The Boy Land Boomer | Page 7

pile of loose stones, and
the opening became less than six feet in height.
"Checked!" he muttered, and his face fell. It looked as if he would have
to go back the way he had come.
Again he raised his light and gazed about him with more care than ever.
The loose rocks soon caught his attention, and, setting down the lantern,
he began to pull away first at one and then another.
The last turned back, he saw another opening, evidently leading
upward.
"This must lead to the open air--" he began, when a grinding of stone
caught his ears. In a twinkle a veritable shower of rocks came down
around his head. He was knocked flat and almost covered.
For fully ten minutes he lay gasping for breath. The blood was flowing
from a wound on his cheek, and it was a wonder that he had not been
killed.
"In the future I'll have more care," he groaned, as, throwing first one
stone and then another aside, he sat up. The falling of the stones had
been followed by some dirt, and now a regular landslide came after,
burying him up to the armpits.
"Planted," was the single word which issued from his lips. He was not
seriously hurt, and was half inclined to laugh at his predicament. Still,
on the whole, it was no laughing matter, and Pawnee Brown lost no
time in trying to dig himself free.
The stones and dirt were wedged tightly about his legs, and not wishing

to run the risk of a broken or twisted ankle, the scout worked with care,
all the time wondering if Dick Arbuckle was back, and never once
dreaming of the peril the poor lad was encountering. The rain was
soaking through the ceiling of the cavern, and the situation was far
from a comfortable one.
At last he was free again, and striking a match, he hunted up the lantern
and lit it once more.
The opening to the inner cave was now large enough to pass through
with ease, and making sure of his footing, the scout moved forward,
straining his eyes eagerly for some sign of an egress to the outer world.
Presently he saw a number of straggly things dangling downward from
the rocks and soil overhead.
They were the bottom roots of some great tree standing fifteen or
twenty feet above.
"Not far from the surface now, that's certain," he thought, with
considerable satisfaction. "And yet, hang me if I can see an opening of
any sort yet."
On and on he went, until nearly a hundred feet more had been passed.
The cave had widened out, but now it narrowed once again to less than
a dozen feet. The roof, too, sloped downward until it occasionally
scraped the crown of his sombrero.
The light of the lantern began to splutter and flare up, showing that the
oil in the cup was running low.
"If only the thing lasts until I find the door to this confounded prison,"
he thought.
Suddenly a peculiar hiss sounded out upon the darkness.
Pawnee Brown knew that hiss only too well, and leaping back he
snatched a pistol from his belt.

The hiss was followed by a rattle, and now, flashing the light around,
the scout saw upon a flat rock the curled-up form of a huge rattlesnake.
The eyes of the reptile shone like twin stars, and when Pawnee Brown
discovered him he was getting ready to strike.
The rattler was less than six feet away, and the scout knew that he
could cover that space with ease. Therefore, whatever was to be done
must be done quickly.
Like a flash the pistol came up. But ere Pawnee Brown could fire a
curious thing happened.
A large drop of water, splashing down from the roof of the cavern,
caused the light to splutter and go out.
The scout was in the dark with his enemy.
More than this, he was boxed up in a narrow place, from which escape
was well-nigh impossible.
Aiming as best he could under the circumstances, he fired.
The bullet struck the flat rock, bounded up to the side wall of the
cavern and then hit him in the leg.
"Missed, by thunder!"
He jumped past the spot and moved up the cavern a distance of several
yards.
A rattle and a whirr followed, as the great rattlesnake made a vicious
strike in the dark. An intense hiss sounded out when the reptile realized
that the object of his anger had been missed.
Listening with strained ears, the boomer heard the deadly thing sliding
slowly from rock to rock, coming closer at every movement.
To flee was impossible, so with bated breath he stood his ground.

CHAPTER IV.
OUT OF THE CAVERN.
Slowly but