"It doesn't matter. The skirts were only cheap ones, of khaki cloth, but
they are very strong. I am glad we wore them."

"And I guess Mr. Bunn will be, too," added the young actor.

"Now we'll have you out!" cried Mr. DeVere, as he flung one end of the
novel rope to the actor in the bog. Mr. Bunn caught it, and, at the
direction of Mr. Pertell, looped it about his chest, just under his arms.

"Now, all pull together!" cried the manager. "But take it gradually,
until we see what strain this rope will stand."

Indeed a slow, gradual pull was the only feasible method of releasing Mr.
Bunn. But with the rope around him, he felt that he was going to be
saved, and did not struggle so violently.

Often when one gets into a quicksand bog the more one struggles the
faster and deeper one sinks. Only it is almost impossible not to struggle
against the impending fate.

With the skirt-rope about him, and his friends pulling on it, Mr. Bunn's
hand were free. Seeing this, and realizing that the more force that was
applied, up to a certain point, the sooner would the actor be freed, Ruth
cried:

"If we had another rope we girls could help, and Mr. Bunn could hold on
to it with his hands," for she and her sister, as well as Miss Pennington
and Miss Dixon, were doing nothing.