The Phantom Town Mystery

  CHAPTER XII A NARROW ESCAPE

  The long rope with which Jerry had captured many a wild cow was droppedover the outer edge of the wide ledge. Since the distance was not morethan twenty-five feet, the lariat reached nearly to the crevice. Lookingaround, Jerry found a projecting rock about which he wound the upper endof the rope, but he did not trust it alone. He threw himself facedownward and grasped the knot that was nearest the edge in a firm clasp.He told the girls he would not need their assistance at first, but that,if he shouted, they were to both seize the rope near the rock and pullwith all their strength.

  Dick, making light of the feat he was about to perform, tossed hissombrero to one side, and then, with his hand on his heart, he made agallant bow to the girls.

  Dora and Mary, standing close to the rock around which the rope wastwined, clung to each other nervously. They tried to smile encouraginglytoward the pretending acrobat, but they were too anxious to put muchbrightness into the effort.

  "Kick off your boots," Jerry said in a low voice; "you'll be able tocling to the knots better in stocking feet."

  "Sort of an anti-climax." Dick's large brown eyes laughed through theshell-rimmed glasses as he removed his boots. "There, _now_ I do therenowned disappearing act. I'd feel more heroic if I were about to rescuesomeone."

  "Dick isn't the least bit afraid, is he, Jerry?" Mary asked in awhispered voice as though she did not want the boy who had gone over theledge to be conscious of the fear that she felt.

  "He's all right," Jerry reported a second later. "He's going down therope as nimbly as a monkey."

  "Will there be room on the edge of that crevice for him to stand when he_does_ get down?" was Mary's next question.

  There was a long moment's silence, then Jerry turned his head and smiledreassuringly. "He's down! Oh, yes, there's ten feet or more for him towalk on. He's got hold of the front wheel of the old coach." The cowboy'svoice changed to a warning shout, "I say, Dick, down there! _Don't try_to get aboard! The whole thing might crumble and take you to the bottomof that pit."

  The girls could hear a faint shout from below. Dick evidently had assuredJerry that he would be cautious.

  "I wish we could come over where you are, Jerry," Dora said. "I'd like towatch Dick."

  "Stay where you are, please." The order, without the last word, wouldhave sounded abrupt. "Er--I may need your help with the rope. Keepalert."

  "I couldn't be alerter if I tried," Mary said in a low voice to hercompanion. "Every nerve in my whole body is so tense I'm afraid somethingwill snap or--"

  "Great Jumping Jehoshaphat!"

  Jerry's startled ejaculation and sudden leap to his knees caused thegirls to cry in alarm, "Did Dick fall? Oh! Oh! What has happened?"

  Jerry turned toward them and shook his head. "Sorry I hollered out thatway. Nothing happened that matters any."

  "But something did, and if you don't tell us, we'll come over there andsee for ourselves." Dora's tone was so determined that Jerry said, "SureI'll tell you. When Dick took hold of the front wheel of the stage, hemust have jarred the seat, for, all at once, the driver's skeletoncollapsed and toppled off and down into that deep crevice. Well, that'llbe more comfortable for an eternal resting place, I reckon, than sittingupright was, the way he's been doing this forty years past." Then hecalled, "Hey, down there, _what_ did you say? I didn't hear. Your voiceis blown off toward the Little Grand Canyon, I reckon." Jerry satintently listening, one big brown hand cupped about his right ear. Thegirls could hear Dick's voice coming faintly from below. Jerry showedsigns of excited interest. The girls exchanged wondering glances but didnot speak until the cowboy turned toward them.

  "Dick says there's a small, child-size trunk under the driver's seat.Whizzle! I wish I were down there. Together we might be able to get itout." Leaping to his feet, Jerry went to the rock around which the ropewas tied. "_That_ ought to hold all right!" There was a glint ofdetermination in his gray eyes, but it wavered as he glanced at Mary whostood watching him, but saying not a word. "There isn't anything _here_to frighten you girls, is there?" He seemed to be imploring the smallergirl to tell him to go. "It's this-a-way. If there is a child-size box ortrunk in the stage coach still, it was probably Little Bodil's, and don'tyou see, Mary, how _important_ it is for us to get it. Why, I reckon aclue would be there all right."

  Mary held out a small white hand. "Go along, Big Brother," she said, "ifyou're sure the rock will hold the rope with your weight on it."

  "Shall we help the rock by holding onto the rope as well?" It waspractical Dora who asked that question.

  "Yes!" Jerry's expression brightened. "I wish you would."

  Dora thought, "Mr. Cowboy, I know _just_ what _you_ are thinking. You'reafraid we _might_ go over to the edge and perhaps fall off, but that ifyou tell us to hold onto the rope here by the rock, you expect we'll stayput, but you're mistaken. As soon as I know you're safely down, I'm goingto crawl over the ledge and peer down."

  While Dora was thus planning, she and Mary held to the highest knot inthe rope, and Jerry, having removed his boots, went over the edge withoutthe grand flourish that Dick had made.

  "Oh, I can't, _can't_ hold it!" Mary exclaimed, and then Dora realizedthat the younger girl had been trying to hold Jerry's weight.

  "Don't!" she ejaculated. "The rock can hold him. Just keep your handslightly on the knot and pull _only_ if the rope starts slipping."

  It seemed but a few moments before the girls heard, as from far below, areassuring call, "All's well!"

  At once Dora let go her hold on the rope and dropped face downward as theboys had done. Mary was not to be left behind. Cautiously, they wormedtheir way to the edge of the cliff and peered over, being careful to keephidden. Only their hair and eyes were over the edge, and the boys, intenton examining the skeleton stage coach, did not once glance up.

  "Oh-oo!" Mary shuddered. "That black crevice looks as though it went downinto the mountain a mile or more."

  "Maybe it does!" Dora whispered. "Jerry said that it's more than a milefrom here to the floor of the desert. The crack in the mountain may goall the way down."

  "Oh, I _do_ wish the boys wouldn't go so close to the edge of it!" Marywhispered frantically. "Dora Bellman, if Dick or Jerry slipped into thatawful place--"

  Dora's interrupting voice was impatient. "_Please_ don't start_imagining_ terrible things. Those boys value their own lives as much aswe possibly can. Look! See how very cautiously they're taking hold of thedriver's seat and testing its strength. Blue Moons!" It was Dora's turnto be horrified. "Jerry is lifting Dick. My, aren't his arms powerful?Now Dick is resting his left hand on the top of the seat and pulling onthat box with his right."

  Mary clutched Dora's arms, but neither spoke a word as they watched themovements of the boys with startled, staring eyes.

  "It's coming slowly." Dora's voice was tense. "Hark! Didn't you hear acreak as though something about the stage had snapped suddenly?"

  "Thanks be!" The words were a shout of relief. "The box is out, but oh,Mary! _Not a second_ too soon! The skeleton stage coach is collapsing! Ithas dropped right down out of sight."

  The two girls sat up with one accord and stared at each other, theirfaces white.

  Mary was the first to speak. Her tone was reproachful. "And yet _you_were _so_ sure the boys would do nothing to endanger their lives. If thatcrash had happened one minute sooner, they would both have gone down withit. Dick couldn't have leaped back in time, and Jerry would have lost hisbalance, and you needn't tell me I'm using my imagination, either, foryou _know_ it's true."

  There was no denying that the boys had had a most narrow escape and Dorawillingly acknowledged that they had taken a greater risk than she hadsupposed they would.

  "As though finding that lost Bodil, or even getting money to help theDooleys, was worth endangering _their_ lives," Mary continued with such ashow of indignation that Dora actually laughed. "Since it's all over,let's forget it. I
'm terribly thrilled about the box. I feel just as sureas the boys do that there will be something in it that will be a clue, orat least, lead to one."

  "Listen," Mary said. "The boys are calling to us. See, the rope isswaying."

  Lying flat again, Dora peered over and called, "What do you want?"

  Jerry replied, "We're tying the box to the rope. Can you two girls pullit up? Don't stand near the edge to do it."

  "Wait!" Dick called. Then he said something to Jerry that the girlscouldn't hear. Dora saw the cowboy laugh and pound on his head. "He'scalling himself a dumb-bell, looks like," she whispered to Mary. ThenJerry's voice, "I'll take back that order. You stand by the rock, willyou, and grab the rope if it starts to slip. Dick will climb up and helplift the box. He's such a light weight, he and the box together won't beany heavier than I am."

  The girls went back to the rock and saw that the rope held. They knelt byit in readiness to seize it if it slipped. They could tell by thetightening of the rope that Dick was ascending. In another moment, hesprang over the edge, pulled up the box without asking the girls forassistance, then dropped the rope down again. Soon they were joined by abeaming Jerry.