Repairing the wheel was hard and dangerous work. With one hand the men worked at screwing down and unscrewing bolts and nuts, with the other hand they hung on to dripping, slippery planks and beams.
“Careful men, careful,” Captain Faucette cautioned them. “Any man that goes overboard into this icy current is lost.”
By the light of lanterns and torches, the men worked with a will. One bucket was just being lifted into place, when there was a scramble and a plunge—“Man overboard!” The cry arose and at once there was a confusion of hurrying feet and calling voices.
Tim, the Indian, and the trapper were just eating supper, while Bill had been watching and helping the men. Bill ripped off his coat. “Hold up the torches!” he called, and sprang after the man, who was just disappearing behind the wheel. The icy flood almost choked him, but he struck out after the man. By the glare of the torches he caught a glimpse of him bobbing up and being carried toward a mass of driftwood. He seized the back of the man’s shirt, pulled him to the driftwood, and tried to climb up, but it would not support his weight. He hooked his left arm around an overhanging willow, and with his right hand he raised the man’s head above the current.
“Bring a boat, quick!” he called. “I can’t hold on long. I’m all numb!”
In a few minutes, Mattson, the unfortunate carpenter, and Bill were safe on board and Colonel Lantry took charge of them.
[Illustration: With his right hand he raised the man’s head above the current.]
“Here,” he said to two soldiers, “turn this man over on his face and bring him to. You know how.”
Then to the men: “On with your work, men. We must reach Fort Snelling to-morrow night.”
Bill had slipped away to his corner on the coil of ropes. His teeth chattered and his hands felt so numb that he could hardly wriggle out of his wet and sticky garments.
When he was once more in dry clothes, he hurried to the mess-room and asked the cook for the hottest tea he had.
“I’d give you something better,” he said, “if I had it, but the hot milk is all gone. The captain is in a deuce of a hurry, so we went right by Mankato and St. Peter without stopping.”
After two cups of hot tea, sweetened with plenty of brown sugar, Bill’s teeth stopped rattling, but set themselves with a will into the meal of ham, potatoes, and bread placed before the hungry boy, who had not yet had his supper.