“But this—this is serious,” cried the boy. “Rules don’t count! They’ve got to have him!”
“Sorry,” was the short response, “but orders are orders. Nothing doing.”
Bob continued to waste a few precious seconds in a vain endeavor to move his friend Billy, but kept his eye on the returning bucket. It came almost to Billy’s shed and then, in response to a sharp jerk on a lever, it dropped into the mixing shed of the concrete plant.
A way of overcoming this obstacle came to Bob. Without wasting any more time talking he rushed down to the concrete shed to get there just as the loading gang had finished changing the great hook of the cableway from the empty bucket to a full one. The foreman had his hand raised to signal Billy to hoist away when Bob darted in and jumped onto the bucket.
The foreman was so surprised that involuntarily his hand made the signal and a second later Bob was climbing through space, faster than a rocket!
The wind whistled in his ears and he was choked by the rapid ascent, yet the sensation was not entirely unpleasant. It was like riding in the fastest elevator he’d ever been in—at triple the speed.
Not until the bucket had reached the height of the cableway was he able to take any interest in looking about him. The second or so that had elapsed since he had taken passage on the concrete conveyor had been fully occupied in putting himself in a position where he could hold on and not be in danger of being tipped over the side. Worming himself around he found he could seat himself comfortably in the hook that held the bucket and clasp his arms around the great iron ball that hung just under the many sheaved pulley.
When this was done he ventured a look over the side. From the attitude of Billy he knew that the operator had seen him. What would Billy do? The success of his whole scheme depended on it. He had figured that the man would be sport enough to shoot him across if he had once got on the bucket and was on his way.
The speed of the bucket slackened as it neared the cable height and for an agonizing second he thought that Billy was about to drop him back to the spot he had started from. It would be a rotten ending to his adventure, and the whole camp would have the laugh on him. On a sudden impulse he disengaged one hand and motioned that he wanted to go on.
It was a dangerous expedient but it was worth it, for Billy, resigned to the situation, waved back and a moment later the bucket started to swoop towards the other shore.