ocket, and buckling on his
legs a pair of spurs such as all linemen use to climb a smooth pole,
"I'm going to take this up that telegraph pole with me and fasten this
thing on the wire. Then it's 'All aboard for the opposite mountain.'

"If I get over all right I'll give one flash of my light. If I
don't--well, don't try the wire route."

Without wasting another second he dug one spur into the pole and started
climbing upward, dragging his improvised car with him, together with the
loose end of the reel of copper wire.

By this time it was pitch dark, and they could feel, rather than see,
that he was tightening the bolt which hung the apparatus on the wire.
The lads had placed a heavy stick through the reel, and two of them held
either end of it.

"Let it run free," the lieutenant told them. "And don't forget the
signal. I'm ready. Good-by!"

There was a sudden jerk on the reel and the wire began to unwind
quickly. It literally spun round on the stout stick which they were
holding. They just got a glimpse of the courageous lieutenant sailing
off through space, a thousand feet above the bottom of the ravine.

The unwinding wire gave an added spurt, and then, pressure being
released from it, it began to slow down.

"He's either on the other side, or lost the wire," said Slim, his
nervousness showing in his voice.

Every eye was glued to the opposite mountain.

"Look!" almost shouted Jerry. "He's safe!"

Sure enough, the light had flashed out once in the blackness of the
night, and then as suddenly disappeared.

The boys began hauling in on the copper wire, winding it again on the
reel.

"Who's next?" asked Frank, as the last of the cable was being re-wound.

"Eenie, meenie, minie, mo," Jerry began to count out, when Joe suddenly
interrupted.

By ten feet of heavy twine Lieutenant Mackinson had tied the spurs to
the car so that they would dangle within reach of the lads on the
ground. Attached to them was a note, which read:

"Easy landing on soft slope. Let Slim come next before wire is
weakened, because he is the heaviest. All can make it safely."

And so Slim, not entirely assured, and breathing somewhat heavily as he
contemplated the distance he had to fall if the telegraph wire should
break, was the next to climb a-straddle the crude "air-line" trolley, on
its second trip to the opposite mountain.

In a few moments the light flashed out again and then disappeared, while
Joe, Jerry and F