The Outdoor Chums In The Forest Part 17

"Now!" cried Frank, "a good pull, a long pull, and a pull together! Yo heave-o!"

Will uttered a cry.

"I don't seem to move a bit!" he exclaimed.

Again and again the three boys pulled. Even Jed, who had come up, took hold. They could not get the proper grip, it seemed, for the imprisoned lad still stuck there, groaning with pain and mental torture mingled.

"You haven't gone down any further, at any rate, Will. I suppose we'll have to ask Peter to help us out," sang out Frank cheerily, for he saw that his chum was rapidly becoming very despondent again.

Accordingly, Peter was fastened to the end of the line.

"Wait just five seconds before you say the word!" cried Will.

"What's the matter?" asked Frank, a little alarmed.

"Give Bluff a chance. He's got the camera back there, and is trying for a focus. It ought to be a great picture, fellows!" answered the sinking boy.

"Talk to me about grit! Did you ever hear the equal of that? He's a camera crank of the first water, all right!" exclaimed Jerry.

"And this is the water. Hurry up, Bluff! Snap her off! I'm tired of staying here!"

"I've got it. Now start the circus, Frank!" cried Bluff, with a grin, as though he quite enjoyed turning the tables on the ardent photographer for once.

So the horse was urged to start moving. Frank tried to ease the jerk as much as he was able, but all the same, poor Will cried out that he felt as if he were being drawn in two.

"But I moved then! Keep going, now that you've started, boys! Oh! sure enough, I'm coming up! Faster, now! Hurrah! I'm free from that horrible mire!" he continued to shout, as he dangled there with his feet in the water and his head almost touching the friendly limb.

"Try and climb up. Here, Jerry is coming out to help you, Will!" called Frank.

With the a.s.sistance of his chum, Will managed to straddle the limb.

Then, after he had rested a little while, he crept along until at last he jumped to the ground, to be received with hearty handshakes by all the others.

"But that was a terribly close shave, all right," he said, as Jerry sc.r.a.ped the sand and mud from his legs. "Whatever would you have done if it hadn't been for that bully old tree, Frank?"

"I don't know, exactly, but I'd have found some way to pull you out,"

returned the other; and those boys, who knew what he was equal to in an emergency, felt positive that he would have proved the victor, no matter what the conditions.

CHAPTER XV

JERRY MAKES A GUESS

"Frank, what about the other wagon?" asked Will.

"Well, what about it?"

"Suppose it got caught the same way I did, and the horses were dragged down?"

"But it won't, all right, depend on that. In the first place, you didn't try to cross at the regular ford, but wandered downstream a bit, you see. Then, again, I mean to leave a notice fastened to a stick right here in the road, warning Adolphus against turning aside. I've tested the ford, and it's safe," was Frank's reply.

The wagon was taken over without any accident. Then they started afresh for the upper regions, where that jewel of a lake nestled in the heart of the mountains, awaiting their coming.

"It's a much longer journey than I thought," admitted Frank, an hour later, as, having climbed the ascent, they were winding in and out among the heavy forest.

"And a harder pull than I dreamed of. Peter is the boss horse, for all his wheezing and grunting," declared Bluff.

"I'll never forget what he did for me!" exclaimed Will, who had been feeding the old animal on lumps of sugar at intervals for the last hour, until Frank forbade him to keep it up longer, lest he founder the beast with kindness.

"Well, that ought to pay us for all we've endured!" cried Jerry, pointing.

"It's sure-enough Surprise Lake!" cried the others in chorus, for they had burst out of the woods at a point that allowed the first glimpse of the beautiful sheet of water for which they were headed.

Presently they reached the bank, and Frank, with the instinct of a true sportsman, picked out the ideal spot for the tents to go up.

First they had a bite to eat, for the hour was long past their customary lunch time, and all of them owned to being hungry. Will, in particular, declared he could eat even cold bear meat, if there was any handy.

Though somewhat sore around his waist and arms, he said he felt all right.

Then the tents went up, and the place a.s.sumed the appearance of a genuine camp.

"When the canoes are floating on that lovely lake it will look like fairyland!" declared Frank enthusiastically.

"I don't see any sign of a living being," remarked Bluff.

"Nor do I believe any one is camping up here right now. We've got the whole lake to ourselves, fellows," observed Will.

The afternoon pa.s.sed slowly. They were anxiously waiting to hear the cheery voice of old Adolphus in the distance, talking to his horses to encourage them.

"What are you so serious about, Frank?" asked Jerry, dropping down beside the other on the soft turf.

Frank looked cautiously around to see that the others were engaged elsewhere.

"I was going to take you into it, Jerry, when a chance came, but thought that just now it might be well not to tell all the others. Listen, then.

You remember that some time ago we were talking over that dog matter, when you spoke of the bloodhounds Colonel Halpin brought up from the South, and which were borrowed by the warden to chase the two escaped prisoners?"

"Why, yes, I remember that," answered the other, looking surprised and curious, as well he might.

"One man was recaptured through the aid of the dogs," went on Frank.

"That's so. You and I heard different stories about how it happened the other poor chap got away. One account said he took to the water, while another spoke of him using red pepper to fuddle the scent of the hounds."

"All right, Jerry. The main point is that he got away, isn't it?"

"It sure is; and I give him credit for some smartness. Any man who can outwit that head warden of the penitentiary, and backed up by a couple of trained hounds, at that, is no slouch, in my opinion."

"Well, it happened that in a paper we had wrapped around some of our things I found an account of that escape. It was interesting to me,"