"He's either on the other side, or lost the wire," said Slim, his nervousness showing in his voice.
Every eye was glued to the opposite mountain.
"Look!" almost shouted Jerry. "He's safe!"
Sure enough, the light had flashed out once in the blackness of the night, and then as suddenly disappeared.
The boys began hauling in on the copper wire, winding it again on the reel.
"Who's next?" asked Frank, as the last of the cable was being re-wound.
"Eenie, meenie, minie, mo," Jerry began to count out, when Joe suddenly interrupted.
By ten feet of heavy twine Lieutenant Mackinson had tied the spurs to the car so that they would dangle within reach of the lads on the ground. Attached to them was a note, which read:
"Easy landing on soft slope. Let Slim come next before wire is weakened, because he is the heaviest. All can make it safely."
And so Slim, not entirely assured, and breathing somewhat heavily as he contemplated the distance he had to fall if the telegraph wire should break, was the next to climb a-straddle the crude "air-line" trolley, on its second trip to the opposite mountain.