ringing some news, because he carries the map on his face.
'Touch-and-Go Steve' we call him, because he's ready to fly off his
base at the first crack of the gun; but he's sure got plenty now to
excite him. Hello! Steve, how's things getting on at the store?"

"Oh! my dad's got his stock out of reach of the water, all that could
be hurt by a soaking; and he thinks the brick building will stand if
the reservoir don't give way; but did you hear that the river is above
the danger line by two feet; higher than ever before known, and rising
like a race-horse all the time? Gee whiz! what's the answer to this
question; where's this thing going to end?" and Steve looked at his
three chums as he put this question; but they only shook their heads in
reply, and stared dolefully out on the swiftly rushing river.

CHAPTER II

LENDING A HELPING HAND

"What we see here isn't all of the trouble by a lot," Max ventured, as
they stood and watched the remarkable sights all around them.

"I should say not," Steve quickly added; "already they've begun to get
reports of washouts down below, where houses have left their
foundations, and gone off on the current; while barns, chicken coops,
pig pens and fences are being swept away by dozens and scores. It's
going to be the most terrible flood that ever visited this section. I
only hope nobody gets drowned in it, that's all."

"I met Gus French a while back," Bandy-legs happened to remember,
though he had said nothing of the circumstance before, there being so
many exciting events taking place right along, "and he told me they
were a heap worried at their house."

"What for?" demanded Steve, who had a weakness for the pretty sister of
Gus, though of late there had existed a foolish coolness between them,
founded on some small happening that grew into a misunderstanding;
"their house stands higher than a whole lot in town, and I don't see
why they'd worry."

"Oh! it ain't that," the other boy hastened to say; "but p'raps you
didn't know that yesterday Mazie Dunkirk and Bessie French went to stay
over Sunday with an aunt of the French girl's about twenty miles down
the river; and they say that the old house is on pretty low ground, so
that if the river rises much more she might be carried off the
foundation!"

Steve gave a half groan, and Max too turned a little white, for the
Mazie whom Bandy-legs referred to was a very good friend of his, whom
he had always escorted to barn