CHAPTER XII
A NIGHT IN THE QUARRY
When Roy regained consciousness and opened his eyes he found himself inpitch darkness. His head felt strangely dizzy and for a moment he laystill and strove to recall what had happened to him. Then he rememberedand with a sudden fear at his heart moved cautiously. But although everybone in his body felt bruised he was able to climb to his feet. Theeffort however, left him so weak and dizzy that he reached out forsupport, found a branch and clung to it while a minute or two passed.And in clinging to it he became aware of the fact that his left handhurt him a good deal. Presently, when he could stand without holding on,he felt of the aching member and found it swollen and sore to the touch.The trouble seemed to be at the wrist and he wondered whether in fallinghe had landed on it and broken it. But it didn't feel broken, for hecould bend it and even wriggle his fingers, although it pained horriblyto do it. Probably it was only a sprain or a dislocation; that couldkeep. Meanwhile he would like very much to know where he was.
When he had fallen he had caught a glimpse of a dark pit, the sides ofwhich were hidden here and there by bushes. It had been the briefestsort of a glimpse, for he had stepped over the edge and, without asecond's warning, had plunged downward into twilight darkness. Heremembered clutching at a branch which came away in his hand, and heremembered crashing through a bush which had broken but not stopped hisfall. Of what happened after that he could remember nothing.
Now he stepped cautiously forward, feeling in front of him with handsand feet. The ground was loose and uneven. Three short steps brought hishands in contact with a smooth expanse of stone. His fingers could findno place to clutch, even though he managed to fit the toe of one shoeinto a niche a foot or so above the ground. He moved to the rightthrough the darkness. But the wall of stone continued. Now and then itbecame uneven and his hands scraped over rough edges, but it offered nochance of escape. On and on he went. He knew that he must be describingsomething of a circle, since he was in a pit of some sort, but it seemedthat he was edging straight away from where he had fallen. At last hefound bushes and for a moment he had hope. But, although he wormed hisway upward through them for the space of a few feet, at last he broughtup against a perpendicular wall of rock and he was forced to retreat. Hebecame conscious of a dim feeling of fright and strove to fight it down.His hands were moist and the perspiration stood on his forehead inlittle cold drops. He stopped and leaned against the wall behind him. Ashe did so he became aware of hundreds of little noises about him and acold shiver travelled down his back. Then,
"Pshaw!" he muttered. "There's nothing here but birds and such things.Even snakes don't come out after dark. I guess I'm settled for the nightand I might as well make the best of it. I dare say I've already beenaround this old hole half a dozen times. No, I haven't, though, for I'veonly found those bushes back there once. I'll go on, I guess; maybethere's a regular macadamized road out of here."
He moved on, whistling softly to keep from feeling discouraged. But hisleft wrist and hand pained frightfully, and presently he stopped andtried to find a position for it that would ease the ache. Finally hefound his handkerchief, tied it about his neck and placed the injuredarm through the improvised sling. It helped a little. After that hecontinued his search, but rather half-heartedly. He longed for light andfell to wondering what time it was. Presumably he had fallen in thereabout half-past four or maybe five. But there was no knowing how long hehad lain unconscious. It might be eight o'clock or it might be welltoward morning! He wished he knew!
Above his head, how far he could only guess, the night wind was whippingthe bare bushes. Now and then a gust came down and made him shiver, buton the whole it was not uncomfortable down there as long as he wasmoving about. But he couldn't keep that up much longer, for his head wasaching, his legs were stiff and lame and every movement sent littlethrills of pain down his arm from elbow to fingers. He was glad now ofhis thick sweater and wished his legs were as warm as the upper part ofhis body.
For a while he sat on a little rock near the wall along which he hadbeen travelling. Then he began to feel drowsy. That was fine, hethought; if he could only go to sleep he could forget his discomforts,and perhaps when he awoke it would be morning. So he felt about on thebroken stone and moist gravel that formed the floor of his prison halffearsomely, afraid of encountering uncanny things in the dark. But hishands found only soil and rock and scant vegetation and he laid himselfdown gingerly out of respect to his aching body and closed his eyes. Butfor a while the discomforts of his couch made themselves too apparent toallow of slumber. Queer, stealthy little noises sounded about him and heimagined all sorts of things creeping toward him through the darkness.Once or twice he kicked his feet and cried "Scat!" loudly. Then helaughed at himself for his nervousness and strove not to think of thesounds. He wondered who had won the race and whether they had missed himat school: whether Chub had caught up with Jack and Pryor; what Chub wasthinking about his disappearance. Then he started out of his drowsiness.Surely he had heard his name called! He sat up and listened intently.Then he called at the top of his voice half a dozen times. But he heardnothing more, and presently he lay down again with a sigh, eased theposition of his throbbing arm and went quietly to sleep.
And the very next moment, as it seemed to Roy, he heard his name calledagain, quite loudly and distinctly this time, and opened his eyes,blinking, to find his prison filled with the grey, misty light ofmorning and to hear voices above him. Then came his name again, in theunmistakable tones of Mr. Cobb, and he had time to marvel smilingly thatthe football coach had really got his name right for once before he satup and answered loudly. Then came sounds of crashing branches and Royjumped dizzily to his feet.
"Look out!" he shouted. "There's a hole here. Look where you're going,Mr. Cobb!"
Then Mr. Cobb was kneeling above at the edge of the quarry looking downupon him anxiously and Harry's face appeared behind his shoulder, arather white, frightened countenance in the pale light.
"Hurt, Porter?" asked Mr. Cobb.
"No, sir, just shaken up a bit."
"Well, thank Heaven! Can you climb out anywhere?" Mr. Cobb's eyestravelled dubiously about the pit.
"I don't believe so," answered Roy. "I tried to find a place lastnight." He turned and looked about him.
And his face went white at what he saw.
"'Look where you're going, Mr. Cobb!'"]
In shape the quarry was a rough oval, its walls so steep that at firstglance escape even in daylight seemed impossible. In many places thetop of the wall overhung the bottom. Now and then a clump of grass orweeds showed against the dark and discolored face of the rock, and in afew places good-sized bushes had grown out. But all this Roy saw later.At present he was standing with his back to the bank, staring infascinated dread at the center of the quarry. From the walls, allaround, the ground sloped downward toward the center and only a few feetaway from him was the margin of a pool some thirty feet in diameter.There was no slime on the top, no weeds about its edge and in the dimlight of early morning the water looked black and ugly. Roy steppednearer and looked down into its depths. Far below him jutting edges ofrock loomed up but the bottom was not in sight. Shuddering, heretreated. Had he fallen a little farther away from the bank, or had herolled over after falling, they would not have found him so easily. Hemuttered a little prayer of thanks to the Providence which had watchedover him during the night and had guided his stumbling footsteps insafety. Then his head felt dizzy and he sat down suddenly on the bank ofbroken and crumbled slate and went off into a faint.
When he came to, Mr. Cobb was dabbing his face with a wet handkerchiefand Jack Rogers and Chub were slapping his hands and arms. Perhaps itwas the latter method which brought him around, for a dislocated wristdoesn't take kindly to blows! He yanked his injured hand away with a cryof pain and Mr. Cobb removed the sopping handkerchief.
"All right now, eh?" he asked kindly. "Hello, what's wrong there?" Hetook the boy's hand and examined it, his fingers pr
obing skilfully."How'd you do that? Fall on it?"
"I don't know," answered Roy. "It isn't busted, is it?"
"No, dislocated. Feel that bone sticking up there? We'll have to fixthat right now, I guess. Hurts, doesn't it? Give me a couple ofhandkerchiefs, you chaps." Chub and Jack produced theirs and Mr. Cobbtook a long leather wallet from his coat pocket and emptied it of itscontents. "Just hold your hand out straight," he directed. Then, withone hand above the wrist and the other about the fingers he pulledsteadily until the wrist slipped back into place. Roy winced a little,but after the lump had disappeared his whole arm felt easier. Mr. Cobblaid the leather wallet about the wrist and bound it tightly with thehandkerchiefs.
"That'll do until we get back," he said. "Put it back in that sling ofyours and keep it there, Porter. Now we'll see if we can get you out ofhere. Do you think you can walk?"
For answer Roy climbed to his feet.
"All right, only remember that you've had a pretty good shaking up andhaven't had anything to eat since yesterday noon, and don't try to dotoo much. We'll see if we can't boost you up over here."
He led the way to the other side of the pool and Roy saw that a roughpath zigzagged down the face of the bank there. So steep it was,however, that they had to help each other here and there, and it seemeda long time before Mr. Buckman and the others, awaiting them at the top,were able to reach down and pull them over the edge of the rock. Roysubsided breathless on the grass and looked about him. The sun was justtopping the rising hill beyond and the world looked very sweet to him atthat moment.
"That's where you went over," said Mr. Buckman, pointing across the pit."We followed you up to the edge. You must have struck against that bushthere and broken your fall; the branches are all broken, I noticed; agood thing you did, too, I guess."
"I remember falling into some branches," said Roy. "That's the lastthing I do remember; when I woke up it was pitch dark."
"What's that?" asked Mr. Cobb. "Lose consciousness, did you? Did you hityour head? Here, let's have a good look at you, my boy." And, presently,"I should think you did! Doesn't that hurt when I press it?"
"A little," answered Roy.
"Hum! Guess you've got a pretty tough skull. Look at this place, Eaton.Must have come down on a small stone, I should say. Well, that'll waituntil we get home. I wonder if we can carry him between us? Maybe one ofyou chaps had better run back and tell them to send the phaeton."
But Roy protested that he could walk every inch of the way and finallyMr. Cobb consented to let him try it, and the return journey began. Chubwalked beside Roy, anxiously solicitous. Most of the party were franklysleepy and worn out now that the excitement was over. Harry appeared tohave lost interest in the whole affair. Not once, so far as Roy knew,did she even so much as glance in his direction.
"What's Harry doing here?" he whispered to Chub. And Chub recounted thehappenings of the night; how Harry had joined the party unknown to them,how they had built a fire and waited for light and finally how Harry haddiscovered the bit of yarn torn from his sweater.
"It was fairly easy after that," said Chub. "We could see here and therewhere you had broken through the bushes, and once or twice we found yourfootprints. We knew they were yours on account of the spikes. If ithadn't been for Harry I guess you'd have been waiting yet. Though maybeyou could have got up that bank alone."
Roy trudged on in silence for a while. Then,
"Who won?" he demanded eagerly. Chub grinned.
"I won the individual cup and First Seniors got the class cup," he said."Jack and I had it nip and tuck all the way to the gate, and if hehadn't stumbled over the track he'd have beat me."
"I'm glad you got it," said Roy. "I was afraid you wouldn't catch upwith them, after staying so long with me."
"I was a blamed idiot to leave you," answered Chub savagely. "I didn'tdeserve to win anything. Why, you came mighty near killing yourself!"
"Yes, I guess I did," said Roy thoughtfully. "But it wasn't your fault,you silly ass. I got all mixed up and couldn't tell where I was. Andthen, the first thing I knew I--I wasn't anywhere!"
"Tell me about it," said Chub.
But just then Mr. Cobb told Roy he had better not tire himself bytalking and so Chub had to wait to hear his chum's adventures. An hourlater Roy was fast asleep in his bed. They had served him with somemilk-toast, scanty fare for a boy who had missed two meals, and he hadpromptly turned over and gone to sleep. In the middle of the forenoonthe Silver Cove doctor appeared, re-dressed his wrist, put something onhis head and left a tumblerful of some sort of nasty-tasting medicine.And the next day Roy was up and about again apparently as good as newsave for his injured arm. This was carried in a sling for over a week,but he didn't mind that much.
The second morning after his rescue he went over to the Cottage andasked for Harry. Presently she came down to the parlor where he wasawaiting her in front of the soft coal fire and he tried to remember theformal speech of gratitude he had fashioned. But it had gone completelyfrom him. So he just held out his hand and said he was jolly muchobliged to her for what she had done.
"Everybody says that if you hadn't seen that bit of red yarn I'd havebeen there yet," he declared.
Harry shook his hand formally, said she hadn't done anything, that shewas very glad he had had such a fortunate escape and asked politelyafter his injury.
"Oh, the arm's all right now," said Roy.
After that conversation languished until Mrs. Emery came down and madeRoy tell her all about it. And during the narrative Harry disappeared.It was quite evident that she hadn't forgiven him, thought Roy, as hetook his departure. He didn't look back as he went down the drive and sofailed to see somebody with red hair peering down from between thecurtains of an upstairs window.