CHAPTER II
A MYSTERIOUS CAVE
Running at top speed the four boys hastened down the street toward wherethe automobile accident had occurred. Several other persons followedthem.
"They've gone over the cliff!" cried Fenn.
"No, the rear wheels are caught on the edge!" declared Ned. "You can justsee the back part of the car!"
"But the man and young lady must be pitched out! It hangs nearly straightup and down!" said Frank.
"I wonder if they could possibly be alive?" asked Fenn, as he hurriedalong, a little in the rear of the others, for, because of his stoutness,he was not a good runner. "I'll never forget how she looked up to me, asif she wanted me to save her."
By this time the chums had reached the broken fence that had proved soineffectual a barrier to the cliff. They leaped over the shatteredboards, accompanied by a number of men and boys.
"Gee! They're goners!" exclaimed a boy named Sandy Merton, peering overthe edge of the cliff. "It's a hundred feet to the bottom!"
"I wonder what caught the auto?" said Bart. "Why didn't it fall?"
"A wire caught it," answered Fenn. "Look," and he showed his chumswhere several heavy strands of wire, which had been strung on the fenceto further brace it, had become entangled in the wheels of the auto asthey crashed through. The wire was twisted around some posts and, withthe broken boards from the barrier, had served to hold the car fromgoing over the cliff. There it hung, by the rear wheels only, a mostprecarious position, for, every moment, it was in danger of topplingover.
"But where are the people?" asked Frank, as he peered over the edge ofthe cliff. "I can't see them?"
"They're all in pieces," declared a gloomy looking man. "They're brokento bits from the fall."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Bart. "Here, let me have a look!"
Lying flat on his face he peered over the edge of the precipice. Then heuttered a cry.
"I can see them!" he shouted. "They've landed on the ledge, not tenfeet down. They're under some bushes!"
"Get some ropes, quick!" cried Fenn. "We'll haul 'em up before the autofalls on 'em!"
"No danger of that," declared Bart. "They're off to one side. I'm afraidthey're badly hurt, though."
"Somebody go for a doctor!" urged Fenn.
"I will," volunteered Jim Nelson, who had the reputation of being thelaziest boy in the town of Darewell. Perhaps he was afraid of beingasked to help haul the auto back from the perilous position.
"Telephone for 'em!" called Frank, knowing Jim's usual slowness, andrealizing that the lazy youth would welcome this method of summoning themedical men.
"Tell 'em to come to my house," supplemented Fenn. "We will carry theman and girl there."
"Good idea," commented Frank. "You've got more room than any of thesehouses near here," for, in the immediate vicinity of the cliff therewere only small cottages, and some of them were unoccupied.
"But how are we going to get 'em up?" asked Fenn.
By this time a large crowd had gathered. Some had brought ropes, andthere were all sorts of suggestions as to how the rescue should beeffected.
"I'll get them; or at least I'll go down and put a rope around them, sothey can be hauled up," suddenly declared Frank. "I know how to reachthat ledge. There's not much danger. Where's a rope?"
Several were soon produced, some neighboring clothes lines beingconfiscated. It seemed that all the crowd needed was some one to giveorders. In a few minutes, with a rope tied around his waist Frank wasbeing lowered over the cliff. Willing hands let him down until he wason the ledge. Then, having fastened the rope about the form of theunconscious young woman, padding it with his coat, so the strands wouldnot cut her, he gave the signal to haul up. There was a cheer as thebody was laid gently down on the grass at the top of the cliff, andsome one called:
"She isn't dead! She's breathing!"
It was harder work for Frank to adjust the rope about the man's body, ashe was very heavy, but the lad accomplished it, and the crowd abovehauled the unfortunate automobilist up. Then Frank was raised from theledge.
"Carry 'em to my house," cried Fenn. "The doctors will soon be there ifJim hasn't forgotten to telephone for 'em."
On stretchers, improvised from pieces of the fence, the bodies, of whichthat of the girl alone seemed to contain life, were carried to Fenn'shouse. The crowd followed but, at the door a constable named Darby, atFenn's orders, refused admittance to all save the three chums, and thosewho had borne the stretchers.
"The doctors will need room to work," declared Fenn, when there weremurmurs at what was his right, to exclude the mob from his home. "I'mglad mother's out," he said. "This would scare her into a fit."
"The doctors are coming," said Jim, who came into the house a momentlater, after the man and young woman had been laid on beds where Fenndirected. "I telephoned to all in Darewell, but only three were home."
"That ought to be enough," declared Fenn. "I hope they can save theirlives. There doesn't seem to be any evidences of injuries."
The medical men, under the direction of Dr. Fanwood, the eldest of thepractitioners, made hasty examinations of the two victims of theaccident.
"I think we'll have to operate on the man," declared Dr. Fanwood. "We'llneed several things from my office. Who can go for them?" and he lookedat Fenn, whom he had doctored ever since Fenn was a baby, on the fewoccasions when that healthy youth needed medicine.
"We'll go!" offered Frank, Bart and Ned at once.
"I guess we can use all three of you," decided Dr. Fanwood. "Dr. Kyteand Dr. Feldon will need things from their offices. Now I tell you whatto do, just take our horses and carriages, which are tied out in front,and drive after the things. That will be quicker."
Then, the three physicians having given the chums a list of what theyneeded, proceeded to get ready for the operation. The girl was in asemiconscious condition, but a hasty examination showed that the worstshe was suffering from was shock. She could be left alone for a time.
While the medical men were preparing to attend to the man, ConstableDarby kept guard in front of the house, before which it seemed as if halfthe population of Darewell was gathered. Jim Nelson was sitting in thefront hall, ready to go on an errand if needed, but, on the whole, ratherhoping that he would not be required to run. The hasty telephoning hadbeen quite a strain on his lazy nature. Fenn, at the suggestion of Dr.Fanwood, remained in the room where the young lady was, to be at hand incase she recovered consciousness.
"My, things have happened suddenly," thought Fenn, as he looked at thesilent form on the bed. "We were just wishing for something like our oldadventures again. This seems to promise a good beginning."
The four boys, who, because of their intimate association, and from thefact that they lived in the town of that name, were known as "TheDarewell Chums," had been through some lively times together, as hasbeen related in the previous books of this series. In the first volumecalled "The Heroes of the School," I related how the four took part ina peculiar mystery, and solved it to their satisfaction, though, at onetime, when they went up in a balloon, and were captured by the enemy,it looked rather dubious for them. The boys were wide-awake lads, fullof energy and resources, and they managed to free themselves from adifficult situation.
Their home town was on the Still River, which flowed into Lake Erie, andDarewell was a few miles from that great body of water, on which theyoften enjoyed themselves rowing or sailing.
In the second volume of the series, "Ned Wilding's Disappearance," therewas set down the story of what happened to Ned when he tried to do alittle financial business on his own account. He went to New York, andthere by some curious mis-chances, he had to hide, almost as if he hadcommitted a crime. But, by the aid of his chums, and a poor lad whomthey once befriended, Ned was rescued.
In the third volume, "Frank Roscoe's Secret," I told of a queer case ofpersecution. Frank and his chums went camping and Frank's manner, whichhad been not only strange but sometimes unaccountable, b
ecame still morecurious and bewildering, for one of his good nature. His chums did notknow what to make of him, and there was considerable worry on theirpart.
But it turned out that Frank was the one who had to worry, because ofthe danger to his father, whom he had always supposed was dead, but whoturned out to be alive, though in captivity. How the boys discoveredFrank's secret, and how they helped him to rescue his father was relatedin the book together with various other happenings during theirencampment in the woods.
And now the Darewell Chums seemed to be in for another series ofadventures, if Fenn was any judge. The young woman on the bed tossed andturned in the fever of a delirium. The lad became rather frightened, andwas going to call one of the doctors, though he knew they must be verybusy preparing for the operation.
Suddenly the young woman sat up straight in bed. Her light jacket, whichhad not been removed, bore many dirt-stains, where she had fallen uponthe ledge. She struggled to get it off. Fenn started to help her,thinking one of her arms might be broken. Suddenly she exclaimed:
"The cave! Oh, the cave! It was hidden but I can see it now! And themen! See, there are the men, digging, digging, digging! I must stopthem! They will take all--"
She fell back upon the pillows.
"What cave? Where is it? Can I help you?" asked Fenn eagerly.
"The cave! They are in it!" exclaimed the young woman again. "Themysterious cave! If I could only find it! I must find it--my father--hiswealth--search for the cave--I--he--"
"Yes, yes," spoke Fenn, advancing to the side of the bed. "Perhaps I canhelp you find it!"
He hardly knew what he was saying, so great had been the strain of theaccident, and so strangely did the words of the young lady affect him.
She opened her eyes, which had been closed when she was talking. A lookof consciousness came over her face.
"Was I speaking?" she asked in different tones than that she had usedbefore. "Did I say anything? What has happened? Where am I? Where is myfather?"
"The automobile went over a cliff," explained Fenn. "You were hurt, andso was your father, but not badly, I hope. He is here. The doctors arewith him."
"I must--Oh, let me go to him," and she arose from the bed. "What did Isay just now?" she demanded suddenly. "I know I was unconscious, but Iwas saying something."
"It was about a cave," replied Fenn.
"Oh!" she exclaimed in such a voice that Fenn was alarmed. "I was afraidso! Why did I do it? Forget it, please! Forget that I ever mentioned it!I don't know--"
She seemed about to say something more, but her face suddenly becamepale, and she fell back on the pillows.
"Doctor!" cried Fenn, very much frightened.
"Ah, I'm just in time, I see," remarked Dr. Kyte, coming into the roomat that moment. "I'll attend to her now, Fenn. She has only fainted."