"TAKE HOLD OF THIS, THEN BEAR YOURSELF UP."
Will struggled a bit.
"But I don't seem able to recover an inch, Frank!" he exclaimed.
"I don't expect you to. Few men could pull themselves out of the clutch of a quicksand bed after getting in as deep as you are. All I want is to keep you from going down any deeper until they come with the rope."
"Oh! I see now. It's a good idea. And then what?" asked Will, cheering up.
"We'll pass it over the limb here, get you to slip the noose under your arms, and on shore all of us pull like fun. If that doesn't move you, then we can hitch old Peter to the rope, and you've just got to come!"
Shouts announced the appearance of the others. Bluff and Jerry were running, the former carrying the needed rope, while in the rear Jed could be heard urging the horse at a rapid rate down the incline.
Under Frank's direction, the rope was made with a noose at the end. Then Bluff crept out and handed it to Frank, relieving him of the suspended coat. Will let go just long enough to place the noose under his arms, though he exclaimed that he had sunk six inches immediately.
Jerry now pulled at the other end of the rope, to hold it taut, while the others were scrambling ashore.
"Now!" cried Frank, "a good pull, a long pull, and a pull together! Yo heave-o!"
Will uttered a cry.
"I don't seem to move a bit!" he exclaimed.
Again and again the three boys pulled. Even Jed, who had come up, took hold. They could not get the proper grip, it seemed, for the imprisoned lad still stuck there, groaning with pain and mental torture mingled.
"You haven't gone down any further, at any rate, Will. I suppose we'll have to ask Peter to help us out," sang out Frank cheerily, for he saw that his chum was rapidly becoming very despondent again.
Accordingly, Peter was fastened to the end of the line.
"Wait just five seconds before you say the word!" cried Will.
"What's the matter?" asked Frank, a little alarmed.
"Give Bluff a chance. He's got the camera back there, and is trying for a focus. It ought to be a great picture, fellows!" answered the sinking boy.
"Talk to me about grit! Did you ever hear the equal of that? He's a camera crank of the first water, all right!" exclaimed Jerry.
"And this is the water. Hurry up, Bluff! Snap her off! I'm tired of staying here!"
"I've got it. Now start the circus, Frank!" cried Bluff, with a grin, as though he quite enjoyed turning the tables on the ardent photographer for once.
So the horse was urged to start moving. Frank tried to ease the jerk as much as he was able, but all the same, poor Will cried out that he felt as if he were being drawn in two.
"But I moved then! Keep going, now that you've started, boys! Oh! sure enough, I'm coming up! Faster, now! Hurrah! I'm free from that horrible mire!" he continued to shout, as he dangled there with his feet in the water and his head almost touching the friendly limb.
"Try and climb up. Here, Jerry is coming out to help you, Will!" called Frank.
With the assistance of his chum, Will managed to straddle the limb. Then, after he had rested a little while, he crept along until at last he jumped to the ground, to be received with hearty handshakes by all the others.
"But that was a terribly close shave, all right," he said, as Jerry scraped the sand and mud from his legs. "Whatever would you have done if it hadn't been for that bully old tree, Frank?"
"I don't know, exactly, but I'd have found some way to pull you out," returned the other; and those boys, who knew what he was equal to in an emergency, felt positive that he would have proved the victor, no matter what the conditions.