No objection being offered to this plan, Frank and Ferdinand made a dash back toward the garage. They were gone about fifteen minutes and returned with four lanterns. Then the march toward the cañon was taken up.
Of course, there was much excited talk on the way. Every one of the self-appointed committee that was “seeing Hal off” expressed confidence in his integrity and all were highly indignant at Mr. Miles’ suspicions.
“He’d better go take a jump in the lake,” said Byron with unwonted vehemence. “He’s got no ’preciation of what you did for him.”
“Yes, if it hadn’t been for Hal, he’d probably never have got any of his specimens back at all,” observed Ferdinand.
“Somebody ought to slip him one,” declared Frank savagely.
“I don’t think he meant to be so hard on me,” interposed Hal charitably. “I was pretty sore at first, but when I saw how bad things looked for me, I wanted to get out. I wouldn’t have run away, but I don’t believe I could ever prove I wasn’t a thief. When you get in a fix like that, the best thing to do is to pack up and move.”
The interest the boys felt in the cave they were about to explore finally resulted in a change of subject, and Hal’s troubles were forgotten for the time being. In fact, Hal himself forgot much of the bitterness of his woes in the general eagerness of the conversation.
Arrived at the scene of their construction work in the cañon, they lost no time in crossing the river and hastening up the walk to the waterfall cave. Outside the latter they stopped only long enough to light two of the lanterns. The other two they found without oil and set them aside. Then they crossed the second bridge into the cave.
Hal now assumed the leadership. He realized that the expedition was not without danger and felt the responsibility for the safety of his friends to be resting on his own shoulders. His first act, therefore, on entering the cave was to drive the other boys back several feet from the precipice and the roaring waterfall. Then he led them beyond the bend in the passage to the farther end of the cave, where the noise of the fall was not so deafening as to prevent conversation.
“You kids stay back here and explore this part while I go up in front and see if I can find any more of those nuggets,” suggested Hal, concealing by his manner his real motive in assigning them well back from the danger point. He knew that if he told them he was afraid they would get too close to the edge and fall over, some or all of them would be determined to hover close to the cataract.