As they advanced the cries grew louder:
"H-h-help! Boys, oh, b-b-boys, come q-q-quick! I can't h-h-hold on much longer!"
"Say, he must be away up in a tree!" exclaimed Steve.
"No, his voice sounds closer to the ground than that," declared Max.
"Tell you what," panted Bandy-legs from behind, "he's just gone and fell over some old cliff, that's what. You know how clumsy Toby is."
That sounded rather queer, since it was the speaker himself who had always been getting into scrapes because of this trait.
"Cliff!" snorted Steve, "like to know how anybody could ever fall up a cliff. You mean a precipice, silly."
"Guess I do," admitted Bandy-legs, "but it's all the same. If you're on top it's a precipice, and if you're down below—"
"Listen to him holler, would you?" interrupted Steve. "Hold on, Toby, we're coming as fast as we c'n sprint! Keep up a little longer! It's all right! Your pards are on the job!"
Max thought he saw Trapper Jim laughing about this time. From this he imagined the other must have guessed the true state of affairs, and that poor Toby could not be in such desperate straits as they believed.