CHAPTER XVII.
A DESPERATE CHANCE.
The other passage proved to be much the same as the one they had tried.
“I hope this doesn’t end in nothing,” muttered Hardware as they madetheir way along it.
They took a few steps more when Harry Ware gave a sudden yell of alarmand surprise.
“W-w-what’s up now?” gasped out Persimmons; but before Harry couldreply both boys found themselves tumbling downward. The bottom appearedsuddenly to have dropped out of the cavern passage.
“We’re lost!” choked out Persimmons as he felt his feet go from underhim.
Neither boy knew anything more till they found themselves lying on theground, Persimmons stretched across Hardware’s recumbent body.
“Whew! The second tumble to-day,” gasped out young Simmons, “this placeis as full of holes as a porous plaster. Are you hurt, Harry?” For poorHardware had given a groan.
“Yes, that is, I don’t know. Ouch! I’ve bust my ankle, I think.” Theboy gave a loud moan, which rang hollowly against the walls of thedismal place.
“Is it badly hurt?” gasped Persimmons in a dismayed tone.
“Get up off me and I’ll try to stand up. Give me a hand to rise. That’sit--wow, but it’s painful!”
“Do you think you can use it, Harry?”
“Y-y-y-yes,” came bravely from poor Hardware, who was sufferingexcruciating pain, “but it feels as if a million little dwarfs werepoking needles in it.”
“Lean on me a minute. If we could only find some water, I’d bandageit. Say, we seem to be the two most unlucky kids on earth!”
“That’s what. I wonder if we’ll ever get out of this?”
Young Simmons made no reply. For the life of him he could not havefound words just at that moment. It was all he could do to choke backhis sobs. He was a plucky enough lad, yet he could hardly be blamed forfeeling a pang of black despair clutching at his heart as he revolvedin his mind their truly desperate situation. After a minute he regainedcontrol of himself, however.
“We’ll light up and have a look around,” he said, as cheerily as hecould. “I want to see what sort of place it is that we’ve dropped in onso unceremoniously.”
He struck a match; but it was instantly blown out. Both lads nownoticed for the first time that quite a stiff breeze was blowingagainst their faces. The air felt fresh and chilly and evidently camefrom some opening further along.
“Well, this breeze is a good sign,” declared Hardware; “it means thatthis place must open out somewhere along the route.”
“Blithering blizzards, that’s so!” cried young Simmons with a gleam ofhis customary cheerfulness. “Do you think you can walk, old man?”
“Oh; I’ll hobble along somehow,” declared Harry Ware bravely.
“Lean on me and that will make it easier. We’ll have to go slow,though. I’ve a notion that one more drop would finish us.”
“Like aviation liniment,” responded Harry.
“How’s that?”
“One drop is enough,” responded Harry with a chuckle, despite his pain.
Both boys laughed, and somehow, as is often the case, it made them feelbetter. As they advanced, cautiously, as you may imagine after theirexperiences, the breeze grew stronger till it fanned their faces in aregular gale. Their clothes had got wet in the Cave of the Rains andthey felt chilled to the bone. But before long a gray light sifted intothe rift which presently opened out above them, and looking up theycould catch a glimpse of the sky.
“Hurray! We’ll soon be out of here now!” cried Harry squeezing hiscomrade’s shoulder on which he was leaning heavily.
“I hope so,” was the response, “but hark! what’s that?”
A roaring sound, not unlike that caused by a train rushing through atunnel broke on their ears as he spoke.
“Goodness! Sounds like a den of wild beasts!”
But the next instant they found out what it was that caused the roaringsound, and at the same time experienced a shock of disappointment astheir hope of speedy release was rudely dashed.
The rift terminated abruptly in a sort of rocky basin with steep sidestopped with big trees and brush. The center of this basin was a sort ofwhirlpool formed by a stream which rushed in at a fissure at one sideand out of a similar crack in the rocky walls at the other. A groanfairly forced itself from the lips of both boys as they gazed at thesmooth, steep sides of the rock basin and realized the impossibility ofscaling them, even had Harry’s ankle not been injured.
The stream entered the basin by a small waterfall which tumbled ina foamy mass over great rocks grown with green moss, and it was theroaring of this that had caused the odd noise they had heard in thetunnel.
“Stuck!” was Harry’s exclamation as they stood on the foot-wide stripof beach on the marge of the pool.
Percy Simmons could only echo his companion’s exclamation. Utterlydisheartened they sank down on the strip of beach, the spray from thewaterfall dashing unnoticed in their faces. For the first time sincethe beginning of their misfortunes the two boys were on the verge ofgiving way utterly.
How long they sat thus they didn’t know; but it was Harry Ware whobroke the silence. Both boys were chilled to the bone, and theirclothes needed drying. Besides this, an idea had just struck Harry. Hethought that if any search was made for them a column of smoke might bea good thing to attract attention to their whereabouts, and a good firewould serve a double purpose.
The beach was littered with all sorts of drift wood, from big logs tosmall sticks that the stream had brought down probably during a springfreshet and which had lodged there.
When he had succeeded in rousing Percy from his lethargy of despair,Harry limped briskly about, helping his companion build a roaringfire. The heat was grateful to their chilled skins, and taking offtheir outer garments they spread them out to dry. It was while theywere sitting thus, discussing their situation with more cheerfulnessthan hitherto they had been able to muster, that Harry’s attentionwas caught by a partridge sitting on a hemlock limb that overhung therocky basin on their side. Raising his rifle, which had survived allaccidents, he fired at it, and rather to his surprise the bird cametumbling down, landing almost at their feet.
“Come on, we’ll have some broiled partridge, bread and chocolate,” hecried, addressing the woebegone Persimmons. “It’s no good starving,even if we are in a tight fix.”
He skinned and cleaned the bird and then broiled it on a flat rockwhich he had previously heated in the fire. The two boys ate the birdhungrily, although it was not at all overdone, being half raw, in fact.But their appetites were too keen to be discriminating, and afterdespatching it and eating some of their moist bread and chocolate theyfelt much better.
By this time it was midafternoon. Their clothes were dry and afterputting them on again, they seated themselves on the margin of the pooland discussed their plight.
“If only we had a boat!” mused Harry, after some discussion.
“Jumping jellyfish, you’re right there, Harry,” exclaimed Persimmons;“but just the same why don’t you wish for an airship while you are atit?”
“Because we can’t get an airship and we _can_ have a boat.”
“What! Have you gone crazy?”
“Never more serious in my life. I mean what I say.”
“What, that we’ve got a boat?”
“No; what I mean is, that we can make one.”
“Go on,” said Persimmons, staring at his companion as if to make surethat he was in possession of his right senses.
“It’s no use looking at me like that, Perce. I’m quite in earnest. Theonly question is, if we make the boat, have you nerve enough to ride onit?”
“I’d ride on anything to get out of this place. I wish that eagle upyonder would come down and offer to carry me out. You’d see how quickI’d take him up. But honest, Harry, do you mean what you say?”
“Surely. See that old log over there? That one with the rope danglingfrom it?”<
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“Yes,” rejoined his companion anticipatively.
“Well, I reckon it drifted from some old lumber camp or other and therope came with it. However, that’s not the point. The rope is on it andwe can ride on it out of this pool through that rift in the rocks.”
“But the log will roll over with us.”
“That’s just where the rope comes in. We’ll lash two of the logstogether and then take our chances. If we get spilled, why we can bothswim and I’m pretty sure that outside this pool we can find a bank toland on.”
“Inventive Indians! You’re a wonder, Harry. I’d never have thoughtof that in a hundred years. Come on, let’s get busy. The sun must begetting pretty low, and if we do get out we’ve got a long hike backto camp. I think”--he broke off abruptly. “I forgot your ankle,” heexclaimed, “you can’t walk far on that.”
“No, but you can leave me some place and get help. That part will beall right. The main thing is to reach some place from which you canstrike back to camp.”
“That’s right. Well, let’s get busy and lash two of the logs togetherand then try to chute the chutes.”
A log of about the size of the stick of lumber to which the rope wasattached was secured and rolled alongside it on the shelving beach. Byusing smaller logs as levers the boys raised the large ones and lashedthem together as firmly as they could, so as to form a sort of raft.The rope, on testing proved to be lamentably old and rotten; but thelads were not by this time in a mood to be critical. They were crazy toescape from their rock-walled _cul-de-sac_, and would have been willingto dare almost anything that held out even a remote hope of relief.
At length all was ready, and using their levers they got their cruderaft into the water. Then they selected two poles which they thoughtmight come in handy to shove the craft off any obstructions that itmight strike. This done, they were ready to make their adventurous dash.
“All ready?” asked Harry, wading out into the water.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” was the reply.
“Get aboard then.”
Without further words both boys scrambled upon the lashed logs andshoved off with their poles. The next instant the raft was in deepwater. An eddy caught it, whirling it swiftly into the middle of thepool.
“Wow! But it’s swifter than I thought,” gasped Harry, as a wave sweptover the raft.
His companion did not reply. At the instant he was poling hard to keepthe raft from being swept against a rock, for he knew that the force ofa collision would, in all likelihood, cause the logs to break apart.For a second the raft swung round dizzily, waves and spray breakingover it and drenching the boys afresh. The next minute it was caught inthe main current of the stream and, like a flash, it shot through therocky rift of the basin and was hurtled down a passage between steepcliffs, through which the waters boiled like a mill race.
There was no opportunity to speak. The raft was rushed onward withalmost the speed of an express train. Sick and dizzy from the violentmotion, drenched through, and thoroughly frightened, the two boys couldonly crouch close and hang on for dear life. Once a sudden lurchalmost caused Harry to roll off, but young Simmons caught him in thenick of time.
All at once, above the roar of the waters that shot along through therocky chasm, there came a deeper diapason--a loud, thunderous soundthat proceeded from right ahead of them. Louder it grew and louder,till its deafening uproar drowned out all other sounds.
“What is it?” shouted Harry at the top of his lungs, but to his comradehis voice sounded like a whisper.
Then came a sudden shout from young Simmons who had raised his head andglanced beyond the plunging, dizzily swaying raft.
“Great goodness! We’re being swept toward a waterfall. Get out thepoles.”
“Pole off! Pole off!” yelled Harry, forgetting his ankle and seizing uphis pole as he rose to his feet.
At the same instant there was a cracking, rending sound, and the twoboys were swept asunder on separate logs.
The raft had parted under the strain and they were carried helplesslytoward the waterfall of unknown height that boomed and thundered aheadof them.
Then came a plunge into a breathless abyss.--_Page171._]