But the boys were not paying any further attention to Arthur. Hugh had given a signal to commence lowering once more, and the two, who had braced their feet against a convenient root so as to secure a better foundation, let the rope slip softly through their hands, already burning from having felt the contact so long.
Things had apparently arrived at the last stage, for there was the patrol leader crouching on the lower limb, so that he could drop to the ground and receive the oncoming body of the unfortunate aeronaut. As Hugh jumped he gave the word to those at the rope, who continued to lower away carefully, with the air of veterans who knew their business from beginning to end.
A click announced that Arthur could not resist the fascinating prospect of still another picture to add to the value of those he had already secured. All that would be needed now, to make it a complete story, was a photograph of the aeronaut himself at the end, signed with his autograph!
When finally their task was completed, Billy and Bud found that they did not have more than a yard of rope left, showing that Hugh’s calculations had been pretty close.
Hugh was already bending over the figure of the aeronaut, releasing the tightened loop of the rope, which had been cruelly pressing in around his chest under his arms.
The man seemed to be of middle age and medium stature. His thin face was perfectly colorless just then, and it gave the boys a creepy feeling to look at it, so ghastly did it appear.
“How about him, Hugh?” asked Arthur, who had by this time joined the little group around the patrol leader and the wrecked air pilot.
“He’s alive, all right, for I can feel him breathing,” came the welcome response; “but I’m afraid that one arm is broken and badly bruised. You see, he was caught by that crotch up above,—yet perhaps, after all, it served him a good turn, boys.”
“Wow! I should say, yes,” muttered Billy, glancing up as though mentally figuring with what terrific force the man must have struck the hard ground had he dropped the additional sixty feet.
“Better even a fractured arm than a broken neck, I’d say!” ventured Bud sagely.