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 made their way along it.

They took a few steps more when Harry Ware gave a sudden yell of alarm and surprise.

“W-w-what’s up now?” gasped out Persimmons; but before Harry could reply both boys found themselves tumbling downward. The bottom appeared suddenly to have dropped out of the cavern passage.

“We’re lost!” choked out Persimmons as he felt his feet go from under him.

Neither boy knew anything more till they found themselves lying on the ground, Persimmons[157] stretched across Hardware’s recumbent body.

“Whew! The second tumble to-day,” gasped out young Simmons, “this place is as full of holes as a porous plaster. Are you hurt, Harry?” For poor Hardware had given a groan.

“Yes, that is, I don’t know. Ouch! I’ve bust my ankle, I think.” The boy gave a loud moan, which rang hollowly against the walls of the dismal 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’s it—wow, but it’s painful!”

“Do you think you can use it, Harry?”

“Y-y-y-yes,” came bravely from poor Hardware, who was suffering excruciating pain, “but it feels as if a million little dwarfs were poking needles in it.”

“Lean on me a minute. If we could only find[158] some water, I’d bandage it. 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 have found words just at that moment. It was all he could do to choke back his sobs. He was a plucky enough lad, yet he could hardly be blamed for feeling a pang of black despair clutching at his heart as he revolved in his mind their truly desperate situation. After a minute he regained control of himself, however.

“We’ll light up and have a look around,” he said, as cheerily as he could. “I want to see what sort of place it is that we’ve dropped in on so unceremoniously.”

He struck a match; but it was instantly blown out. Both lads now noticed for the first time that quite a stiff breeze was blowing against their[159] faces. The air felt fresh and chilly and evidently came from some opening further along.

“Well, this breeze is a good sign,” declared Hardware; “it means that this place must open out somewhere along the route.”

“Blithering blizzards, that’s so!” cried young Simmons with a gleam of his 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 feel better. As they advanced, cautiously, as you may imagine after their experiences, the breeze grew stronger till[160] it fanned their faces in a regular gale. Their clothes had got wet in the Cave of the Rains and they felt chilled to the bone. But before long a gray light sifted into the rift which presently opened out above them, and looking up they could catch a glimpse of the sky.

“Hurray! We’ll soon be out of here now!” cried Harry squeezing his comrade’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 a tunnel 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 roaring sound, and at the same time experienced a shock of disappointment as their hope of speedy release was rudely dashed.

The rift terminated abruptly in a sort of rocky[161] basin with steep sides topped with big trees and brush. The center of this basin was a sort of whirlpool formed by a stream which rushed in at a fissure at one side and out of a similar crack in the rocky walls at the other. A groan fairly forced itself from the lips of both boys as they gazed at the smooth, steep sides of the rock basin and realized the impossibility of scaling them, even had Harry’s ankle not been injured.

The stream entered the basin by a small waterfall which tumbled in a foamy mass over great rocks grown with green moss, and it was the roaring of this that had caused the odd noise they had heard in the tunnel.

“Stuck!” was Harry’s exclamation as they stood on the foot-wide strip of beach on the marge of the pool.

Percy Simmons could only echo his companion’s exclamation. Utterly disheartened they sank down on the strip of beach, the spray from the waterfall dashing unnoticed in their faces.[162] For the first time since the beginning of their misfortunes the two boys were on the verge of giving way utterly.

How long they sat thus they didn’t know; but it was Harry Ware who broke the silence. Both boys were chilled to the bone, and their clothes needed drying. Besides this, an idea had just struck Harry. He thought that if any search was made for them a column of smoke might be a good thing to attract attention to their whereabouts, and a good fire would serve a double purpose.

The beach was littered with all sorts of drift wood, from big logs to small sticks that the stream had brought down probably during a spring freshet 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 roaring fire. The heat was grateful to their chilled skins, and taking off their outer garments they spread them[163] out to dry. It was while they were sitting thus, discussing their situation with more cheerfulness than hitherto they had been able to muster, that Harry’s attention was caught by a partridge sitting on a hemlock limb that overhung the rocky basin on their side. Raising his rifle, which had survived all accidents, he fired at it, and rather to his surprise the bird came tumbling down, landing almost at their feet.

“Come on, we’ll have some broiled partridge, bread and chocolate,” he cried, 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 rock which he had previously heated in the fire. The two boys ate the bird hungrily, although it was not at all overdone, being half raw, in fact. But their appetites were too keen to be discriminating, and after despatching it and eating some of their moist bread and chocolate they felt much better.

[164]

By this time it was midafternoon. Their clothes were dry and after putting them on again, they seated themselves on the margin of the pool and 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 at it?”

“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 sure that he was in possession of his right senses.

“It’s no use looking at me like that, Perce.[165] I’m quite in earnest. The only question is, if we make the boat, have you nerve enough to ride on it?”

“I’d ride on anything to get out of this place. I wish that eagle up yonder would come down and offer to carry me out. You’d see how quick I’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 dangling from it?”

“Yes,” rejoined his companion anticipatively.

“Well, I reckon it drifted from some old lumber camp or other and the rope came with it. However, that’s not the point. The rope is on it and we 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 logs together and then take our chances. If we get spilled, why we can both[166] swim and I’m pretty sure that outside this pool we can find a bank to land on.”

“Inventive Indians! You’re a wonder, Harry. I’d never have thought of that in a hundred years. Come on, let’s get busy. The sun must be getting pretty low, and if we do get out we’ve got a long hike back to camp. I think”—he broke off abruptly. “I forgot your ankle,” he exclaimed, “you can’t walk far on that.”

“No, but you can leave me some place and get help. That part will be all right. The main thing is to reach some place from which you can strike back to camp.”

“That’s right. Well, let’s get busy and lash two of the logs together and then try to chute the chutes.”

A log of about the size of the stick of lumber to which the rope was attached was secured and rolled alongside it on the shelving beach. By using smaller logs as levers the boys raised the large ones and lashed them together as firmly as[167] they could, so as to form a sort of raft. The rope, on testing proved to be lamentably old and rotten; but the lads were not by this time in a mood to be critical. They were crazy to escape from their rock-walled cul-de-sac, and would have been willing to dare almost anything that held out even a remote hope of relief.

At length all was ready, and using their levers they got their crude raft into the water. Then they selected two poles which they thought might come in handy to shove the craft off any obstructions that it might 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 and shoved off with their poles. The next instant the raft was in deep[168] water. An eddy caught it, whirling it swiftly into the middle of the pool.

“Wow! But it’s swifter than I thought,” gasped Harry, as a wave swept over the raft.

His companion did not reply. At the instant he was poling hard to keep the raft from being swept against a rock, for he knew that the force of a collision would, in all likelihood, cause the logs to break apart. For a second the raft swung round dizzily, waves and spray breaking over it and drenching the boys afresh. The next minute it was caught in the main current of the stream and, like a flash, it shot through the rocky rift of the basin and was hurtled down a passage between steep cliffs, through which the waters boiled like a mill race.

There was no opportunity to speak. The raft was rushed onward with almost the speed of an express train. Sick and dizzy from the violent motion, drenched through, and thoroughly frightened, the two boys could only crouch close and[169] hang on for dear life. Once a sudden lurch almost caused Harry to roll off, but young Simmons caught him in the nick of time.

All at once, above the roar of the waters that shot along through the rocky chasm, there came a deeper diapason—a loud, thunderous sound that 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 comrade his voice sounded like a whisper.

Then came a sudden shout from young Simmons who had raised his head and glanced beyond the plunging, dizzily swaying raft.

“Great goodness! We’re being swept toward a waterfall. Get out the poles.”

“Pole off! Pole off!” yelled Harry, forgetting his ankle and seizing up his pole as he rose to his feet.

At the same instant there was a cracking,[170] rending sound, and the two boys were swept asunder on separate logs.

The raft had parted under the strain and they were carried helplessly toward the waterfall of unknown height that boomed and thundered ahead of them.

Then came a plunge into a breathless abyss.—Page 171.