FIGHTING THE QUICKSAND
"Listen! What was that?"
"Sounded to me like Will shouting," said Frank quickly, as he tied the
last knot in the holding rope that was bound around the wagon-load of
camp material.
"Sounds like he was only trying to awaken the echoes," ventured Bluff.
"They do come back clear enough. I hope nothing is wrong with him."
"Oh, hardly, Frank. What could happen in broad daylight? Ghosts don't
come out of their holes then, and we all agreed that the chances were
the farmer, as well as that ugly Peters crowd, must have hiked back to
town. Will's all right," observed Jerry, coolly.
"There he goes again. I don't like the sound of his voice, and it seems
to me that he is calling us by name. Listen once more. Wasn't that word
'help'?"
"It sure sounded like it," declared Bluff, looking with startled eyes at
his two chums.
"Come on, Bluff, with me. Jerry, you stay by the wagon, and keep your
eyes on the lookout all the time. Nobody can say what we might run up
against in these Sunset Mountains. If there are ghosts, there may be
other things."
"All right, I'll stay," replied Jerry, though the disappointed look on
his face told plainly enough that he would much rather accompany them.
Frank and Bluff ran down the rough road at a fast clip. The nearer they
came to the bottom the louder grew the cries.
"No mistake, now, Bluff. He's calling for help," declared Frank,
quickening his pace even more.
"Oh! I wonder what's happened. Perhaps he fell and broke a leg,"
suggested Bluff.
"I hope not. That would be hard for poor Will, and break up our outing
entirely," returned the other.
"Look! There he is, Frank!"
"That looks serious!" exclaimed the boy from Maine.
"What's he standing in the middle of that dinky little stream for, up to
his waist in water? Why, he's getting all wet!"
Frank simply turned his head and shouted over his shoulder the one word:
"Quicksand!"
"Good gracious! Is that so?" gasped Bluff, as he ran, panting, after his
chum.
In another minute the two stood on the bank.
"Oh! I'm so glad you came," said poor Will, "for I'm going down awful
fast!"
Bluff was for dropping his gun and rushing out in the water to the
assistance of his imperilled chum. It did his heart credit, this
impulsiveness, but just then, no doubt, it was well that he had a
comrade near by possessed of a cooler head, or there might soon have
been a pair of them in the quicksand.
"Stop! None of that, Bluff!" said Frank, clutching him by the arm.
"But, look! The poor fellow will be drowned if we don't help him mighty
fast!" expostulated the rash boy, struggling to break away.
"And if you go in there we'll only have to drag out both of you, that's
all. Now suppose you leave the thing to me. I've seen a man taken out of
the quicksand before," declared Frank calmly.
He had taken in the whole situation in that one glance, and knew just
what danger there was, as well as how he should go about the rescue.
"All right, Frank, only please be quick. Tell me what to do right now."
"Run back to the wagon and bring that spare rope we got from those
Peters fellows. I said at the time it might come in handy, and this is
the occasion. Be as fast as you can, Bluff."
"But you----"
"I'll be doing something right here. Go!"
When Frank spoke that way he meant to be obeyed. Bluff turned in his
tracks and started back up the grade, running as if for a wager.
"Please do something, Frank, to keep me from slipping down any farther.
I'm going faster, now, I think. It makes me feel cold with the awful
chance of being sucked underneath the water," called Will just then.
"It's all right, pard. Keep up your pluck, and we'll yank you out of
there in a jiffy. While Bluff is gone for that rope watch what I'm going
to do."
He ran to the base of the tree that overhung the stream just there, and
climbed into its branches like a monkey. Then he made his way out on the
limb that Will had so vainly tried to reach, until in a few seconds he
was directly over his imperilled chum.
"Oh, I see now, Frank! It's a bully idea, all right!" cried the boy
in the sand, the anxious look beginning to leave his face.
Frank hung on the limb and reached down his hand. He could just touch
that of the lad below.
"I can't take hold! Oh! what shall I do, Frank? You can't reach me, and
before the others come I may go under!" Will called, in new terror.
"I'm not trying to take your hand. What I want is for you to hand me up
your camera, so as to have both hands free. There, that's it."
He hung the precious black box upon a branch of the tree.
Will, looking up piteously, saw him take off his coat. Then Frank
slipped it down so that the sleeves dangled above the other's head.
"Take hold of those, one in each hand. Then bear yourself up as best you
can by means of the coat, while I brace myself up here," he said.
[Illustration: "TAKE HOLD OF THIS, THEN BEAR YOURSELF UP."]
Will struggled a bit.
"But I don't seem able to recover an inch, Frank!" he exclaimed.
"I don't expect you to. Few men could pull themselves out of the clutch
of a quicksand bed after getting in as deep as you are. All I want is to
keep you from going down any deeper until they come with the rope."
"Oh! I see now. It's a good idea. And then what?" asked Will, cheering
up.
"We'll pass it over the limb here, get you to slip the noose under your
arms, and on shore all of us pull like fun. If that doesn't move you,
then we can hitch old Peter to the rope, and you've just got to come!"
Shouts announced the appearance of the others. Bluff and Jerry were
running, the former carrying the needed rope, while in the rear Jed
could be heard urging the horse at a rapid rate down the incline.
Under Frank's direction, the rope was made with a noose at the end. Then
Bluff crept out and handed it to Frank, relieving him of the suspended
coat. Will let go just long enough to place the noose under his arms,
though he exclaimed that he had sunk six inches immediately.
Jerry now pulled at the other end of the rope, to hold it taut, while
the others were scrambling ashore.
"Now!" cried Frank, "a good pull, a long pull, and a pull together! Yo
heave-o!"
Will uttered a cry.
"I don't seem to move a bit!" he exclaimed.
Again and again the three boys pulled. Even Jed, who had come up, took
hold. They could not get the proper grip, it seemed, for the imprisoned
lad still stuck there, groaning with pain and mental torture mingled.
"You haven't gone down any further, at any rate, Will. I suppose we'll
have to ask Peter to help us out," sang out Frank cheerily, for he saw
that his chum was rapidly becoming very despondent again.
Accordingly, Peter was fastened to the end of the line.
"Wait just five seconds before you say the word!" cried Will.
"What's the matter?" asked Frank, a little alarmed.
"Give Bluff a chance. He's got the camera back there, and is trying for
a focus. It ought to be a great picture, fellows!" answered the sinking
boy.
"Talk to me about grit! Did you ever hear the equal of that? He's a
camera crank of the first water, all right!" exclaimed Jerry.
"And this is the water. Hurry up, Bluff! Snap her off! I'm tired of
staying here!"
"I've got it. Now start the circus, Frank!" cried Bluff, with a grin, as
though he quite enjoyed turning the tables on the ardent photographer
for once.
So the horse was urged to start moving. Frank tried to ease the jerk as
much as he was able, but all the same, poor Will cried out that he felt
as if he were being drawn in two.
"But I moved then! Keep going, now that you've started, boys! Oh! sure
enough, I'm coming up! Faster, now! Hurrah! I'm free from that horrible
mire!" he continued to shout, as he dangled there with his feet in the
water and his head almost touching the friendly limb.
"Try and climb up. Here, Jerry is coming out to help you, Will!" called
Frank.
With the assistance of his chum, Will managed to straddle the limb.
Then, after he had rested a little while, he crept along until at last
he jumped to the ground, to be received with hearty handshakes by all
the others.
"But that was a terribly close shave, all right," he said, as Jerry
scraped the sand and mud from his legs. "Whatever would you have done if
it hadn't been for that bully old tree, Frank?"
"I don't know, exactly, but I'd have found some way to pull you out,"
returned the other; and those boys, who knew what he was equal to in an
emergency, felt positive that he would have proved the victor, no matter
what the conditions.