CHAPTER XV.
PATSY MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT.
"Get out of here!" shouted the boy, angrily, as Patsy appeared at the foot of his stair.
"I won't!" she answered indignantly.

"I've come to speak to you about the mare, and you'll just treat me decently or I'll know the reason why!" But he didn't wait to hear this explanation.

He saw her advancing up the stairs, and fled in his usual hasty manner to the hall and up the ladder to the roof.
Patsy stepped back into the garden, vexed at his flight, and the next instant she saw him appear, upon the sloping roof and start to run down the plank.
Even as she looked the boy slipped, fell headlong, and slid swiftly downward.

In a moment he was over the edge, clutching wildly at the plank, which was a foot or more beyond his reach.

Headforemost he dove into space, but the clutching hand found something at last--the projecting hook of an old eaves-trough that had long since been removed--and to this he clung fast in spite of the jerk of his arrested body, which threatened to tear away his grip.
But his plight was desperate, nevertheless.