"Or a long pole."
They walked around the flooring of the hole dismally. Then Dick drew out his watch and his face brightened.
"The fifteen minutes are up. They'll be hunting for us presently."
He was right; the others of the expedition were both hunting and calling, but nothing was seen or heard of them.
Led by old Jacob the party went through the orange grove, but came up a goodly distance to the left of the hole in which the poor boys were prisoners of nature.
Another quarter of an hour went by. To Dick and Leander it seemed an age. Again they cried out, but the top of the hole being smaller than the bottom, their voices were as muffled as though they were prisoners in a huge bottle.
"This is truly a pickle," groaned Dick, as he threw himself on one of the fallen rocks. "I must say, I'm stumped."
"So am I."
"I'm going to try throwing stones out of the hole," said Dick, after another interval of silence. "Anything is better than doing nothing."
Both boys began to shy out all of the stones they could pick up.