CHAPTER XVII
EXPLORING THE CAVE
"Hal! Oh, Hal! Stop! This is Pickles."
Hal stopped almost as suddenly as he had started to run. He recognizedthe cautious cry of his friend and waited for the four to overtake him.
"What you kids up to?" he inquired, after scanning the faces of thequartet. "I told you not to come, Pickles."
"We're not going to run away with you," he replied. "We're just going towalk a ways and then go back."
"I'm glad to have you come, but you might get into trouble."
"No, we won't," declared Frank with something of his old-timeboastfulness. "We can get back any time before morning and nobody'llever see us."
"Where you going to-night?" inquired Ferdinand.
"To the cave first."
"In the canyon?"
"Yes, I want to see if there's any more of those nuggets there."
"You haven't any light," reminded Byron.
"No, but I've got some matches."
"I know where the lanterns are," Frank announced. "They're in thegarage, and I can crawl in through the window. Let's get them andexplore the cave."
"Yes, let's do," Ferdinand said eagerly. "Come on, Bad. You and I'll goan' get the lanterns, while the rest wait here for us."
No objection being offered to this plan, Frank and Ferdinand made a dashback toward the garage. They were gone about fifteen minutes andreturned with four lanterns. Then the march toward the canyon was takenup.
Of course, there was much excited talk on the way. Every one of theself-appointed committee that was "seeing Hal off" expressed confidencein his integrity and all were highly indignant at Mr. Miles' suspicions.
"He'd better go take a jump in the lake," said Byron with unwontedvehemence. "He's got no 'preciation of what you did for him."
"Yes, if it hadn't been for Hal, he'd probably never have got any of hisspecimens back at all," observed Ferdinand.
"Somebody ought to slip him one," declared Frank savagely.
"I don't think he meant to be so hard on me," interposed Hal charitably."I was pretty sore at first, but when I saw how bad things looked forme, I wanted to get out. I wouldn't have run away, but I don't believe Icould ever prove I wasn't a thief. When you get in a fix like that, thebest thing to do is to pack up and move."
The interest the boys felt in the cave they were about to explorefinally resulted in a change of subject, and Hal's troubles wereforgotten for the time being. In fact, Hal himself forgot much of thebitterness of his woes in the general eagerness of the conversation.
Arrived at the scene of their construction work in the canyon, they lostno time in crossing the river and hastening up the walk to the waterfallcave. Outside the latter they stopped only long enough to light two ofthe lanterns. The other two they found without oil and set them aside.Then they crossed the second bridge into the cave.
Hal now assumed the leadership. He realized that the expedition was notwithout danger and felt the responsibility for the safety of his friendsto be resting on his own shoulders. His first act, therefore, onentering the cave was to drive the other boys back several feet from theprecipice and the roaring waterfall. Then he led them beyond the bend inthe passage to the farther end of the cave, where the noise of the fallwas not so deafening as to prevent conversation.
"You kids stay back here and explore this part while I go up in frontand see if I can find any more of those nuggets," suggested Hal,concealing by his manner his real motive in assigning them well backfrom the danger point. He knew that if he told them he was afraid theywould get too close to the edge and fall over, some or all of them wouldbe determined to hover close to the cataract.
Hal returned to the mouth of the cave with one of the lanterns. He couldnot help shuddering a little as he approached the edge of the precipice,and being of practical mind, he soon found himself speculating on amethod of making this point more safe for visitors.
"There ought to be a fence or high railing along here to prevent peoplefrom getting too close and falling in," he told himself. "If Dr. Byrdwants to invite people to visit this cave, he ought to make it safe. Ithink I'll suggest this to him--"
His soliloquy was interrupted suddenly when he awoke to the fact that hewas running away and did not intend to return to the doctor's school.
"My, what a fool I am!" he exclaimed. "I think I'm losing my head.Really, I wish I wasn't running away. I do hate to go. But--but--I'vegot to."
He flashed his lantern about and began his search for the lost nuggets.He examined the floor and several crevices in the walls for fifteen ortwenty minutes, but nothing rewarded his search. How the one nugget hehad found got there was as big a mystery as the presence of the bag ofsouvenirs in the cave had been.
Finally he gave it up and went back to the farther part of the cave andrejoined the other boys. Byron and Walter were gazing upward at Frankand Ferdinand who were climbing up the wall on the right, which inclinedlike the side of a mountain. Fes carried the lantern.
"Look out, up there; don't fall, or there'll be some broken bones, andmaybe necks," warned Hal. "We don't want any such accidents to-night."
"We're all right; just watch us," answered Frank with his usual bravado.
"Where you going?" inquired Hal.
"As high as we can," replied Ferdinand "Come on up. It isn't steep. It'seasy climbing. You couldn't fall in the dark."
Fes and Frank were by this time fifty or sixty feet from the floor, andthe light of their lantern still revealed no sign of a ceiling, or aconverging of the walls overhead. This was rather astonishing, and Halwas moved with a desire to take part in the upward exploration.
"I'm going up, too," he announced to Byron and Walter. "It doesn't looksteep and it's rough enough to give a good foothold."
"Let's climb up with 'em, Pick," suggested Byron.'
"All right," answered Pickles, suiting the action to the word. In amoment all three were following the two leaders up the almost stair-likeascent. They climbed rapidly, for the success of Fes and Frank had giventhem confidence. Up, up, they went, Hal leading and Byron and Walterfollowing in respective order.
Suddenly they were startled by a succession of cries from above. Theystopped and looked upward apprehensively, and were surprised to see Fesand Frank standing on a ledge and looking down upon them.
"Come on, come on, kids," yelled Frank. "We're clear through the roof.It's all open up here."
Thrilled by this announcement, Hal quickened his steps and those behindhim did likewise. In a few moments they had climbed up to where theleaders were waiting for them. Frank had spoken truly. They werestanding on a level spot several yards in diameter; on one side arose aperpendicular wall of the mountain and on the other, far below, theylooked down into the deep shadows of Mummy Canyon.
"My! isn't this great!" Hal exclaimed enthusiastically. "We're realdiscoverers. Maybe nobody's ever been up here before."
"Nobody ever tried to climb Flathead, they say," Byron observed. "I betnobody ever got as high as this."
"I wonder if we couldn't climb higher from here," said Fes, scanning theperpendicular wall.
"That doesn't look much like it," said Pickles with a laugh.
"I wish the moon'd come out so we could see farther," said Hal. "I hateto come so far as this and stop."
With these words, he flashed the rays of his lantern about. At one edgeof the wall they found a break that looked like the mouth of a passage,but it was blocked by a large bowlder.
"I'm going to climb over it," said Hal. "Here, Fes, give me a boost."
Fes did as requested. With his lantern in one hand, Hal was boosted upto the top of the bowlder, which was about five feet through andperfectly round.
"Yes, there's a passage here," he announced. "Come on over."
By a series of boosts, Byron, Frank, and Fes climbed over the big rock,the latter stopping on top of the bowlder to reach assistance to Walter.After they had pas
sed this barrier, Ferd stopped to examine it morecarefully and then said:
"Let's try to push the rock over a little. It's balanced here on alittle neck. Maybe we can move it so we won't have to climb over it whenwe come back."
Hal had gone on ahead a short distance and paid little attention to thissuggestion until he turned his head and saw his four companions withtheir shoulders to the bowlder.
"Hey! Stop! Stop!" he cried out frantically, realizing what would happenif they moved the rock.
But his warning was too late. Even as he screamed his command, thebalanced rock toppled over and rolled heavily down the slight inclineright into the mouth of the roof exit of the cave.
"Oh! if it would only go through!" was Hal's wild wish. But it didn't.The runaway sprang past his friends, lantern in hand, and made a hastyexamination.
The bowlder was wedged fast, effectually blocking their only avenue ofescape from the steep-walled mountain.