“Hello—there’s the old ‘Border City’!” cried Dick. “Isn’t it the oddest-looking bundle you ever saw?”
“Yell, fellows, so as to let the Spurites know that the rescue expedition has arrived,” burst out Cranny. He put his hand to his lips. “Hello, Major Carroll! Whoop-e-e-e! Hello-o-o-o!”
The voices of the others joined in loudly.
An answer almost immediately floated back to their ears, and three dusky figures in the distance were seen coming toward them, the smallest and slightest keeping far in the lead.
“Wee Willie!” laughed Cranny, joyously.
Mr. Beaumont’s ward raced madly forward along the ledge.
“Goodness gracious, Cran, but maybe I’m not glad to see you!” he piped, in a shrill voice. “Was I scared?—Oh, kinder. But everybody said I had a whole lot of spunk—it’s an honest fact, Cran.”
“We thank you heartily,” the Major called up, his businesslike tones almost drowning Willie Sloan’s excited flow of words. “You have relieved us from a most embarrassing situation, and——”
“Oh, say, Cran, haven’t you brought a bite of somethin’ to eat an’ a drop o’ water?”
There was something so unconsciously humorous in Willie Sloan’s outburst that even Pete Sanderson guffawed loudly.