ke the chances of
bein' pulled in, when you try to climb out? Huh! bad enough for one to
be in that lovely trap, without a second guy dropping over. Guess not.
I'll just be goin' on my way. If I happen to run across any of the boys,
which ain't likely, I might whisper to 'em that their new chum, Fred
Fenton, wants help the worst kind."

He actually threw the vine into the hole, as though to show that his
mind was made up. Fred lost all hope. He must face the unpleasant
prospect of remaining all night in that cold place, shivering, as
drowsiness threatened to overtake him, and trying to keep warm by
exercising every little while.

He shivered now at the very prospect. However would he pass that
terribly long night, when minutes would drag, and seem to be hours?

"Here, keep back, you!" Buck suddenly roared; and Fred started, although
he immediately realized that the other must be addressing his remark to
the comrade he had spoken of as having accompanied him. "Want to slip,
and drop down into the old hole along with this silly? And then I'd just
_have_ to get him out, before he'd let me save you. Keep back, I tell
you!"

"Buck, you'll be sorry you did this," Fred broke his silence to make one
last appeal, though he was determined not to demean himself, and "crawl"
as Buck himself would call it.

"Hey! what's this? Are you really threatenin' me?" demanded the other,
hotly.

"I didn't mean it that way," Fred answered. "What I wanted to say, was
that you'd be sorry later on you didn't try to pull me out. You see I
haven't hardly any clothes on; and it's cold and damp down here. Chances
are, that if I stay here through the whole night I'll get my death of
cold."

"Well, what's that to me?" said the other, gruffly; though Fred thought
he saw him hesitate a little, as if appalled at the prospect. "I didn't
throw you down there, did I? Can't shove any of that blame on me, eh? If
I hadn't just happened to stroll this way, I'd never even knowed you was
in such a fix."

"But you do know it," said Fred, "and everybody will say it was up to
you to help me out, after you found me here. That makes you responsible,
Buck, in the eye of the law. I've heard Judge Colon say as much. A
knowledge of the fact makes you a party to it, he told a man he was
talking to. I'm going to ask you once more to take hold of this vine
when I hold it up, and let me pull myself out."

He did raise the rope substitute, but Buck declined to accept