“Not the right kind,” declared Ned. “I’d like some more fun such as we had when the King of Papricka tried to fool us.”
“Sure! When we got carried away in the captive balloon,” added Frank. “That was a time!”
“And do you remember when we fastened the ladder on the donkey’s back, the night we were going to rescue Frank’s father,” suggested Fenn? “How he ran away in the woods?”
“Yes, and how it rained,” put in Ned. “Gee, that was fierce!”
“But we had a good time,” remarked Frank. “Father can never forget how much you boys did for him.”
“It wasn’t anything!” exclaimed Ned. “Say, do you remember when they thought we blew up the school with dynamite?”
“Do I? I should guess yes,” replied Ned.
“Yes, and how Ned thought he was going to become a millionaire with that investment which made him a fugitive!” spoke Bart. “Oh, yes, we had good times then. But we don’t seem to be having them any more. It’s nothing but measly old algebra exams. that no fellow can pass. I wish – ”
But what Bart wished he never told, for, at that instant there came from the street outside a series of sharp explosions, that sounded like a Gatling gun in full operation.
“What’s that?” cried Fenn.
“It’s an automobile!” replied Frank, who was nearest the window. “It’s running away, too, from the looks of it. They’ve opened the muffler and are trying to reverse I guess! Something’s wrong! There’s going to be an accident!”
The other boys crowded up back of Frank to see what was going on. The street in front of Fenn’s house sloped sharply down to a cliff at the end of the thoroughfare. Across the highway was a stout fence, designed to prevent any one from driving over the cliff, which was quite high. Toward this fence a big touring car, which, as the boys could see, contained an elderly gentleman and a young lady, was rushing at furious speed.
“Stop! Stop!” cried Fenn in desperation, thinking the man in the car did not know or realize his danger. “The street ends at the fence! You’ll go over the cliff!”
As the auto whizzed past the house the girl in it gave one glance at Fenn. The youth thought her the most beautiful person he had ever seen, though there was a look of terror in her eyes.
“He can’t stop!” shouted Bart. “Something’s wrong with the machine!”
Indeed this seemed to be true, for the man at the steering wheel was frantically pulling on various levers and stamping, with his feet, on some pedals in front of him.
The young woman in the car half arose in her seat. The man, holding the wheel with one hand, held her back with the other. She gave a startled cry and, a moment later the auto had crashed through the fence, as though it was made of paper, and the front wheels disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
“Come on!” cried Bart. “We must go to their help!”
“I’m afraid they’re dead,” spoke Frank solemnly, as he quickly followed his chums from Fenn’s house.
CHAPTER II
A MYSTERIOUS CAVE
Running at top speed the four boys hastened down the street toward where the automobile accident had occurred. Several other persons followed them.
“They’ve gone over the cliff!” cried Fenn.
“No, the rear wheels are caught on the edge!” declared Ned. “You can just see the back part of the car!”
“But the man and young lady must be pitched out! It hangs nearly straight up and down!” said Frank.
“I wonder if they could possibly be alive?” asked Fenn, as he hurried along, a little in the rear of the others, for, because of his stoutness, he was not a good runner. “I’ll never forget how she looked up to me, as if she wanted me to save her.”
By this time the chums had reached the broken fence that had proved so ineffectual a barrier to the cliff. They leaped over the shattered boards, accompanied by a number of men and boys.
“Gee! They’re goners!” exclaimed a boy named Sandy Merton, peering over the edge of the cliff. “It’s a hundred feet to the bottom!”
“I wonder what caught the auto?” said Bart. “Why didn’t it fall?”
“A wire caught it,” answered Fenn. “Look,” and he showed his chums where several heavy strands of wire, which had been strung on the fence to further brace it, had become entangled in the wheels of the auto as they crashed through. The wire was twisted around some posts and, with the broken boards from the barrier, had served to hold the car from going over the cliff. There it hung, by the rear wheels only, a most precarious position, for, every moment, it was in danger of toppling over.
“But where are the people?” asked Frank, as he peered over the edge of the cliff. “I can’t see them?”
“They’re all in pieces,” declared a gloomy looking man. “They’re broken to bits from the fall.”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Bart. “Here, let me have a look!”
Lying flat on his face he peered over the edge of the precipice. Then he uttered a cry.
“I can see them!” he shouted. “They’ve landed on the ledge, not ten feet down. They’re under some bushes!”
“Get some ropes, quick!” cried Fenn. “We’ll haul ’em up before the auto falls on ’em!”
“No danger of that,” declared Bart. “They’re off to one side. I’m afraid they’re badly hurt, though.”
“Somebody go for a doctor!” urged Fenn.
“I will,” volunteered Jim Nelson, who had the reputation of being the laziest boy in the town of Darewell. Perhaps he was afraid of being asked to help haul the auto back from the perilous position.
“Telephone for ’em!” called Frank, knowing Jim’s usual slowness, and realizing that the lazy youth would welcome this method of summoning the medical men.
“Tell ’em to come to my house,” supplemented Fenn. “We will carry the man and girl there.”
“Good idea,” commented Frank. “You’ve got more room than any of these houses near here,” for, in the immediate vicinity of the cliff there were only small cottages, and some of them were unoccupied.
“But how are we going to get ’em up?” asked Fenn.
By this time a large crowd had gathered. Some had brought ropes, and there were all sorts of suggestions as to how the rescue should be effected.
“I’ll get them; or at least I’ll go down and put a rope around them, so they can be hauled up,” suddenly declared Frank. “I know how to reach that ledge. There’s not much danger. Where’s a rope?”
Several were soon produced, some neighboring clothes lines being confiscated. It seemed that all the crowd needed was some one to give orders. In a few minutes, with a rope tied around his waist Frank was being lowered over the cliff. Willing hands let him down until he was on the ledge. Then, having fastened the rope about the form of the unconscious young woman, padding it with his coat, so the strands would not cut her, he gave the signal to haul up. There was a cheer as the body was laid gently down on the grass at the top of the cliff, and some one called:
“She isn’t dead! She’s breathing!”
It was harder work for Frank to adjust the rope about the man’s body, as he was very heavy, but the lad accomplished it, and the crowd above hauled the unfortunate automobilist up. Then Frank was raised from the ledge.
“Carry ’em to my house,” cried Fenn. “The doctors will soon be there if Jim hasn’t forgotten to telephone for ’em.”
On