“Where are you, Hal?”
Dr. Byrd shouted this answer to the appeal, but his voice was heavy, attuned almost to the noise of the waterfall, and could hardly have been heard by the person in distress. Then Mr. Frankland and Pepper measured the strength of their vocal organs against the noise of the cataract with little better result. But Mr. Porter had a high, shrill voice, and when he sang out with all his strength “Oh, Hal, where are you?” there was a general feeling among them that the boy must have heard it. Then they listened again.
A reply was surely coming. It was not a single word, but several that issued from the waterfall this time. They seemed to come in the form of a sentence, but only one was heard distinctly enough to be recognized. That word was understood by all. It was “behind.”
“Behind what?” was the question that naturally came to the minds of the listeners. But before they could conjecture an answer, there came a startling interruption that drove all thought of the mystery of the cataract momentarily from their minds.
Happening to turn his face away from the waterfall, the doctor beheld the dim outlines of a small human figure twenty feet away. Believing it to be Hal, he ran joyfully toward the boy and was followed by the other men. The object of their interest did not move. In a moment they were close to him and holding their lanterns before his face.
But the boy was not Hal. It was Frank Bowler, supposed to be back at Lakefarm and fast asleep in the dormitory. And his countenance could hardly have been whiter if it had been coated with white enamel. Moreover, he was trembling as if he had seen a ghost.
“Frank, Frank, what is the matter? What does this mean?” cried Dr. Byrd; but he forgot that he was too near the cataract to carry on a conversation, and the boy did not understand him.
Just then there came another scream out of the roar of the waterfall, and Frank, the boastful, fell on his knees, shaking with terror.
CHAPTER VIII
HAL’S DISCOVERY
Meanwhile, what had become of Hal Kenyon?