“Look here, Jack,” said Frank suddenly. “My hands and feet are tied, and I suppose yours are, too. I’m going to roll over toward you, and do you try to open the knots on my hands with your teeth.”
“Would if I could, Frank,” said Jack. “But that clip I got on the side of my head must have loosened all my teeth. They ache like sixty.”
“All right, then I’ll try my jaws on your bonds.”
Presently, Frank was alongside Jack in the darkness. 101
“Here, where are your hands?” he said.
After some squirming about, Frank found what he sought, and began to chew and pull at the ropes binding Jack’s hands. It was a tedious process at first, but presently he managed to get the knot sufficiently loosened to permit of his obtaining a good purchase, and then, in a trice, the ropes fell away.
“Quick now, Jack,” he said, anxiously. “We don’t know how long we’ll be left undisturbed. Somebody may come along any minute. Untie your feet and then free Tom and me, and we can see how Bob and Captain Folsom are fixed.”
Jack worked with feverish haste. After taking the bonds from his ankles, he undid those binding Frank. The latter immediately went to the side of Bob, whose groans had given way to long, shuddering sighs that indicated a gradual restoration of consciousness but that also increased the alarm of his comrades regarding his condition.
Tom Barnum next was freed and at once set to work to perform a similar task for Captain Folsom, who meantime had regained his senses and apparently was injured no more severely than Jack, having like him received a clout on the side of the head. Tom explained the situation while untying him. Fortunately, the bonds in all cases had been only hastily tied. 102
“Bob, this is Frank. Do you hear me? Frank.” The latter repeated anxiously, several times, in the ear of his comrade.