Instead of sitting down again, he moved back, always painfully because of his broken arm, toward the entrance to the old tunnel. He remembered faintly that Jack and Frank had called out to some one at the top of the pit during the afternoon, and his hope was now that whoever had visited the place and witnessed their plight would return.
He reached the entrance and flashed his light about eagerly. No one was in sight and he turned back disheartened. Had he known that the finger of light from the electric had been seen by Ned and Jimmie, he would have returned to his old position with a much lighter heart.
The discouraged boy sat down at the head of the incline to once more watch and listen for the return of his chums. His broken arm was now becoming very painful, and at last he turned on the electric with a view of rearranging the rough sling in which Frank and Jack had placed it.
The boys had been too anxious at the moment of reaching the bottom of the pit to attempt the setting of the limb at that time. They might have done so had they realized that an hour or two must elapse before they could reach a place more suitable for the undertaking.
The instant the boy turned on the light, he heard a shout from the rear, and turning, he saw two flashlights moving toward him. At first the figures behind the lights were not discernible, but as they came nearer he recognized the forms of Ned and Jimmie. The boys approached him almost gaily. Norman had reported Harry lying inertly at the bottom of the Devil’s Punch Bowl, and they had in a measure prepared their minds to find the boy dead or fatally injured.
So, when they saw him leaning against the wall of the old channel, arranging the handkerchief sling which sustained his broken arm, they almost shouted with joy. In a moment they were at his side.
“Hiding, eh?” exclaimed Jimmie, his voice almost choking with emotion. “You thought we couldn’t find you, did you?”
“Are you badly hurt?” was Ned’s first question.
“Just a broken arm,” Harry answered trying to speak very calmly, although the pain was now excruciating.
“Where are Frank and Jack?” was the next question.