“It wasn’t easy!” Mike yelled back. “If you can figure a way of getting us down, we’ll let you in on our secret.”
“What’s the matter with walking?”
“You think it’s safe?”
“Sure. It is now.”
Sandy and Mike grinned at each other. “Sounds simple,” Mike said. “Let’s go.”
Minutes later they were down at the foot of the slope, telling Hank, as best they could, what had happened.
When they finished, Hank looked at both of them and shook his head. “You know,” he said, “some people think there’s a guardian angel whose special job is to look out for tenderfeet in the mountains. I never believed it before. But I do now. There’s no other explanation.”
Mike thought back over the past several days and broke into a grin. “If there is such an angel,” he said, “the poor fellow must be close to a nervous breakdown. He’s been working overtime.”
Hank grunted and peered up the side of the mountain. “It’s funny about that cave,” he said. “You think it’s a big one?”
Sandy nodded. “It looked that way to us.”