“Oh, you fellows can’t excuse yourselves that way,” said Fred Winter, with a rather forced laugh. “If the crowd stood in need of a frightful scare we got it, all right.”
“You seem to be taking the lesson to heart,” said Norman Redfern. “That is the best course. I never was more thankful in my life. If this place had been like one I know of a few miles from here, nothing could have saved you, Joe.”
“What is it like?” faltered the boy.
“A narrow, half-hidden cleft running in from the face of the Palisades. There is a clear drop of several hundred feet.”
The boys felt a shiver run through them.
“That shows how well it is to be careful,” added Redfern.
By easy stages they covered the distance back to the zigzag road; and upon reaching Redfern’s shack Joe was able to assure them all that he felt much better.
“Ready to leave with us to-morrow morning, eh, Norman?” inquired Jack, presently.
“But won’t it crowd you too much?”
“Not at all; there’s room for two or three more—six the diameter of Tom.”