and
so come up outside?" demanded the girl from the Red Mill, irritably.
"I never saw such a fellow!"

Whether this referred to Tom, or to the unknown, the former did not
know. But he recognized immediately the good sense in Ruth's
suggestion. Tom leaped out upon the log and stamped upon it. Helen
screamed:

"You'll go into the creek, too, Tom!"

"No, I won't," he replied.

"Then you'll make the stump fall in entirely and the man will be
drowned."

"No, I won't do that, either," muttered Master Tom.

He stamped upon the wooden shell again. A faint halloo answered him,
and the knocking on the inner side of the hollow tree was repeated.

"Come out! Come out!" shouted Tom, "Dive down through the water and