The gully was quite wide in front of them, and to the left extended into the woods as far as they could see, while on the right it presently ended at a great mass of ledge rock, which towered well above their heads, and was crowned with trees, some of them very big, while at different points, as far as the bottom, there were trees of various sizes growing from crevices in the rock.
“H’m! I guess they did not know about this,” muttered Percival. “This gully can be bridged all right, and it will be a nice job for us; just the sort I like, but in the meantime, how are we going to get over and go on with our exploring?”
“You ought to know that,” laughed Billy Manners. “You are an engineer, you know. A little thing like that ought not to bother you.”
“Well, it does all the same,” said Percival with some impatience, as Billy took the black box from under his arm. “What are you going to do now, you funny fellow?”
“Take a picture of that ledge,” said Billy, looking around for a flat rock or a stump upon which to place his box.
“Wait a minute till we get back,” said Blaisdell, who had joined Jack at the gully. “It looks to me as if there was a cave down there. There is some sort of an opening at the bottom of the ledge, seems to me.”
“Yes, so there is. I never noticed it before. How are you going to get a picture, Billy? That is no camera you have. Where is your lens?”
“Haven’t any! I can take a picture without a lens, only it will require more time to make the exposure.”
“Take a photograph without a lens?” said Percival in a tone of doubt, mixed with scorn. “You must be crazy!”
Several of the boys thought the same as Dick, and laughed heartily at what they considered one of Billy’s harum scarum schemes.