I
am going to see where that spring goes to."

Walter followed the little rivulet to where it disappeared in a small
gully under a corner of the wall. Climbing the stones the lad dropped
down lightly on the other side.

Charley finished his lunch, washed his hands at the spring, and
resuming his seat in the doorway, leaned back upon one of the great
pillars to wait for his chum. The air was soft and warm and the noises
of the swamp stole to the tired lad's ears with a gentle lulling sound.
His eyes slowly closed and his head dropped forward upon his breast and
he slept.

Quickly the hours slipped away and the sun was getting low in the west,
when Charley awoke. One glance at the declining sun brought him to his
feet, anxiety and dread in his heart. What could have become of
Walter? It took the thoroughly alarmed lad but a moment to reach the
wall where his chum had disappeared. He swarmed up it like a monkey
and dropped down on the other side. But no solid ground met his
descending feet. Instead, he crashed through leafy boughs and landed
in a tangled mass of vines. In the second before the vines gave way
under his weight, Charley succeeded in grasping a limb and swinging
himself in to the trunk of the tree where he found a safe resting-place
between two branches. Below him yawned a gigantic pit, its edge hidden
from view by the clustering trees.

"Walter," he called anxiously, "are you down there?"

"Yes," growled his chum's voice, "and I have been here for hours.
You're a nice companion for a man when he gets in trouble."

"I fell asleep," confessed Charley, sheepishly.

"Well, don't sleep any longer," said his chum sharply. "Help me out of
this, quick. It is awful down here."

"All right, be patient a minute and I will have you out," Charley
answered as he climbed nimbly up his tree and reached the edge of the
pit. A moment's search and he found what he wanted, a long, stout
grape vine strong as a rope. He cut off a piece some forty feet in
length, fastened one end to the tree, and dropped the other down into
the pit. "You'll have to pull yourself out, Walt," he called.

With the help of the grape vine and the aid of foot holds on the trees
growing up from the sides of the pit, Walter succeeded in scrambling
out. His face was pale and there was a look of horror in his eyes.

"I believe I would have died if I had been compelled to stay down there
all night," he declared in a voice that trem