“I can’t!” wailed the voice of the hidden youth.
“Why can’t you?” queried Henderson.
“I don’t dare,” admitted Solomons.
All the cushions of the automobile had rattled to the ground. Its driver was clinging to the wheel, or some other stationary fixture, and not being a particularly brave youth, he could only hang on.
“Somebody’s got to help him,” declared Billy.
“But we haven’t a rope,” objected Jim Stetson. “How can we get him up here?”
“Belts, boys!” cried the quick-witted Billy Speedwell. “Buckle ’em together. I can jump into the top of one of those trees, and I’ll carry the line of belts down, fasten it to the tree, and then to Maxey, and swing him off.”
“You’ll fall, Billy,” objected Monroe, who was older and felt himself responsible for Billy’s safety, now that Dan had gone.
“Not a bit of it!” declared Billy. “Come on with the belts.”
There being no better way suggested, the boys followed Billy’s plan. They watched him in some trepidation, however, as he let himself over the broken wall and leaped for a swinging branch of one of the trees into which the automobile had fallen.