Rector.

"It's gone---gone!" wailed Ned.

"That settles him," answered the guide in a hopeless tone.

"Oh, he's lost, he's lost!" cried Walter. "Can no one do anything?"

Chunky, with sudden determination, threw off his coat, and started on a
run for the river. Dodging the Professor's outstretched hands, Chunky
sprang into the water.

With a roar Dad hurled the rope toward the fat boy. The guide had no
time in which to fashion a loop, but he had thrown the rope doubled.
Fortunately the coil caught Chunky's right foot and the lad was hauled
back feet first, choking, half drowned, his head being dragged under
water despite his struggles to get free.

The instant they hauled him to the bank the Professor seized the lad
and began shaking him.

"Leggo! Lemme go, I tell you. I'm going after Tad!"

Stacy Brown was terribly in earnest this time. He was fighting mad
because they had pulled him back from what would have been sure death
to him. They had never given Stacy credit for such pluck, and Ned and
Walter gazed at him with new interest in their eyes. It was necessary
to hold the fat boy. He was still struggling, determined to go to
Tad's rescue.