The Outdoor Chums In The Forest Part 16

"Sounded to me like Will shouting," said Frank quickly, as he tied the last knot in the holding rope that was bound around the wagon-load of camp material.

"Sounds like he was only trying to awaken the echoes," ventured Bluff.

"They do come back clear enough. I hope nothing is wrong with him."

"Oh, hardly, Frank. What could happen in broad daylight? Ghosts don't come out of their holes then, and we all agreed that the chances were the farmer, as well as that ugly Peters crowd, must have hiked back to town. Will's all right," observed Jerry, coolly.

"There he goes again. I don't like the sound of his voice, and it seems to me that he is calling us by name. Listen once more. Wasn't that word 'help'?"

"It sure sounded like it," declared Bluff, looking with startled eyes at his two chums.

"Come on, Bluff, with me. Jerry, you stay by the wagon, and keep your eyes on the lookout all the time. n.o.body can say what we might run up against in these Sunset Mountains. If there are ghosts, there may be other things."

"All right, I'll stay," replied Jerry, though the disappointed look on his face told plainly enough that he would much rather accompany them.

Frank and Bluff ran down the rough road at a fast clip. The nearer they came to the bottom the louder grew the cries.

"No mistake, now, Bluff. He's calling for help," declared Frank, quickening his pace even more.

"Oh! I wonder what's happened. Perhaps he fell and broke a leg,"

suggested Bluff.

"I hope not. That would be hard for poor Will, and break up our outing entirely," returned the other.

"Look! There he is, Frank!"

"That looks serious!" exclaimed the boy from Maine.

"What's he standing in the middle of that d.i.n.ky little stream for, up to his waist in water? Why, he's getting all wet!"

Frank simply turned his head and shouted over his shoulder the one word:

"Quicksand!"

"Good gracious! Is that so?" gasped Bluff, as he ran, panting, after his chum.

In another minute the two stood on the bank.

"Oh! I'm so glad you came," said poor Will, "for I'm going down awful fast!"

Bluff was for dropping his gun and rus.h.i.+ng out in the water to the a.s.sistance of his imperilled chum. It did his heart credit, this impulsiveness, but just then, no doubt, it was well that he had a comrade near by possessed of a cooler head, or there might soon have been a pair of them in the quicksand.

"Stop! None of that, Bluff!" said Frank, clutching him by the arm.

"But, look! The poor fellow will be drowned if we don't help him mighty fast!" expostulated the rash boy, struggling to break away.

"And if you go in there we'll only have to drag out both of you, that's all. Now suppose you leave the thing to me. I've seen a man taken out of the quicksand before," declared Frank calmly.

He had taken in the whole situation in that one glance, and knew just what danger there was, as well as how he should go about the rescue.

"All right, Frank, only please be quick. Tell me what to do right now."

"Run back to the wagon and bring that spare rope we got from those Peters fellows. I said at the time it might come in handy, and this is the occasion. Be as fast as you can, Bluff."

"But you----"

"I'll be doing something right here. Go!"

When Frank spoke that way he meant to be obeyed. Bluff turned in his tracks and started back up the grade, running as if for a wager.

"Please do something, Frank, to keep me from slipping down any farther.

I'm going faster, now, I think. It makes me feel cold with the awful chance of being sucked underneath the water," called Will just then.

"It's all right, pard. Keep up your pluck, and we'll yank you out of there in a jiffy. While Bluff is gone for that rope watch what I'm going to do."

He ran to the base of the tree that overhung the stream just there, and climbed into its branches like a monkey. Then he made his way out on the limb that Will had so vainly tried to reach, until in a few seconds he was directly over his imperilled chum.

"Oh, I see now, Frank! It's a bully idea, all right!" cried the boy in the sand, the anxious look beginning to leave his face.

Frank hung on the limb and reached down his hand. He could just touch that of the lad below.

"I can't take hold! Oh! what shall I do, Frank? You can't reach me, and before the others come I may go under!" Will called, in new terror.

"I'm not trying to take your hand. What I want is for you to hand me up your camera, so as to have both hands free. There, that's it."

He hung the precious black box upon a branch of the tree.

Will, looking up piteously, saw him take off his coat. Then Frank slipped it down so that the sleeves dangled above the other's head.

"Take hold of those, one in each hand. Then bear yourself up as best you can by means of the coat, while I brace myself up here," he said.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "TAKE HOLD OF THIS, THEN BEAR YOURSELF UP."]

Will struggled a bit.

"But I don't seem able to recover an inch, Frank!" he exclaimed.

"I don't expect you to. Few men could pull themselves out of the clutch of a quicksand bed after getting in as deep as you are. All I want is to keep you from going down any deeper until they come with the rope."

"Oh! I see now. It's a good idea. And then what?" asked Will, cheering up.

"We'll pa.s.s it over the limb here, get you to slip the noose under your arms, and on sh.o.r.e all of us pull like fun. If that doesn't move you, then we can hitch old Peter to the rope, and you've just got to come!"

Shouts announced the appearance of the others. Bluff and Jerry were running, the former carrying the needed rope, while in the rear Jed could be heard urging the horse at a rapid rate down the incline.

Under Frank's direction, the rope was made with a noose at the end. Then Bluff crept out and handed it to Frank, relieving him of the suspended coat. Will let go just long enough to place the noose under his arms, though he exclaimed that he had sunk six inches immediately.

Jerry now pulled at the other end of the rope, to hold it taut, while the others were scrambling ash.o.r.e.