“Must have hit my head an awful crack,” answered the boy, weakly. “I was chasing a butterfly, and all of a sudden felt myself going down—it was awful.”

“No bones broken, I hope?”

“I don’t think so, but I’ve got a terrible pain in my head.”

“You had a mighty close call, Joe. But for that ledge——”

Norman glanced gravely at his companions, and they nodded.

“Whew! Makes me shiver to think of it,” breathed Bob, with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

Then they began to discuss the means of bringing Joe to the top.

“If we only had a rope,” sighed Aleck Hunt.

“But we haven’t,” said Jack, “and there’s no use talking about it.”

“Then what can we do?”