With Trapper Jim in the North Woods | Page 4

to Max.
"My goodness!" he called out after the others, being in the rear of the
little procession, "there's no telling how long poor old Toby might 'a'
been letting out his whoops, and with that door shut we didn't hear
him."
"Well, we can right now, all right!" called back Steve, who was running
neck and neck with the trapper, swinging his lighted lantern in such a
reckless, haphazard fashion that he was in momentary danger of
smashing the useful article against some tree.
They could all hear Toby calling very clearly now.
"Help! Oh, h-h-help!"
"One thing sure," Max remarked; "Toby hasn't tumbled down into a
hollow tree stump! His yells sound too plain for that."
"Oh, shucks; forget it!" said Bandy-legs.

Some time before, while the boys were hunting for Bandy-legs, who
had become lost in a large swamp not twenty miles away from Carson,
they had finally found him, caged fast inside a large hollow stump. He
had climbed to the top of this to take an observation, when the rotten
wood, giving way, had allowed him to fall inside.
It had been a bitter experience for Bandy-legs, and his chums never
mentioned it without him shivering, as memory again carried him back
to the hours of suffering he had spent in his woody prison.
As they advanced the cries grew louder:
"H-h-help! Boys, oh, b-b-boys, come q-q-quick! I can't h-h-hold on
much longer!"
"Say, he must be away up in a tree!" exclaimed Steve.
"No, his voice sounds closer to the ground than that," declared Max.
"Tell you what," panted Bandy-legs from behind, "he's just gone and
fell over some old cliff, that's what. You know how clumsy Toby is."
That sounded rather queer, since it was the speaker himself who had
always been getting into scrapes because of this trait.
"Cliff!" snorted Steve, "like to know how anybody could ever fall up a
cliff. You mean a precipice, silly."
"Guess I do," admitted Bandy-legs, "but it's all the same. If you're on
top it's a precipice, and if you're down below--"
"Listen to him holler, would you?" interrupted Steve. "Hold on, Toby,
we're coming as fast as we c'n sprint! Keep up a little longer! It's all
right! Your pards are on the job!"
Max thought he saw Trapper Jim laughing about this time. From this he
imagined the other must have guessed the true state of affairs, and that
poor Toby could not be in such desperate straits as they believed.

The darkness was intense there under the trees.
Several times did impulsive Steve stumble over obstacles which in his
eagerness he had failed to notice.
Trapper Jim was doubtless sizing the various boys up by degrees, and
long before now he had read most of their leading characteristics. But
anyone would be able to know the headstrong nature of Steve Dowdy,
after being in his company for an hour.
"Where are you, Toby, old fellow?" called Steve.
"H-h-here! L-l-lookout, or you'll f-f-fall over, too," came weakly from a
point just ahead of them.
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" shouted Bandy-legs. "It is a precipice after all,
and p'r'aps an awful high one! Hold on, Toby, don't you dare let loose
when we're right at hand."
Max had felt a thrill again at the prospect of such a peril threatening
Toby. But another look at Trapper Jim reassured him.
"Yes," said Jim, "be mighty careful how you step, boys. Get down on
your hands and knees and creep up here to the edge of the awful chasm.
Now, hold the lanterns down, so we can all of us see."
Cautiously did the alarmed Steve do as he was told. Four pairs of eager
eyes took in the situation. Amazement staggered the boys for the space
of ten seconds. Then they burst out into loud laughter.
And no wonder.
Toby was hanging there all right, red of face from his long-continued
exertion, and looking appealingly up to his chums. He had caught hold
of a friendly stout root as he found himself going over, and to this he
clung, digging his toes from time to time into the face of the
"precipice," and in this way managing to sustain himself, though almost
completely exhausted by the alarm and strain combined.

"Ain't you g-g-goin' to h-h-help me?" he gasped, amazed no doubt to
hear his heartless chums laughing at his misfortune.
"Let go, Toby!" cried Max.
"Yes, drop down and take a rest!" added Steve, who could enjoy a joke
to the utmost when it was on Toby, with whom he often had words;
though all the same they were quite fond of each other.
"W-w-want me to get s-s-smashed, d-d-don't you?" answered back the
indignant boy, as he continued to clutch that root, as though he believed