e thhe ith!" she cried; "there she ith! Right down there. Come in
a hurry. She ith under the car. I could thee her plainly. Oh, I'm tho
thcared!" Tommy began paddling for the shore with all speed.
Miss Elting did not answer. Instead, she took a long dive. About this
time Jane came up. Hazel, who was making for the spot where the
guardian had disappeared, pointed to it. Jane understood. It took her
but a few seconds to reach the center of the rippling circle left by
the guardian; then Crazy Jane's feet kicked the air a couple of times.
She had taken an almost perpendicular dive. But it seemed that she had
not been under water more than a second or two when she lunged to the
surface. A few feet from her Miss Elting appeared, threw herself over
on her back and lay gasping for breath.
"She'th got her!" screamed Tommy. "Harriet ith dead!"
Gazing out over the pond she saw Jane swimming swiftly toward shore,
dragging the apparently lifeless body of Harriet Burrell. Miss Elting
and Hazel were closing up on Jane rapidly. Reaching her side a moment
later, the guardian took one of Harriet's arms and assisted in towing
her in.
Tommy remembered afterward having been fascinated by the expressions
in their faces. She stared and stared. The faces of the two women were
white and haggard. Still farther back she saw only Hazel's eyes. They
were so large that Tommy was scarcely able to credit their belonging
to Hazel. Had Tommy known it, her own face was more pale and haggard
at that moment than those of her companions.
Jane dragged Harriet ashore; then Miss Elting grasped the unconscious
girl almost roughly, flung her over on her stomach and began applying
"first aid to the drowned."
"Ith--ith she dead?" gasped Tommy.
"She's drowned, darlin'," answered Crazy Jane McCarthy abruptly.
CHAPTER IV
A QUESTION OF POLITICS
"Lay her over on her back!"
Jane obeyed Miss Elting's command promptly. The guardian, using her
wet handkerchief, cleared Harriet's mouth by keeping the tongue down
to admit the air.
"Work her arms back and forth. We must set up artificial respiration,"
she directed.
Jane, without any apparent excitement, began a steady movement of the
patient's arms, bringing them together above the head, then down to
the sides. She continued this as steadily as if she were not face to
face with a great tragedy. She did not yet know whether or not it were
a tragedy; but, if appearances went for anything, i
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