DOWN A HOLE
Jerry and Bob looked sharply at Ned Slade. One thought was in the minds
of the tall lad and Chunky.
“Was Ned joking?”
But a look at his serious face forbade any such idea as that. He was
in dead earnest as he looked about on the frowning rocky walls of the
canyon that hemmed them in.
“Lost! What do you mean?” exclaimed Bob, and from the caverns about
them came back the mocking echo.
“You mean!”
“Just what I say--we’re lost!” cried Ned. And the echo said:
“Lost!”
“For cats’ sake don’t yell so!” begged Jerry. “This is getting on my
nerves!”
Though he had spoken in only a low voice, back to his ears and those of
his chums came the weird whisper:
“Nerves!”
For a moment something like real panic seized the Motor Boys, and
the impulse of each of them was to run. But they did not know which
direction to take. Then, too, this sensation lasted but a few seconds
before they had control of themselves again and the situation was well
in hand.
“Do you really think we’re lost?” asked Jerry, in a whisper which in a
measure defeated the echo, as only a faint murmur came back.
“I’m sure of it!” and Ned was equally careful about using loud tones.
“This is where the echo is loudest, you remember, and it’s where I
found the red rock. I thought it might be red gold, that I’ve heard can
be found in some places, but as soon as I picked up the rock I found it
was too light to be gold, so I chucked it away. But here we are back at
the same place instead of being on our way out of the canyon.”
“That’s so,” agreed Bob. “But let’s get to some place where we can
talk naturally without all those echoes butting in, and then we can
decide what’s best to do. I’m glad I brought some sandwiches,” and he
significantly tapped his bulging coat pockets on either side.
It was no time for Ned or Jerry to poke fun at the fat lad, and they
held back any remarks that might have occurred to them.
“We may be lost a long time,” went on Chunky.
“Oh, I think we can soon find a way out of here,” Jerry replied.
The boys moved away from the place where the echoes were loudest and
came to an overhanging shelf that formed an entrance to a small cave.
Here they could talk in normal tones without being annoyed by the
mocking echoes.
“I thought we could easily get out of here after we got in,” remarked
Jerry, as they looked about them.
“So did I,” agreed Ned. “I didn’t take any particular notice, and the
miner didn’t say the place was a puzzle.”
Yet a puzzle it was proving, the boys had to admit when Ned pointed
out to them that they had actually wandered about in almost a complete
circle.
“Then the question is, how are we going to get out?” asked Bob, as he
fumbled in his pocket for one of the packages.
“What are you going to do?” countered Jerry.
“I thought maybe we’d better eat something,” said Bob, innocently
enough. “There’s a spring of water here. After we’ve had some food
maybe we can think better.”
“Chunky, for once you have a good idea!” exclaimed Jerry, laughing in
spite of their rather serious predicament. “Let’s see what you have
there!”
Generally it could be left to the stout lad not to skimp matters
when he was getting a lunch to bring with him, and this had been no
exception. Hang Gow had been generous, for which the lads were now very
thankful.
Bob opened one package of sandwiches, remarking that there were two
apiece and that it would be best to save the second batch until later,
and in this his chums agreed.
They ate, drank some of the clear, cold water that bubbled up out of a
rock, and then looked about them for a time without speaking.
Echo Canyon as a whole extended north and south, but it had many
branches.
“The question is, which way do we want to go?” asked Jerry. “And we’ve
got to decide quickly or the sun will be down and we can’t see which
way to go.”
“I say go to the north,” remarked Ned. “We came in that way, I’m pretty
sure.”
“And I’m equally certain that we came in from the south and should go
out that way,” said Jerry.
“And there you are!” exclaimed Bob.
“Well, what do you say?” asked Jerry, a bit sharply. “Looks as if you
had the deciding vote, Chunky.”
Bob shook his head in perplexity.
“By golly!” he exclaimed, “I don’t know what to say. One minute it
seems to me that we came in from the south, and then, the more I think
of it, it seems as if it was the north. I’m all turned around!”
“I guess we all are,” answered Jerry grimly. “Well, since it’s a tie
as far as you and I are concerned, Ned, we’d better try first one way
and then the other. We must keep our eyes open for any marks that we
noticed in coming into this place. We should have marked the trail in
some way.”
“Um,” agreed Ned. “Lock the stable door after the auto has been run
out! Fine!”
“Well, have you anything better to propose?” asked Jerry, a bit sharply.
“Oh, no,” Ned answered. “And I didn’t mean to be sarcastic. We’ll try
your way first, Jerry.”
This was giving in, and the tall lad understood it so. He smiled and
got up from the rock on which he had been sitting as they ate.
“Let’s go!” he proposed. “And make it snappy!”
The boys turned as near south as they could make that direction,
judging from the sun, which was now low in the west and would soon be
lost to sight behind the high, rocky wall of the canyon. Tramping along
the rough trail their eyes sought for the sight of any landmark they
might have noticed when coming in.
But they saw nothing familiar, and the farther they went the more
discouraged they became. Jerry was about to admit that he was wrong in
his surmise, and to propose going back, when Bob said:
“Well, if we stay here long enough Tinny and Bill will come for us,
won’t they?”
“Will they know where to look?” asked Ned.
“We told the miner who put us on to this canyon that we were coming
here,” the stout lad replied.
“Yes, I reckon if we don’t get back by night Tinny will organize a
searching party,” admitted Jerry. “But we don’t want to have that
happen. We ought to be able to get out of here ourselves. Looks silly
for them to have to rescue us. Come on, Ned, I’m willing to admit I was
wrong. We’ll head north.”
So they swung about, the gloom in the deep canyon deepening as the sun
sank farther and farther down in the west. They passed the place where
they had eaten the sandwiches, and Chunky felt in his other pocket
to make sure he had not lost their second meal. It was safe, and he
breathed a sigh of relief.
“We’ll soon be out now,” declared Ned, for he had faith in his judgment.
But when they had gone on for twenty minutes even Ned was willing to
call a halt, for the canyon was getting wilder and more rugged in this
section, and they now found that the trail was hardly passable.
“Wait a minute!” called Ned, rubbing his forehead in puzzled fashion.
“I don’t believe there’s any use going on this way. We sure never came
in here!”
“No,” said Jerry, “I don’t believe we did.”
They turned back a little way. It was getting darker. Bob was about
to propose that they eat again, but, just when he was going to speak,
he came opposite a defile leading off in the general direction of
south-east.
“Why not try this?” he asked, pointing to it.
“Chunky, I believe you’ve struck it!” cried Jerry. “Come on!”
The three hastened along the new trail, but they had not advanced more
than a hundred yards when suddenly all three of them felt the ground
sliding from beneath them.
They made a quick descent in the half-darkness of the canyon, sliding
down the steep, gravelly sides of a deep hole.
“Now we are stuck!” cried Ned, as he landed on the bottom in a sitting
position.