tinue on to the top of the hill.

The beach was hard and stony ground, with a few stunted bushes, but
there was ample room for a tent, and moreover on each side was a sheer
wall of rock towering forty feet in the air.

The boys landed, and with much difficulty dragged the canoes out of the
water.

"This place just suits us," said Randy. "There is no danger of the
farmer finding us here, if we _are_ on his side of the creek. And we
need not be afraid to keep a fire going, because these rocks will shut
out the light."

It was now half past four o'clock, and when the tent had been pitched--a
difficult piece of work for two persons--and the canoes unloaded, the
boys began to prepare a good supper in readiness for Ned and Clay.

Six o'clock came, and then seven, but the anxiously expected ones did
not appear on the other side of the creek.

Randy and Nugget were too hungry to wait any longer, so they ate their
supper by twilight. When it grew a little darker they built a roaring
fire at the edge of the water. There was an abundance of driftwood
farther up the slope, which had been left there at various times by the
high water.

When nine o'clock came the boys were seriously alarmed, and all sorts of
dreadful possibilities occurred to them. They found it impossible to
sleep, and all through the long hours of that night they sat about the
fire, constantly piling on wood, and keeping a huge blaze going to guide
the missing ones to the camp.

The first glimmer of dawn found them worn out by sleeplessness and
despair. It was impossible to maintain their vigil any longer, so they
stuck the pennant in the sand close to the edge of the water, and
crawling into the tent, went to sleep side by side.

A cannon shot could hardly have wakened them then. The sun rose higher
and higher until its direct rays beat fiercely down upon the tent from a
cloudless sky above, but still they slumbered on.

The heat finally became intolerable, and Randy turned drowsily over and
opened his eyes. As he sat up with an effort, struggling to clear his
mind, he heard a tremendous splash, and then a loud, shrill cry.

He was thoroughly awake now, and jerking Nugget to an upright position,
he turned and ran out of the tent. He gained the shore and looked up
stream.

A thick mass of bushes was drifting leisurely along the base of the
cliff a dozen feet above, and something behind it--as yet invisible--was
making a great commotion in the water.