CAUGHT IN THE STORM
"Why Frank! What does this mean?" exclaimed the astonished Will, as he
stared first at his chum, and then up past the lofty tops of the
forest trees to where those inky thunder-caps were thrusting their
ugly noses into sight.
"Simply that we've been caught napping for once," replied the other,
with an expression of mingled amusement and disgust on his face; for
such a thing did not happen very often in the experience of a
wide-awake fellow like Frank Langdon.
"It's going to storm like fun," continued Will, with growing
apprehension.
"And the first thing we've got to do," his companion told him, "is to
look for shelter. Under these big trees we might find a place to keep
dry, for there's one that's hollow right now; but the danger of its
being struck by lightning is too great for me to risk."
"Whew! We're in for it, I expect!" cried Will, who apparently had
received quite a severe shock upon making this sudden discovery, when
up to the time that loud thunder clap startled them neither of the
boys had suspected anything.
Frank began to look hastily about him. He knew what he wanted to find
above all things, and fortunately the country around that section was
capable of producing such a safe shelter.
"Hurry along this way, Will!" he called out. "If I remember rightly I
noticed some outcropping ledges back a little bit. We may be lucky
enough to find shelter under a shelf of rock."
"That's a good idea, Frank," admitted Will, as he tried to keep close
on the heels of his hurrying comrade.
"If the rain will only hold off ten minutes, even less, we ought to
get to that rocky section, unless I miss my guess," Frank threw back
over his shoulder.
They pushed on with all their vim. Meanwhile it grew very dark and
forbidding. Will could not remember ever to have seen the day
swallowed up in the gathering shades of night so quickly before. It
appalled the boy, for he did not possess the same unconquerable nature
as Frank.
One crash of thunder followed another in rapid succession. The very
earth under their flying feet seemed to quiver with the concussions.
Lightning shot downward with such vivid flashes that it fairly blinded
them; so that Will's soul was filled with awe.
"Frank, oh, Frank!" cried the boy in the rear.
"All right, Will, what is it?" replied the other, who kept glancing
back at very brief intervals to make sure his chum still ran at his
heels, for he feared that should they ever be separated in that
gathering gloom it would be impossible for them to come together
again.
"Do you think we can make it?" demanded the other, with a touch of
despair in his voice, for the situation looked frightfully appalling
to Will.
"Sure we will!" he was immediately assured in Frank's most cheery
fashion. "Right now I can see the first of the rocks. Given two more
minutes at the most and we'll be able to crawl under a shelf, and lie
there as snug as two bugs in a rug."
Frank did not feel any too sanguine himself, but he would not let Will
know of any fears he possessed regarding the possibility of their not
finding the shelter among the rocks after all.
A terrific peal of thunder drowned their conversation for a brief
interval, but they were pushing resolutely forward all the while.
Frank was straining those keen eyes of his to some purpose. He knew
they were at the border of the rough, rocky section now. If only they
could run upon the friendly outcropping shelf which he remembered to
have seen at the time they passed before, they would find shelter.
All would have been easy enough had they been given ordinary daylight
so as to look around them. The gathering gloom made it very difficult
to see twenty feet away with any degree of certainty. Frank was being
guided partly by instinct, and the knowledge that he had taken his
right bearings to start with.
"Frank, I felt the first drop of rain!" shrilled Will, filled with a
new fear, for he was afraid that his pet camera would be ruined should
they be soaked to the skin, which was a calamity terrible enough to
break his heart.
Frank did not need to be told of the falling rain, for he, too, had
discovered the ominous fact even before his chum announced it. There
was nothing to be done but set their teeth grimly and bear it. The
rocks were now all around them. If only they could discover that
friendly ledge!
"Yes, it's beginning to come down now, because I can hear it in the
treetops over that way, can't you, Frank?"
"What you hear is mostly the wind, Will; but that sounds bad enough, I
own up. There, I remember that broken tree making a bow above the
path we followed. And the ledges were close by it, I'm dead certain.
Come this way, Will; chances are we'll run on them right off."
This cheery talk buoyed up the despondent spirits of the other, and he
set his teeth grimly, determined to hold out to the end. Another flash
that almost blinded them, quickly followed by a resounding bellow of
thunder, announced that the downpour of rain must be very close
indeed; doubtless it would descend upon them with that furious gale of
wind.
"Hurrah! here they are, Will! Brace up, old fellow, for it's going to
be all right!"
So dense had the darkness become that Frank found himself relying
almost wholly on the electric flashes for his illumination. The last
brilliant charge had disclosed the fact of the near presence of the
ledges which he had kept in mind so long.
Fortune favored them in that Frank was able to discover the largest
ledge close at hand. It stood out far enough to allow of their
crawling well underneath, where the rain, no matter how it was driven
by the furious wind, could not reach them.
Even as the two fugitives dropped down on their hands and knees, and
started to creep under the flat rocks, the rain began to fall
heavily. In fact it seemed to Will that hardly had his feet been drawn
under the accommodating shelter than the heavens opened, and the
floods descended.
The two boys pushed well in and made themselves as comfortable as
their condition allowed. This of course was not saying much, for they
were sitting on hard rock, with their heads touching the shelf that
hung above.
It was utterly impossible for them to exchange a single word just
then, owing to the riot of sound that came from beyond. The thunder
bellowed, the wind roared, trees could be heard at intervals crashing
to the ground, and the rain beat a terrible tattoo on the rock that
sheltered them.
So fast did the lightning play that they were glad to close their eyes
lest in staring into that dazzling glare they should find themselves
blinded.
Will managed to push up close to his chum. Somehow it seemed to give
him more confidence just to feel the contact. Thus he knew he was not
alone in the midst of that hurricane, really the worst he had ever
experienced in all his life.
The time wore on. Once the dreadful storm seemed to have passed, and
it even grew considerably lighter. Will plucked up fresh hope,
believing the end had come, and that they could soon be on their way
to camp, to reach there at dusk perhaps.
Frank, however, began to see things in a different light. He noted
that there were signs telling of a return of the gale. The second
spell might be as bad as the first; and if it kept them confined there
under the rocks until night came on it would be utterly out of the
question to think of setting forth.
So Frank, foreseeing fresh trouble ahead, braced himself to meet it.
They would have to make a virtue of necessity, and stay there all
night. That was not a pleasant outlook, but then things might be a lot
worse, Frank told himself.
Sure enough the gloom once more descended, and again the thunder took
up the old rumble and crash. Perhaps the wind was not as furious as
was the first rush, and the rain may have been less in quantity, but
the second part of the storm was severe and terrifying enough.
"If it wasn't that we've had an even worse spell," Will managed to
call out, "I'd think this was the worst ever. Frank, what's the answer
to all this? How are we going to get back to camp?"
"Walk, of course," replied the other; "it's the only way."
"But even now the afternoon must be pretty well gone," objected Will.
"It certainly is," he was told.
"We don't know the exact way to camp," continued Will, "the night is
coming on in a hurry, the trees are dripping with water, and in lots
of places they have been thrown down every-which-way by that
hurricane. We never can make camp to-night, that's sure!"
"I'm glad you understand that, Will, because I was just going to break
it to you. No, it would be foolish for us to try such a thing. We've
been pretty lucky as it is to escape getting wet jackets. We'll have
to put in a long night here the best we can."
"Whew! it will be a terribly long one, too," declared Will, listening
to the retreating growl of the thunder. "And the worst of it is the
weather usually turns cold after one of these storms. We'll get to
shivering to beat the band. I wish we could make a fire some way or
other."
"I'm afraid that's going to be out of the question," Frank told him.
"Of course we have matches in plenty, but we couldn't get dry wood
after that deluge. You see we had no chance to look around us for a
dead tree, and we have no camp hatchet along with us to do any
chopping."
"Oh, well, I guess we can stand it, Frank. Morning is bound to get
here sooner or later. We've gone through as bad times as this more
than once, haven't we?"
"I should say we had," Frank immediately replied, anxious to buoy up
the spirits of his companion as much as possible. "And for one thing,
that wind isn't going to reach in under here to any extent."
"You're right about that," admitted Will; "it comes from back of the
ledge, now that it's shifted into the west. Surely we have lots to be
thankful for. But of course we'll feel pretty hungry, because neither
of us is used to going without supper, you see."
At that Frank laughed.
"I thought I'd do it for a joke, first of all," he remarked; "you see
I'd been reading about the way the Indians make their pemmican by
drying venison, and how they carry a handful in their pouches when
they have a day's journey afoot to make, munching on it once in a
while."
"But what has that to do with us, Frank; we have no pemmican in camp,
have we?"
"No, but that piece of dried beef made me think of it, and for fun I
carved off a small hunk, intending to spring it on you as a joke if
you happened to say you felt hungry, I've got it here in the pocket of
my coat."
"Well! of all the luck, that takes the cake!" exclaimed Will. "We can
grind our teeth on that once in a while, and make believe we're
enjoying the most magnificent camp dinner going, eh, Frank?"
"It's apt to make us thirsty, of course, but just now it happens that
pools of water can be found for the looking, so that needn't bother us
any. So we're fixed in the line of grub; and there's no danger of
starving to death yet awhile."
By the time the last of the storm died away in the distance it was
almost night; in fact Will discovered the first star peeping through a
rent in the clouds overhead. Therefore the two chums started to make
themselves as comfortable as the hard conditions of their shelter
allowed, thankful that they had been spared being caught in the open
by that fearful summer storm.