The Boy Inventors Radio Telephone | Page 6

Not a trace of the man of science or of the ferocious animal was to be
seen.
"Are you sure you boys didn't dream all this?" asked the red-faced
farmer suspiciously.
"There ain't even a cow in sight in the pasture lot," said one of the men.
"I reckon this is some sort of a fool joke," added another.
"It isn't. Indeed, it isn't," protested Jack.
"The professor is some place around," said Tom.

But a lengthy search of the vicinity failed to show anything except that
the professor had vanished as if the earth had swallowed him.
CHAPTER IV.
"WHERE IS HE?"
"Professor!" hailed Dick, at the top of his lungs.
"Professor!" bawled the farm hands.
The red-faced farmer himself regarded the boys quizzically.
"What sort of a chap is this professor of yours?" he asked with an odd
intonation.
"He's a geologist," replied Dick. "Why?"
"Oh, I thought he might be a conjurer," was the rejoinder. "He seems to
be pretty good at hiding himself."
"Hark!" exclaimed Jack suddenly, standing at pause and listening
intently.
"What's up?" demanded Dick, instantly on the alert, too.
"I heard something. It sounded like----"
"There it is again," cried Tom.
A faint, far-off cry, impossible to locate, was borne to their ears.
"It's a call for help," declared Dick.
"That's what it is," agreed the red-faced farmer. "Must be that perfusser
of yours, but where in the name of Sam Hill is he?"
It was a puzzling question. The faint cries appeared to be muffled in
some way. They looked about them, endeavoring to locate their source.

Suddenly one of the farm hands spoke.
"I used to work fer old Crabtree," he said. "There's an old well
hereabouts somewheres and maybe he's fell down that."
"Where is it?" demanded Jack.
"Back in the meadow yonder," said the man, pointing in the direction
of the pasture lot.
"Let's go over there and see at once," said Dick. "Frantic frogs of
France, if the professor's tumbled into a well he may be in serious
trouble."
They set off on the run to where a pile of stones showed a well-curb
had once been. The hoards at the top, which had covered it over, had
rotted, and there was a jagged hole in them. Jack cautiously bent over
and placed his mouth at the edge of the hole.
"Professor, are you down there?" he hailed.
"Y-y-y-y-yes," came up in feeble, stuttering tones. "I'm almost frozen.
I'm hanging above the water but I can't hold on much longer. The bag
of specimens is too heavy."
"Throw it away," urged Jack.
"N-n-n-not for worlds," was the reply. "I was looking for another rare
bit of quartz when I fell in here."
"I'll run to the car," said Jack, who had made out that the well was not
very deep. "Fortunately, we've got a rope and tackle in there. Hold on,
professor, we'll soon have you out."
He hurriedly explained the situation to the others and ran at top speed
to the car, in which the boys--like most careful motorists, who never
know when such a piece of apparatus may come in useful for hauling a
car out of mud or sand, for instance, or for towing an unlucky autoist
home--had a block and tackle stowed.

He was soon back, and the rope was lowered to the professor, who
made it fast under his arms. Then, aided by the husky muscles of the
farm hands, they soon drew him to the surface. But his weight was
materially added to by the stones, and it was no light task to rescue him,
dripping and shivering, from the dark, cold shaft.
He explained that soon after they had gone some men came up and
drove the bull away. But they had seen the gap in the stone wall first.
"They were positively violent," declared the professor, "and said that
they'd have the man who did it arrested if they could find him. Under
the circumstances, I deemed it prudent to stay up in the tree, where they
could not see me. They drove the bull off into another pasture. As soon
as the coast was clear I climbed down, but I happened to see a rare bit
of quartz sparkling in the sun on the edge of the well-curb. Imprudently
I stood on the planking and fell in."
"Gracious, it's a lucky thing you weren't drowned, with all that weight
round your neck," declared Jack.
"It was fortunate," said the scientist mildly, as if such a thing as
drowning was an everyday occurrence. "As a matter of fact, if I hadn't
succeeded in grasping a projecting stone and held on, I might have
gone down. It was an--er--a most discomforting experience."
"Well, of all things," exclaimed the red-faced man, "to go trapesing
round