DOWN IN THE CHASM

When Tommy, Frank, Sam and the doctor started toward the bottom of the chasm in order that they might reach the spot from which the smoke signal was ascending on the other side, they anticipated rough going, but the actuality was much worse than anything which had been expected.

The soil extended only six or eight feet. Passing this they came to a point where the solid glacier had been opened by the earthquake.

The break was uneven, there being little shelves and ledges upon which the feet might rest, but the going was uncertain for all that.

The roaring of the fast-lifting torrent prevented conversation, and the darkness made signalling impossible except when the searchlights were held in position.

It was very cold at the bottom of the break, too, and the boys felt their hands growing numb.

However, they proceeded with good speed until they came to a point where the current had swept the tree trunks far apart and parallel with each other. Here it became necessary for them to take the chance of a long jump. When it came Sam’s turn to make the leap, the log upon which he struck rolled under his weight and he went down under the wreckage and rush of water.

Frank and Tommy sprang to his assistance at once, reaching down in the hope of getting hold of his hand, but the swift current carried the boy along until he was beyond their reach.

They saw his head come to the surface and saw him strike out for the floating logs on the north side of the chasm.

Then the bushy top of a tree drifted down upon him and he went under.

The boys stood for a moment as if paralyzed at what had taken place, and then Tommy sprang into the mass of floating boughs and, clinging to one which sustained his weight, called out to Frank to turn his searchlight on the place where he stood.

Frank did as requested, but it showed only a half-frozen and dripping boy clinging to the boughs of a tree which was already beginning to drop down beneath his weight.

The lads had about abandoned all hope of rescue when Sam’s head once more appeared above the surface. He was within a short distance of Tommy and the boy, dropping his searchlight, sprang toward him.

He succeeded in getting hold of the boy’s arm.

Then Frank, appreciating the situation, dropped in and, while retaining hold of a reasonably firm log on the west side of the chasm, caught the rescuer by the hand. Doctor Pelton, who had been creeping nearer to the point of danger, now seized Frank by the arm and slowly and with great effort the human chain drew the half-drowned boy to the little platform of logs and brush upon which the doctor stood.

Sam lay there for a moment panting and shivering, and then sprang to his feet. The north wall was still to climb.

The slope here was more gradual and all four soon found themselves at the top of the chasm, wet and cold, but on the side where the Boy Scout signal had shown.

“We ought to tell the boys we are coming, hadn’t we?” asked Tommy.

He drew his automatic from his pocket as he spoke and pressed the trigger, but there was no explosion.

“Try mine!” advised Doctor Pelton. “I guess I’m the only person who didn’t get wet.”

As he spoke the doctor fired three quick shots.

“I wonder if they’ll answer?” asked Tommy.

“They will if they can,” replied Sam. “I don’t know your chums, of course, but when a Boy Scout sends up a signal for help and shots are fired, it is only good manners to acknowledge the courtesy.”

No answering shots came for a moment, however, for Will and Ed were at that moment some distance away from the place where their automatics had been thrown after having been taken from Cameron and Fenton.

The shots came before long, however, and the party of wet and shivering boys pressed on.

“I’d like to know what the boys are doing so far away from the cabin,” Tommy grumbled. “They ought to have sense enough to stay put!”

The party was met just beyond the illumination of the fire by Will and Ed, who greeted their chums with such cordiality that a rather perilous situation was at once suspected.

“What are you boys doing out here in the scenery, anyhow?” demanded Tommy. “You ought to be at home in the cabin with a hot supper ready for us! You always go wrong when I go away!” he added with a grin.

“There’s no time to tell long stories now,” Will hastened to say. “The thing we’ve got to do is to pry open that mountain and dig George, Sandy and Bert out.”

“Are they dead?” asked Tommy, turning very white.

“There’s some one alive in there,” replied Will. “We hear something which sounds like the human voice but we can’t distinguish any words.”

“Earthquake?” asked Tommy.

“Earthquake!” replied Will.

“But how ”

Will cut Frank off with a gesture and pointed to the cliff.

“We’ve got to get to work!” he said.

Just then a low groan reached the ears of the members of the group and Doctor Pelton sprang toward the place where Cameron and Fenton lay.

Tommy dashed after him and looked down on the two men.

“Where did you get ’em?” he asked.

“We didn’t get ’em,” was the reply. “The earthquake got ’em.”

“Then I’ll bet they were trying to do something to Bert!” Tommy declared.

“Right, little man!” replied Will. “But we haven’t got time to talk about it now. This, I suppose,” he added, turning to the surgeon, “is the doctor you brought from Cordova?”

“That’s Doctor Pelton,” Tommy answered, “and this,” he continued, pointing to Sam, “is Sam White, Bulldog Patrol, Portland, Oregon. He isn’t as hungry as he looks to be, for we fed him up good and proper on the way out!”

During this brief introduction, Sam and Ed had been eyeing each other with half concealed grins.

“You boys seem to know each other,” Tommy said.

“That’s my chum,” Sam replied, pointing to Ed. “I saw fit to seek my fortunes in town while he made a break for the mines.”

The boys greeted each other warmly and then all turned their attention to that portion of the cliff where the caverns had once stood.

“They’re still alive,” Frank exclaimed as he reached a little fissure in the rock and bent downward. “I can hear some one talking!”

“Did you say that George and Sandy and Bert were all in there?” asked Tommy, turning to Will. “How did they get in there?”

“They were all in there just before the earthquake,” replied Will. “I can’t stop now to tell you how it all happened. They were signalling to us when the shock came.”

“Signalling, how?” asked Tommy.

“Morse code, red and blue lights!” replied Will. “It’s all the work of the miner and his bum friend,” Will continued. “The boys were barricaded in the cave when the earthquake stirred things up, and the same convulsion which wrecked the cave injured the two men who were responsible for the condition the boys were in. Now you know all about it that I’m going to tell you until we get the lads out and get back to the cabin!”

“They’re not dead, anyway,” Frank exclaimed “I can hear Sandy’s voice!”