CHAPTER XVII.
A MIGHTY STONE ROLLER.
Careful examination revealed that Roque's injury was not of broken bones, but a severe sprain, due to the twisting suspension from the bush which had checked his fall. Schneider had gone down feet foremost, breaking through the growth until he struck the ledge.
"I didn't expect Mr. Roque so soon," he said, with a face-wide grin, "but I knew him by his legs, and gave him an open-arm reception."
"Until Schneider reached for me," related the secret agent, "I thought there was nothing underneath but the bottom of nowhere. It was certainly a curious accident, all in all, the two of us tumbling as we did, stopping in the very same place, and both of us alive to tell it."
"There was mighty near a good third on your peculiar track," interposed Henri, "for Billy had set his heels for that very slide which you two took."
"If it had not been for Henri," asserted Billy, "there is no telling how deep I would have gone."
"And if it had not been for both of you, there was hardly more to look for than a miserable end for Schneider and me. We could have proceeded neither up nor down, for there was nothing to put hand or toe into for many rods either way."
Roque did not propose that the boys should lose any of their dues for gallant achievement by other belief than that two lives had actually depended upon their prowess.