From a large chimney, which was built at the back of the cabin, which was nearest Pepper, the smoke from a wood fire was rising, and there was an unpleasant odor in the air.
"That must be the smoke we saw from the river the other day," concluded Pepper. "I wonder what they are cooking there? I can't say I like the smell of it, whatever it is, and I don't think this is any good place for me, either."
Slipping back as quietly as he had come, Pepper started on his away again. When he had gotten far enough from the place so that, he thought, it would not attract the attention of those there, Pepper sounded a call on his bugle.
"Perhaps the boys are out looking for me when I didn't get back on time," he said, sounding the call from time to time as he went on, but which brought no response.
"Thank goodness! I've got to the end of the woods," he exclaimed a little later, when he saw an open space not far ahead of him.
Hurrying forward he found himself, not, as he had expected, on the road, but on the top of a high bluff which descended almost perpendicularly for a hundred feet to a roadway, which was a welcome sight. Just below him, looking over the edge, he saw that there was a broad ledge about ten feet down and that, below this again, the cliff sloped at an acute angle to another narrow ledge, but below this again there was seemingly nothing but the bare side of the cliff.
"No use trying to get down that way," he soliloquized. "I'll just follow along the edge and see where I come out."
Turning, he was about to step back when the earth, where he was standing, gave way, sliding down to the ledge below and carrying him with it.
"Goodness!" he cried, picking himself up and shaking off the dirt with which he was covered. "I wonder what next? Now, how am I going to get out of this? I doubt if I can get back up there, and it don't look inviting below."
It was impossible to climb up the side of the cliff, as it was almost perpendicular, but upon the small ledge below he noticed that a stunted tree was growing from the rocks.