RECOVERY.
With a feeling of numbness and pain in every limb and every part of
his body, Frank Merriwell stirred and tried to sit up. His strength
seemed to be gone, and he wondered at his weakness.
"What--what does it mean?" he asked himself, puzzled.
There was a cloud on his brain, and, for the time, he did not remember
what had happened. He realized he was lying on the ground, and he
wondered if he had been there long.
After a time he turned his head a bit, and close beside him he saw
Harry Rattleton, stretched on his back, his arms outspread, his face
ghastly pale.
A chill of horror seized upon Merriwell's heart.
Why didn't Harry move? Why were his eyes closed? Why was his face so
white?
There was something horrible and awe-inspiring about those rigid limbs
and that ghastly face.
"He is dead!"
He succeeded in speaking the words aloud, although his voice was weak
and faint. The sound startled him, and, with a mighty effort, he
lifted himself to one elbow.
"Harry!" he panted, thickly--"Harry, wake up!"
Still no stir.
"Harry, Harry, are you asleep?"
Rattleton remained motionless.
Holding himself thus, Frank watched, but he could not see that the
bosom of his friend rose and fell at all--he could not see that Harry
breathed.
Surely that pallid face was not the face of a living person! It had
the stamp of death upon it!
"Merciful goodness!" whispered Frank, as he dragged himself nearer. "I
know--I am sure some frightful thing has happened to us! But I do not
seem to remember."
He paused and stared about. Sunset light was on the snow-capped peaks
of the Sierras, and away up there they were dazzling to the eye; but
there were deep shadows below--black shadows in the heart of Frank
Merriwell.
"The mountains!" he faintly murmured--"they are all around us! This is
not the desert--no, no! We were not overcome by hunger and thirst.
Something--something else struck us down!"
He lifted one hand to his head, which was so numb and felt so
lifeless. What was the trouble?
Concentrating all his faculties, he forced himself to think. Then he
seemed to remember.
"The girl!" he faintly exclaimed--"we were searching for her! We were
trying to find the cave, and--we found it!"
He remembered at last. He remembered the appearance of the old man of
the white hair and beard; he remembered that the girl had come forth
from the mouth of the cave; he remembered the warning of the strange
man and the frightful shock that had followed.
"Jingoes!" he said. "I believe we were struck by lightning! I'm not
completely knocked out, but Harry seems to be."
Then he reached Rattleton and touched his face, felt for his pulse,
sought to discover if his heart beat.
Close to the breast of his friend Frank placed his ear, and what he
heard caused him to utter a cry of satisfaction.
"Not dead!" he exclaimed. "He still lives! There is a chance for him."
The thought that Harry's life might depend on his efforts aroused him
still more. He loosened Harry's sweater and the collar about his
throat, he chafed his wrists and temples, he fanned him, called to
him, sought in many ways to arouse him.
At last he saw signs of success. Rattleton's breast rose and fell, and
he gave a great sigh.
"That's right, old man!" cried Frank, with satisfaction. "Just open
your peepers and let us know you are recovering."
Harry opened his eyes.
"Where--what--why----"
He seemed unable to ask the questions that sought for utterance.
"I was thinking the same things a few moments ago," said Frank. "We
were knocked out in the first round with the old hermit."
"Hermit--what hermit?"
"That's it," nodded Merry. "You're as bad off as I was. Why, Carter
Morris, the uncle of the girl with the golden hair, who has hit you so
hard."
A light of understanding came to Harry's face, and he revived with
wonderful swiftness.
"I remember it all now!" he faintly exclaimed. "But I do not know what
happened to us. It seemed to me that something struck me."
"Something did."
"What was it?"
"I don't know, but something knocked us both out. You remember that
the old man warned us not to advance another step--said it would mean
instant death if we did."
"Yes; but I thought the old duffer was bluffing."
"So did I. I have since decided that he wasn't."
"You think he gave us the knock-out?"
"I do."
"How could he?"
"Some way. He has some mysterious power, with the aid of which he
guards the mouth of that cave."
"And that power must be----"
"Electricity!"
"It's a dead-sure thing!" cried Harry. "We were given an electric
shock. When the man touched the wall with his hand, he turned on the
current."
"I believe it."
"But how did the shock reach us?"
"Don't know. I saw no wires."
"Nor I."
"There must have been wires."
"I presume so."
"Well, where are we now?"
They looked around, but there was nothing about their surroundings
that they remembered having seen before.
"We are not in front of the cave," said Frank.
"No, we are not where we fell, that is sure."
"We must have been removed to this spot."
"Sure."
"The bicycles--where are they?"
With no small difficulty they got upon their feet, and then they saw
their wheels leaning against the face of a black rock near by.
At first their legs seemed scarcely able to support their weight, but
they grew stronger as the moments passed, and they approached the
wheels.
Then it was they saw something drawn with white chalk on the smooth
surface of the black rock.
It was the representation of a human hand, with the index finger
pointing in a certain direction.
Beneath the hand were these words:
"THIS WAY--GO!"
"It is a warning!" cried Frank.
"You boot your bets--I mean bet your boots! It tells us to git."
"Well?"
With that word Frank turned on Harry sharply.
"You may go if you want to," said Rattleton; "but I never knew you to
run away. You are not easily scared."
"How about you?"
"I am here to find that girl, and I am going to stay till I find her
or croak! That's how about me!"
"Good stuff!" cried Merry, approvingly, as he grasped the hand of his
comrade. "We'll both stay till we find her."
In a short time the boys began to feel like themselves once more.
Taking their wheels along, they sought for a spring, and were able to
find one.
There they stopped and made a meal from the hard bread and jerked
beef, which was washed down with clear water from the spring.
"Now I am all right," Harry declared. "A feed was what I needed."
They discussed matters a few minutes, and then, carefully observing
the surroundings, decided to conceal the bicycles in the vicinity of
the spring and seek for the mouth of the cave once more.
They found a good hiding place for the wheels, and there the machines
were stowed away.
"We can't be so awfully far from that cave," Frank decided. "One man
and a girl would not be able to bring us a long distance."
But the cave was not easy to find, and the more they searched the more
bewildered they became.
Meanwhile night was coming on swiftly.
"Hist!" warned Harry, suddenly grasping Frank's wrist and drawing him
down behind some bowlders. "Look there!"
"What is it?"
"Moving figures! I saw them distinctly over there."
"The man and the girl?"
"Couldn't tell. There they are again. Look!"
"I see! It is not the man and the girl. It is two men."
"That is right--or, at least, a man and something that resembles a
man."
"It is Bernard Belmont and his gorilla man!"
"You are right, Merry, my boy; and they, too, are searching for the
mouth of the cave. It will be a good scheme to watch them."