TO THE RESCUE OF SHADOW
“Who saw Shadow last? Does anybody know?” questioned Dave, as the whole
crowd looked at each other in perplexity.
“He was close to me when we started the race,” answered Phil. “But I
soon got ahead of him and turned to one side of some big rocks while he
went to the other side.”
“And didn’t you see him after that?”
“No. But I heard him call to some of the others.”
“I think he was close behind me during the first half of the race,”
broke in Roger. “But after that I drew away from him.”
“We’ll go back to where we started from and keep calling his name,” said
our hero. “He’ll be bound to hear us if he is anywhere around.”
“Perhaps he went down into one of those openings between some of the
rocks and was knocked unconscious,” suggested Ben. “Such a thing could
easily happen.”
“Oh, I hope he isn’t seriously hurt!” cried the senator’s son.
Very soberly the four youths climbed back to the summit of the mountain,
and then began to retrace their steps toward the other side. They kept
calling Shadow’s name continually, but no answer came back.
“Over yonder is the worst opening I had to jump over,” remarked Roger,
when they were near the center of the summit.
“Let us look at it, right away,” returned our hero quickly.
All hurried to the place Roger had mentioned. It was an opening between
some rough rocks, and was all of a hundred feet long and two to eight
feet in width. How deep it was they could not surmise, for the walls
curved from one side to the other, so that the bottom of the opening was
out of sight.
“Looks to me as if it might be the entrance to some cave,” announced
Ben, as all came to a halt on the brink of the opening. “Listen!”
The crowd did so, and at the bottom of the opening they heard a faint
splashing of water as it poured over the rocks.
“Must be an underground stream down there,” remarked Phil.
“Perhaps it’s the same stream that furnishes water to the spring at our
camp,” suggested Dave. He sent up a shout. “Hello, Shadow! Are you down
there?”
“Help! Help!” came in a low voice from below.
“He’s down there, as sure as fate!” exclaimed Roger.
“Are you hurt?” shouted Phil.
“I’m pretty well scraped up, that’s all. But the rocks down here are all
smooth and wet, and I can’t climb up—try my best.”
“You are in no danger just at present, are you?” questioned Dave
quickly.
“I don’t think so—unless you fellows roll down some stones on me.”
“We’ll be careful about that,” answered Ben; and lost no time in pushing
back a number of stones which lay close to the brink of the opening.
“We’ll have to get a rope or something with which to haul him up,” said
Phil. “Dave, did we bring anything of that sort along?”
“Yes, I’ve got a good strong lariat tied to my saddle,” answered our
hero. “Frank Andrews advised taking it along; for when you are traveling
among the mountains you can never tell when you’ll need such a rope.
I’ll go back and get it.”
“Maybe you’d better bring a few straps along, too, Dave,” put in Roger.
“Then, if Shadow can’t haul himself up, he can tie himself fast and we
can pull him up.”
“Good idea, Roger. I’ll do it.”
Dave was soon on his way, and in less than twenty minutes he was back to
the spot, carrying the lariat he had mentioned and also a number of
straps taken from the outfit. The lariat was of rawhide, and more than
once had been tested by the civil engineers for its strength. It had
been purchased by Andrews from a cowboy in Texas, after the latter had
given a very fine exhibition of lassoing steers with it.
“We’re sending down the end of a lariat with some straps,” called down
Dave. “Let us know as soon as it is low enough.”
“All right,” answered Shadow, but somewhat feebly, for the tumble had
evidently knocked the breath out of him.
Tying the loose straps to the end of the rope, and weighting the whole
down with a stone, Dave lowered the lariat carefully over the edge of
the opening. It slipped through his hands readily, and soon the end
disappeared from sight over a bulge of the wall below. All of the others
watched the rope as it disappeared into the opening. They waited for
some cry from Shadow, stating that he had hold of the other end, but
none came.
“Maybe it caught somewhere on the way down,” suggested Ben.
“Well, here’s the end of it anyway,” announced Dave. “And the other end
must be free for I can still feel the weight of the straps and the
stone.”
“Hello, down there!” shouted Roger. “Can you see the rope?”
“Yes,” answered Shadow. “Please let it down about two feet farther.”
“I can’t do that just now. I’m at the end of the rope,” answered Dave.
“Just wait a few minutes, and we’ll fix you up.”
“We’ll have to tie something to it,” said Roger. “Too bad we didn’t keep
one or two of those straps up here.”
“Let’s get a stout sapling and tie that to the lariat,” said Phil. “That
will be even stronger than the straps.”
On the edge of the summit they had noticed a number of saplings growing,
and in a few minutes they had one of these uprooted. It was ten or
twelve feet in height, and plenty strong enough for the purpose
intended. It was tied fast by the roots, and then they lowered it into
the opening, all taking hold of the other end, so that it might not slip
from them.
“All right, I’ve got the rope now,” announced Shadow, a few seconds
later. “Just hold it as it is.”
“Do you think you can haul yourself up, Shadow?” asked Dave. “Or do you
want us to do the hauling?”
“I guess you had better do it if you can,” answered the youth below.
“That tumble made me kind of weak and shaky.”
“Then strap yourself good and tight,” answered Roger. “See to it that
the lariat won’t slip from the straps, either.”
It was almost dark at the bottom of the hollow into which Shadow had
tumbled. He was in water up to his ankles. But this the unfortunate
youth did not mind, for the stream had enabled him to bathe his hurts
and obtain a refreshing drink. Now he lost no time in fastening one of
the large straps around his waist, and to this he attached the lariat by
a firm knot. Then, to make assurance doubly sure, he tied another of the
straps to the rope and around his left wrist.
“Now I’m ready!” he shouted to those above. “But do be careful and don’t
send any rocks or dirt down on my head!” His hat had fallen off and into
the stream, but he had recovered it, and was now using it as a
protection for his head.
“We’ll be as careful as we can,” announced Dave. “If anything goes
wrong, shout out at once.”
It had been decided that Dave and Roger should haul up on the sapling
and the lariat; and while they were doing this, Ben and Phil were to
hold fast to them in order to prevent any of the party from going over
the brink.
Soon the sapling came out of the opening, and then the lariat came up
inch by inch.
“Are you all right, Shadow?” demanded our hero, when about half of the
rope had been pulled up.
“All right, so far,” was the gasped-out answer. “For gracious’ sake,
don’t let me drop!”
“Don’t worry,” answered Roger. And then he added to Ben: “Just carry the
sapling back and stick it between those rocks, then we’ll be sure that
the rope can’t slip.”
As Shadow even though thin, was tall and weighed all of one hundred and
thirty pounds, it was no easy matter to haul him up out of the opening,
especially as the lariat had to slip over several bends of the rocks.
Once there came a hitch, and it looked as if the lariat with its burden
would come no farther. But Shadow managed to brace himself and climb up
a few feet and loosen the rope, and then the remainder of the haul was
easy. Soon he came into sight, and in a few seconds more those above
helped him over the brink of the opening and to a place of safety.
“Thank heaven, I’m out of that!” he panted, as he sat down on a nearby
rock to rest. “I owe you fellows a good deal for hauling me out of that
hole.”
“Don’t mention it, Shadow,” answered Dave readily.
“We’d do a good deal more for you than that,” added Roger.
“Indeed we would!” came simultaneously from the others.
“After this I’m going to be careful of how I run and jump,” answered
Shadow.
“How did you come to go down?” questioned Phil.
“That was the funniest thing you ever heard about,” was the quick reply.
“Just as I came into sight of this opening, I felt one of my shoes
getting loose. I bent down to feel of it, and the next instant I
stumbled over something and rolled right down into the hole. Of course,
I tried to save myself, but it was of no use, and down I went quicker
than you can think. I struck the rocks on one side of the opening, and
then on the other side, and hit some bushes and dirt. Then, the next
thing I knew, I went ker-splash! into a big pool of water.”
“And that pool of water saved you from breaking your neck,” broke in
Ben.
“More than likely. I got up out of the pool in a hurry, and then I
walked several yards to where the stream of water wasn’t nearly so deep.
Then I set up a yell, and kept at it for nearly a quarter of an hour. I
had just about given up thinking you would ever find me, when I heard
you yelling.”
“As soon as you’ve rested, we’ll help you back to our camping place,”
announced Dave. “Then we can start up the fire again and you can dry
yourself;” for he saw that Shadow was soaking wet from his back down.
“I’m thankful this adventure has ended so well,” was Phil’s comment.
“What would we have done if anything had happened to you?”
“As it was, enough did happen,” answered Shadow ruefully. Then, of a
sudden, his face broke into a smile. “Say, when I was down there I
thought of a dandy story! One day two men went to clean a well——”
This was as far as the former story-teller of Oak Hall got with his
narrative. The others gazed at him for a moment in wonder, and then all
broke out into a uproarious fit of laughter.
“Can you beat it!” gasped Phil.
“I guess Shadow would tell stories if he was going to his own funeral!”
came from Roger.
“You’ve certainly got your nerve with you, Shadow,” announced Dave.
“I suppose you thought of the story while you were tumbling down into
the opening,” suggested Ben.
“No, I didn’t think of it just then,” answered the story-teller
innocently. “It came to me while I was waiting for you fellows to get
the rope.”
“Never mind the story now,” said Dave. “If you are rested, let us get
back to the camp and start up that fire. We don’t want you to catch
cold.” For on the summit of the mountain there was a keen, cool breeze.
They were soon on the way, Dave on one side of Shadow to support him and
Roger on the other. Phil and Ben ran ahead, and by the time the youth
who had taken the tumble arrived, more wood had been placed on the
campfire, and it was blazing up merrily, sending out considerable
warmth.
“That’s an adventure we didn’t count on,” remarked Phil, while Shadow
was drying out his clothing in front of the blaze.
“Well, something is bound to happen when we get together,” answered
Roger. “It always does.”
“After this we had better keep our eyes peeled for all sorts of danger,”
said Dave. “We don’t want anything bad to happen to our visitors during
their stay.”
Half an hour was spent in the camp, and by that time Shadow’s wet
clothing had dried out sufficiently to be worn again. The former
story-teller of Oak Hall had been allowed to tell several of his best
yarns, and now seemed to be in as good a humor as ever. His hands and
his shins had been scraped by his fall, but to these little hurts he
gave scant attention.
“I came out on this trip with Phil just to see what rough life was
like,” he announced. “If something hadn’t happened to me I surely would
have been disappointed.”
“You’ll see enough of rough life before you get home again, Shadow,”
said Phil. “Just you wait till you get to Star Ranch. I’ll have some of
the cowboys there put you through a regular course of sprouts.”
Just before the party got ready to break camp, Ben wandered off to get
several more pictures. He went farther than he had originally intended,
the various scenes before his eyes proving decidedly fascinating. He
took a view of some rocks, and then gazed for a long time across to a
hill some distance away. Then he returned quickly to where he had left
the others.
“Say, fellows, I’ve discovered some game!” he cried.
“Game?” queried Dave. “What kind?”
“I don’t know exactly what they were,” answered the youth from
Crumville. “They looked though to be a good deal like a couple of bears.
They are off in that direction,” and he pointed with his hand.
“Say, let’s go after them, no matter what they are!” exclaimed Phil.
“I’d like to get a shot at something before we return to the
construction camp.”
“I’m willing,” announced Dave.
“Shall we go on horseback or on foot?” questioned Shadow. “For myself,
I’d rather ride than walk.”
“Oh, we’ll go on horseback,” answered Roger. “There is no use of our
coming back to this place. Come on—let us get after that game right now!
Ben, you show the way.”