DOWN IN THE CHASM
When Tommy, Frank, Sam and the doctor started toward the bottom of the
chasm in order that they might reach the spot from which the smoke
signal was ascending on the other side, they anticipated rough going,
but the actuality was much worse than anything which had been expected.
The soil extended only six or eight feet. Passing this they came to a
point where the solid glacier had been opened by the earthquake.
The break was uneven, there being little shelves and ledges upon which
the feet might rest, but the going was uncertain for all that.
The roaring of the fast-lifting torrent prevented conversation, and the
darkness made signalling impossible except when the searchlights were
held in position.
It was very cold at the bottom of the break, too, and the boys felt
their hands growing numb.
However, they proceeded with good speed until they came to a point where
the current had swept the tree trunks far apart and parallel with each
other. Here it became necessary for them to take the chance of a long
jump. When it came Sam's turn to make the leap, the log upon which he
struck rolled under his weight and he went down under the wreckage and
rush of water.
Frank and Tommy sprang to his assistance at once, reaching down in the
hope of getting hold of his hand, but the swift current carried the boy
along until he was beyond their reach.
They saw his head come to the surface and saw him strike out for the
floating logs on the north side of the chasm.
Then the bushy top of a tree drifted down upon him and he went under.
The boys stood for a moment as if paralyzed at what had taken place, and
then Tommy sprang into the mass of floating boughs and, clinging to one
which sustained his weight, called out to Frank to turn his searchlight
on the place where he stood.
Frank did as requested, but it showed only a half-frozen and dripping
boy clinging to the boughs of a tree which was already beginning to drop
down beneath his weight.
The lads had about abandoned all hope of rescue when Sam's head once
more appeared above the surface. He was within a short distance of Tommy
and the boy, dropping his searchlight, sprang toward him.
He succeeded in getting hold of the boy's arm.
Then Frank, appreciating the situation, dropped in and, while retaining
hold of a reasonably firm log on the west side of the chasm, caught the
rescuer by the hand. Doctor Pelton, who had been creeping nearer to the
point of danger, now seized Frank by the arm and slowly and with great
effort the human chain drew the half-drowned boy to the little platform
of logs and brush upon which the doctor stood.
Sam lay there for a moment panting and shivering, and then sprang to his
feet. The north wall was still to climb.
The slope here was more gradual and all four soon found themselves at
the top of the chasm, wet and cold, but on the side where the Boy Scout
signal had shown.
"We ought to tell the boys we are coming, hadn't we?" asked Tommy.
He drew his automatic from his pocket as he spoke and pressed the
trigger, but there was no explosion.
"Try mine!" advised Doctor Pelton. "I guess I'm the only person who
didn't get wet."
As he spoke the doctor fired three quick shots.
"I wonder if they'll answer?" asked Tommy.
"They will if they can," replied Sam. "I don't know your chums, of
course, but when a Boy Scout sends up a signal for help and shots are
fired, it is only good manners to acknowledge the courtesy."
No answering shots came for a moment, however, for Will and Ed were at
that moment some distance away from the place where their automatics had
been thrown after having been taken from Cameron and Fenton.
The shots came before long, however, and the party of wet and shivering
boys pressed on.
"I'd like to know what the boys are doing so far away from the cabin,"
Tommy grumbled. "They ought to have sense enough to stay put!"
The party was met just beyond the illumination of the fire by Will and
Ed, who greeted their chums with such cordiality that a rather perilous
situation was at once suspected.
"What are you boys doing out here in the scenery, anyhow?" demanded
Tommy. "You ought to be at home in the cabin with a hot supper ready for
us! You always go wrong when I go away!" he added with a grin.
"There's no time to tell long stories now," Will hastened to say. "The
thing we've got to do is to pry open that mountain and dig George, Sandy
and Bert out."
"Are they dead?" asked Tommy, turning very white.
"There's some one alive in there," replied Will. "We hear something
which sounds like the human voice but we can't distinguish any words."
"Earthquake?" asked Tommy.
"Earthquake!" replied Will.
"But how----"
Will cut Frank off with a gesture and pointed to the cliff.
"We've got to get to work!" he said.
Just then a low groan reached the ears of the members of the group and
Doctor Pelton sprang toward the place where Cameron and Fenton lay.
Tommy dashed after him and looked down on the two men.
"Where did you get 'em?" he asked.
"We didn't get 'em," was the reply. "The earthquake got 'em."
"Then I'll bet they were trying to do something to Bert!" Tommy
declared.
"Right, little man!" replied Will. "But we haven't got time to talk
about it now. This, I suppose," he added, turning to the surgeon, "is
the doctor you brought from Cordova?"
"That's Doctor Pelton," Tommy answered, "and this," he continued,
pointing to Sam, "is Sam White, Bulldog Patrol, Portland, Oregon. He
isn't as hungry as he looks to be, for we fed him up good and proper on
the way out!"
During this brief introduction, Sam and Ed had been eyeing each other
with half concealed grins.
"You boys seem to know each other," Tommy said.
"That's my chum," Sam replied, pointing to Ed. "I saw fit to seek my
fortunes in town while he made a break for the mines."
The boys greeted each other warmly and then all turned their attention
to that portion of the cliff where the caverns had once stood.
"They're still alive," Frank exclaimed as he reached a little fissure in
the rock and bent downward. "I can hear some one talking!"
"Did you say that George and Sandy and Bert were all in there?" asked
Tommy, turning to Will. "How did they get in there?"
"They were all in there just before the earthquake," replied Will. "I
can't stop now to tell you how it all happened. They were signalling to
us when the shock came."
"Signalling, how?" asked Tommy.
"Morse code, red and blue lights!" replied Will. "It's all the work of
the miner and his bum friend," Will continued. "The boys were barricaded
in the cave when the earthquake stirred things up, and the same
convulsion which wrecked the cave injured the two men who were
responsible for the condition the boys were in. Now you know all about
it that I'm going to tell you until we get the lads out and get back to
the cabin!"
"They're not dead, anyway," Frank exclaimed "I can hear Sandy's voice!"