"OH! Thad!"

Bob unconsciously gave utterance to this low, bubbling cry as he felt
the ground slipping from under him, and his eyes looking down into an
inky void. Then something clutched hold of him, and his downward
progress was stayed. Thad had shot out a hand, and grasped his chum by
one of his legs, at the same time bracing himself for the shock.

This he did in the twinkling of an eye, dropping his gun, and with that
hand laying hold of a sapling that, fortunately, chanced to be within
easy reach.

"Careful, don't kick more than you can help, Bob," he remarked, as
coolly as he possibly could, though a sensation akin to horror swept
over him immediately he had acted. "I've got a good grip on you, and my
other hand is holding on to a stout little sapling, so we just can't go
down. Now work yourself back, inch by inch, as well as you can.
Yo-heave-o! here you come! Another try, Bob! That gave us quite some
distance. Ready to make it again? Why, this is easy. Here you are now,
altogether boys, with a will!"

And after half a dozen of these concerted pulls and backward movements,
Bob found that he had reached a spot where he could take care of
himself.

"Whew! that was what I call a close call!" he muttered. "I wonder, now,
just how far down I'd have had to go, if you hadn't been clever enough
to grab me just in time?"

"We're not going to bother our heads about that, Bob," replied the
other, quickly; "only please go a bit slower. We won't make any time, if
we have to stop, and go through that circus stunt every little while.
And Bob, it might happen that I'd lose my grip, and either let you go
down, or there'd be two of us take the drop. Does it pay to try and make
speed at such a terrible risk?"

"You're right, just like you always are, Thad," replied the hasty and
now penitent one; "and I'm sure a fool for taking chances that way.
Here, you go up ahead, and set the pace. That's the only way we can fix
it; because, like as not inside of five minutes I'd be rushing along
again for all I'm worth."

"Perhaps that would be the best plan," Thad observed, with a chuckle. "I
thought of it, but didn't want to make you feel that I distrusted your
leadership. And I want to say right now that it isn't that makes me take
the lead, only because you are so excited that you're not fit to judge
things right."

"But don't let's waste any more precious time, Thad. Polly might have
gotten to the place ahead of us, you know.