This page has been validated.

CHAPTER X.


MR. ARBUCKLE'S STORY.


"Father! father! speak to me! Tell me that you are not dead!"

Over and over again did poor Dick repeat these words as he sat by the side of that wet and motionless form on the muddy river bank. The boy's heart seemed to be breaking.

But suddenly there came a change. He saw one of his father's arms quiver. Then came a faint twitching of an eyelid.

"He is alive!" gasped Dick. The joy of the discovery nearly paralyzed him. "Father! father!"

No answer came back, indeed, it was not to be expected. Kneeling over his parent, Dick set to work to resuscitate the almost drowned man.

Fortunately the youth had, during his school days in New York, heard a lecture on what was best to do in just such a case, so he did not labor in ignorance. His treatment was as skillful as memory and his love for his parent could make it, and in less(80)