For a second all was still. Then the boys in the hole heard the door open, and a voice called out:
“Frank! Are you in here?”
“Sure! Who is it? Is that Jack Eastwick?” cried Frank, his heart welling up with joy.
Jack answered that it was, and then there went up a series of wild yells from the four boys in the hole. This was followed by exclamations, questions, and a rush of feet through the door of the cabin.
“We’re down here in a hole! There are logs over the top. Be careful. Try to lift those logs off one at a time—how many fellows up there?” called Frank.
The reply told them there were four—Jack Eastwick, Tom Budd, Herman Hooker and Ralph West, all former students at Columbia High.
Frank gave instructions for the removal of the logs, but these young fellows needed no instructions. All they needed was about five minutes of Father Time, and they had all four of the logs rolled out of the way.
At the end of the next five minutes the four boys in the hole stood outside the door of the cabin with the four boys who had saved them.
“Here, fellows, let’s get inside this place. We’ll tell you all about it. One fellow look through this crack and watch the trail, while we tell you about it.”
With this remark Frank started the story, interrupted now and again by the other three as the story ran along, until the four newcomers knew what had happened.