CHAPTER XXI.
OVER A CLIFF.
The bullets struck all around Jerry, but none of them struck him. Someof the leaden missiles hit the ground and made little clouds of dust,and others zipped on all sides of the auto.
All at once the explosions of the auto motor mingled with the banging ofthe Indians' guns. Jerry had started the engine.
"Get in!" he cried, leaping to the steering seat.
Broswick, Nestor and Professor Snodgrass obeyed the command.
"What about my horse?" cried the hunter.
"Let him go! It's you or the nag!" yelled the miner.
In another instant the whole party was in the auto and Jerry yanked thelevers to full speed ahead. Off the car shot, Jerry steering for anopening in the circle of Indians.
With wild yells the redmen watched the auto glide away. They fired shotsat it, and one Indian hit Broswick, but the wound was only a slight one.
"Here comes your horse!" shouted Bob, glancing behind, and, sure enough,Broswick's steed was galloping after the swiftly moving auto as thoughhe was on the race track.
In a little while the adventurers left the Indians behind and were at asafe distance from any bullets. The hunter's horse, too, kept running,and got away.
"Well, we didn't bargain for this when we left home," remarked Jerry, ashe slowed up the machine after an hour's run.
"I should say not," put in Bob. "Being attacked by Indians was the lastthing I ever thought of."
"You're out in the wild an' woolly West," observed Nestor. "You'll seestranger things before you get through."
"I'd like to see something to eat right now," came from Bob.
"There goes Chunky," said Ned. "He's always as hungry as he was at home."
In spite of poking fun at the stout youth, every one felt the need offood. So a stop was made, a fire built, and soon coffee was boiling.Broswick went off in the woods with his rifle and came back with a braceof birds and a jack rabbit. What the boys voted was the finest meal theyever ate was quickly prepared.
"We must be careful not to lose the auto again," said Jerry. "We havehad trouble enough with Noddy. The next time he may beat us altogether."
When camp was made that night a system of watches was arranged so thatsome one would be on guard all through the dark hours.
Nothing disturbed the adventurers, however, and in the morning theystarted again on their trip across the mountains, which, it seemed,would never come to an end.
Several days, including Sunday, passed without incident. No very fasttime was made, and the machine had to be sent along carefully, asthe roads were bad and the trail was uncertain to them. One morningBroswick announced that he was going off on a hunt. Nestor and ProfessorSnodgrass said they would go with him. Accordingly, the hunter's horsewas tied near the auto and the three men set off, while the three boysremained behind to make some repairs to the machine and do a littlenecessary overhauling.
"We'll be back by dinner-time," announced Broswick; "that is, ifsomething doesn't happen to us."
The boys were so busy that they scarcely noted the passage of time. Itwas not until Jerry looked at his watch and announced that it was twoo'clock that the lads wondered what had happened to their friends.
"It's long past meal time," said Ned.
"Maybe they're not hungry," suggested Bob.
"More likely they're in trouble," spoke Jerry, an anxious look on hisface. "I think we had better hunt them up."
This the boys decided to do, after getting themselves a light lunch.They ran the auto along the track the three men had taken, but afterriding half an hour found no sign of their friends.
"Maybe we're on the wrong track," said Bob.
"Or else they didn't come this way," put in Ned.
They turned the machine around and rode back slowly, looking for marksalong the road.
"There's something!" exclaimed Jerry. He pointed to a small match-boxlying on the ground. "Nestor always carried that," he said. "It musthave dropped from his pocket. The men have been here."
"Hark! What's that?" cried Bob.
All listened. To their ears came a faint but unmistakable cry.
"Help!"
"There they are!" called Jerry. "Over to the left! We must hurry tothem!"
He sent the machine ahead at a swift pace. The road led along the top ofa plateau and ran close to the edge of a cliff. As the machine nearedthis spot the cries became louder. Near the edge of the precipice Jerrybrought the machine to a stop.
"They are down there," he announced, after listening carefully.
The boys dismounted from the car and approached the ledge. It went downstraight for about fifty feet and then bulged out into a shelf beforemaking a sheer descent to the valley, three hundred feet below.
Near the edge of the precipice the earth and rocks were freshly tornaway, showing that something had gone over. Jerry got down on his handsand knees and crept to the edge. What he saw as he looked down made himspring to his feet and shout in mingled fear and astonishment.
There, on a jutting spur of the mountain, hardly large enough to holdthem, were the three missing men.
"Are you hurt?" Jerry called down.
"Bruised and scratched, but no bones broken," shouted Nestor. "You'llhave to haul us up some way, for we can't get down nor crawl up."
"Git a rope!" shouted Broswick, "an' lower it down."
"A rope! I don't believe there's one long enough within ten miles ofhere!" exclaimed Ned.
"Yes, there is," said Jerry, quickly. "We have the one they tried tohang Professor Snodgrass with--the same we used on the tree. It's in theauto. You get it, Bob."
In a few minutes a long rope was dangling over the edge of the cliff,and when the end reached the men imprisoned on the ledge they set up ajoyful shout. The boys retained their end and at a signal from Nestor,who had tied the cable about the professor, under his arms, Bob, Ned andJerry began to haul away. They strained and pulled, but the man at theother end did not budge.
"It's caught!" exclaimed Ned.
Jerry ran forward, telling Ned and Bob to retain their hold of the rope.He found that the cord rasped against an edge of rock as it passed upfrom the depths below, and this produced so much friction that greatforce would have to be used in pulling the men up. Then, too, there wasthe danger of the rope fraying and being cut in two.
Jerry thought over the problem a few seconds.
"What's the matter up there?" asked Nestor.
"Never mind!" shouted back Jerry. "We'll have you up in a jiffy now."
He hurried over to a little clump of trees and came back with a shortsection of a round limb.
"This will be a roller for the rope to pass over, just like a pulley,"he announced. Then he proceeded to put his plan in operation. Lying downon his face, he held the log in position, the rope passing over it. Thenhe told Bob and Ned to pull.
But even with this advantage there was trouble. The two boys managed toget the professor up a short distance, but they were not strong enoughto hoist him all the way.
"Help! help!" the naturalist cried, as he felt himself dangling.
"This will not do!" exclaimed Jerry. "Let him down easy, boys; I'll haveto think of another plan."
It began to look as though the rescue of the men on the ledge was to bea harder task than at first supposed. At Jerry's direction, the end ofthe rope the boys had was fastened to a stake driven into the ground.
"Now I wonder what we'd better do?" mused Jerry. "We'll have to use thelimb of the tree as a roller, and some one has to hold it in place. Yetit will take all three of us to pull one man up. If only one of the menwas up here to give a hand we could manage. As it is----"
"I have it!" cried Ned, suddenly, and he ran back to where the autostood.