This fear set him almost wild, and he continued to utter scream after scream, until his throat became so irritated that he had to quit. Then he caught some of the falling water in his hand and drank it and his throat felt more comfortable.
Meanwhile the entire search party came upstream again and disappeared, remaining out of Hal’s sight a long time. During the entire hour and a half that they spent in the timber, the boy kept up a succession of screams and cries for help. Naturally the uncertainty of the situation had a depressing effect on him, but he set his teeth and would not give up. Daylight surely would bring hope. But daylight was many hours off.
Finally Dr. Byrd and his companions returned within Hal’s range of vision. He saw the lights and the men move down the river, and watched them as they raked the bed of the stream along the shore, but could not make out what they were doing. He continued his cries for help; he pitched his voice in every possible key, instinctively realizing that certain keys were more readily drowned in the roar of the waterfall than others. Then followed the puzzled discussion over these cries, and it was not long before the boy knew that he had attracted attention.
He saw them approach the cataract again, then go back, engage in another discussion, cut some clubs in a thicket, and return once more to the waterfall. They passed beyond his vision, as on former occasions, and before long he caught Mr. Porter’s shrill “Oh, Hal, where are you?”
“Behind the waterfall,” replied the boy in his highest pitch. But he put most stress on the first word, which was the only one caught distinctly by the rescuers.
Then Hal witnessed the discovery of Frank, who was standing just within his range of vision. As the light of the lanterns was thrown on that frightened youth’s face, Hal saw him fall down before the doctor, who picked him up and led him down stream, while the others followed.
From this moment he watched proceedings with new sensations of wonder. He could see that Frank seemed to be telling something to the men. But they did not listen long to his story. They seemed suddenly to decide on a course of action; they walked farther down the stream to the fording place where two of them pulled off their shoes and waded across, still carrying the lanterns. One of them also took with him one of the rakes, which Hal supposed to be merely a long pole.
They reached the western bank and climbed up on the steep shore. Then they picked their way carefully toward the cataract. Hal was certain now he was about to be rescued. His cries for help were no longer needed, and he waited in silence.
The two men’s progress along the difficult shore was slow, but finally they reached the flat rock close to the waterfall. By this time Hal could distinguish the features of the two men in the light of their lanterns and also observed that the “pole” carried by Pepper was a rake. The man with Pepper was Dr. Byrd.
On reaching the rock, the janitor-chauffeur hooked his lantern onto the rake and extended it toward the fall. Finding the thin section of the cataract, he thrust it through and Hal seized both lantern and rake eagerly.