“What! not jump that? I’ll soon show you.”
“No, no; you can’t do it, Fred, and you may hurt yourself.”
“Well, that will not hurt you. Here goes.”
“Mind that branch there.”
“Oh yes, I’ll mind the branches; and you have to do it when I’ve done. Way he!”
Fred stooped down, with his feet close together and his arms pressed to his sides, bent forward and jumped cleverly quite over the intervening space, and came down upon the great dead moss-covered trunk.
There was a crash, and it seemed to Scarlett for the moment that his companion’s heels had slipped, and that he had gone down on the other side among the bushy growth that sprung up; but a second glance showed him that the apparently solid trunk was merely a shell, through which Fred had passed completely out of sight.
“Hoi! Fred! Hurt yourself!” cried Scarlett, laughing heartily.
There was no reply.
“Fred! Hoi! Where are you?”