Dick quickly opened one of the supply containers and found a good length of rope. It took half a dozen tries to get one end of it up to Max, but soon he had it looped over the rock. He tossed one end down again.
“With both ends down there,” he explained, “we can get it free from this jutting rock and take it along with us. Hold it taut for me and it won’t come loose.”
Max tossed his ’chute over to them, and then Dick and Vince Salamone bore down on the ends of the rope. Soon Max slid over the edge and came hand-over-hand down to the ground.
“Boy, am I glad to see you guys!” he exclaimed. “I was beginning to feel that I’d be up there for the duration.”
Gathering everything together again, they went in search of the other supply containers and within another ten minutes had found them intact.
“Now to find Jerry,” Dick said. “He can’t be far.”
“I know it,” Max said. “I’ve been wondering. I would have thought he might come back a bit looking for me, and I certainly think he would have looked around for the last supply ’chutes. He was jumping right after them.”
They stopped and whistled. There was no answer. Then they moved forward a short distance and whistled again. Still no reply came to them. Dick climbed up the hill a little farther and called out to the others. He had found the entrance to a cave. It was well sheltered and not very obvious, and inside it was like a large square room. But they found no Lieutenant Scotti inside, nor any sign that a human had been in the place for a long time.
“This will make a swell base,” Dick said, “as soon as we find Jerry. Let’s stow all our stuff here and fan out to look for him.”
Quickly they put their supplies and equipment well back in the dry cave and then started out in different directions from the cave entrance. It was Dick who first heard the groan, coming from behind a huge, jagged boulder. He raced around it quickly, whistling the signal frantically as he went.