“The poor little thing, to think of him falling all the way down there!” Tubby was heard to say in sympathetic tones.
Agile Sim had already tucked the camp hatchet safely in his belt, and taking a good hold of the swaying vine started his ascent. Some of the others clutched it below so as to give him a steady support. Sim proved his ability as a climber by the rapid way in which he passed up among the lower branches of the tree to which the wild grapevine was attached.
Turning the light upward, Rob could follow the progress of the climber, and found it convenient to call out occasionally in order to advise Sim.
“Not less than twenty feet, and five more if you can make it, Sim!” he told the other. “I should think it would be thick enough to hold a ton if it’s only an inch through; these grapevines are tougher than any rope ever made. There, try and do your cutting where you are. Once you get it through, we’ll start to drag again, and I reckon it’s bound to come next time.”
A minute later Sim announced that his part of the work had been completed, upon which Rob and Ralph and the others laid hold with such a will that they soon had the severed vine on the ground.
After that Sim joined them, coming sliding down the trunk of the tree with the agility of a monkey.
The vine was carried over to where they had discovered that gaping aperture into which it seemed likely little Caleb had fallen. None of the boys seemed in any humor for joking just then; indeed, they were unusually grave, as though the shadow of some impending tragedy hung over their heads.
Rob directed operations, and even Ralph seemed only too willing to do whatever he was told. Strange, how in emergencies, it is always the strong mind that seizes the reins, and all others readily acquiesce, no matter in whatever shape the orders come. How many a desperate enterprise has been carried to a glorious success simply because a fit leader has developed when the conditions demanded; while others that promised well in the beginning have fallen flat through lack of the initiative on the part of the actors.
The vine was allowed to drop into the aperture, with the thick end down. When it seemed as though it rested firmly on something below, Rob judged that the hole must be all of twenty-three feet deep. That was a startling fact when they remembered that a child had stepped into that break and must have gone headlong down through space.