I looked in the direction we had come from, and as sure as I'm writing
this, there was some one running pell-mell right toward us. I saw right
away it was a girl. You know how a girl runs, especially when she runs
fast. She was holding her head way back and laughing, and her hair was
all flying loose. There was something big and kind of gray colored
around her neck--very big and clumsy. I stood just about a second, then
I made a sprint for her. I never ran so fast in my life. We came toward
each other just flying. Her cheeks were all flushed and her hair was all
over her face and she was panting and laughing all at once.

She said, "I--I--I--I've--got--your--rope--so there. I--I--ran all--the
way--with it. You--you said--I--I--I----"

"Don't talk, give me the rope!" I said.

"Maybe--I--I--fooled you about--about the house--my own--house--but I
can do things too--run--see? Here. They caught--the bandit--here----"

I ran pell-mell back to the edge with the rope. "Did he--did he go
over?" I called.

"Hurry!" they shouted.

Gee, I wish you could have been there to see all that. There were the
scouts of my patrol, all half dressed, jumping up and down and yelling,
"_Hurry, hurry!_" There was Dora Dane Daring coming along behind me and
all the scouts cheering her. I can hardly tell you just how everything
happened. Westy grabbed the rope from me and by the time I looked over
the edge, all panting and trembling, there it was right over the edge
of the slanting shelf.

But Warde Hollister wasn't there!

CHAPTER XXXI

TOMBOY

For about five seconds my blood ran cold. I kind of seemed to see
everything just as if I were dreaming. Then I noticed that all the
fellows were hanging on to the rope. And I saw that Will and Dorry
hadn't gone away. I saw that the rope was tight, down over the edge of
the hill and across and over the edge of the shelf. I knew that Warde
Hollister must be hanging on to the end of that rope. He wasn't trusting
his life to any old weeds now. That rope was held by scouts and he
should worry. And we should worry, too, because by that time we knew
Warde and we knew he wouldn't let go.

I just jumped up and down shouting, "Hurrah, hurrah!" I couldn't help
it. It seemed awful funny for seven fellows to be holding one up, but
Warde had come so near to death that I guess they wanted to make saving
him double sure. Even Pee-wee was tugging on the rope with both hands,
his cheeks all puffed ou