Attracted by his frantic gyrations, the hornets swarmed upon him in a mass, all of them as mad as hornets can be, and eager to do their duty. They plugged him on the jaw, back of the ear, on the wrist, and they got into his hair, and sought to bore through his clothing. Yelling like an Indian, he danced and thrashed about, while the others, without an exception, made haste to retreat from the zone of danger.
“I toldt you dose gougers vould pite!” shouted Carl. “You couldt not plame me when a varnings I gafe you.”
“Run for the water, Crane!” cried Stone. “That’s the only way to get rid of them. Run!”
For a moment or two the tortured lad stumbled round in a circle, and then, still uttering wild howls, he ran toward the lake, into which he plunged and disappeared. The hornets trailed after him and hummed angrily over the water, beneath which, encumbered by his clothing, Sile was swimming in a desperate effort to get as far away as possible before he rose for a breath.
“Lie low and keep still, everybody,” warned Stone, as a few stray hornets buzzed and circled around the point. “If we find it necessary to pull Sile out to save him from drowning we will do so, but he’s a good swimmer.”
All the way round to the end of the point Crane swam, rising eventually in the deep water close to the bold rocks. In this manner he succeeded in eluding his vicious little pursuers, and they soon turned back to circle and buzz around the nest that lay on the ground near the overturned pail.
“Are you hurt mum-much, Sile?” asked Springer, cautiously creeping toward the rocks, behind which Crane remained with only his head showing above the surface of the water.
“Hurt!” was the wild retort. “I’m killed! Bate them critters plunked me in more than twenty places. I’m dying! Wait till I get my hands on that infernal Dutchman! I’ll wring his neck! Can yeou see any of the critters araound here?”
“They’ve gone back to their nest, I guess. You can cuc-come out.”
Cautiously Sile lifted himself and crept out upon the rocks, to which he clung with some difficulty. One eye was almost closed, there was a huge lump on his jaw, and he was marked in various other places. His friends gathered near to condole with him.