Part 18 (1/2)

Jan went to the edge and looked down in the hole. It seemed to be a large one in between two big rocks, and Ted showed her where the hole slanted downward and went farther underground. It was dark there, and Jan made up her mind she would never go into it, even if Ted did.

”You'd better come up,” she said at last. ”Maybe mother wouldn't like it. Besides, there might be snakes down in there.”

”Oh! I didn't think about them!” exclaimed Ted, and he tried to scramble up, but it was not so easy as he had hoped. He was a little excited, too, since Janet had spoken of snakes. Teddy did not like them, and they might be in among the leaves that had fallen down into the hole with him.

”Can't you get up?” Jan asked, when her brother had slipped back two or three times.

”Maybe I could if you'd let me take hold of your hand,” suggested Teddy.

”Then you'd pull me in, and we'd both be down there.”

Ted saw that this was so. He tried again to get out, but could not, for mixed with the leaves were many dry, brown pine needles from the trees growing overhead; and if you have ever been in the woods you know how slippery pine needles are when the ground is covered with them. Teddy slipped back again and again.

”Oh, Ted! can't you _ever_ get up?” asked Janet, almost ready to cry.

”Oh. I'll get out somehow,” he said. Then dangling down from a tree behind his sister, he saw a long wild grapevine, which was almost like a piece of rope.

”If I had hold of that I could pull myself out,” Teddy said. ”See if you can reach it to me, Jan.”

After two or three trials his sister did this. Then, holding to a loose end of the grapevine while the other end was twined fast round a tree, Teddy pulled himself out of the hole. Once on firm ground he made the loose end of the grapevine fast to a stone that lay near the edge of the hole.

”What made you do that?” asked Janet.

”So the next time I get down there I can pull myself out,” Teddy answered.

”Are you going down there again?” Jan queried.

”Course I am!” declared Ted. ”I didn't half look in the cave. It's a big place. I could see in only a little way, 'cause it was so dark. I'm goin' to tell grandpa and have him bring a lantern.”

Grandpa Martin was surprised when Ted and Jan told him what they had found in the woods.

”I didn't suppose there was a cave on the island,” said the farmer. ”I must have a look at it.”

”And may I come? And will you take a lantern?” asked Teddy eagerly.

”Well, yes, I guess so,” said grandpa slowly.

”Oh, Father, do you think it is safe?” asked Mrs. Martin.

”Yes, I think so. I won't go very far in with the children. It may be only the den of a fox or some small animal, and not a real cave.”

”I think it's a big cave,” declared Ted. ”Come on, Grandpa.”

”Me come!” cried Trouble, as the two Curlytops set off with Grandpa Martin through the woods, toward the place where Teddy had fallen down with the pile of leaves. ”Me come!”

”No, you stay with me,” laughed Mother Martin, catching him up in her arms. Trouble did not want to stay behind, not having been with his brother and sister of late as much as he wished. ”We'll bake a patty-cake!” Mrs. Martin added, and then Trouble laughed, for he liked to help Nora bake. That is, he thought he helped. And at least he helped to eat what Nora took out of the oven.

”Now show me where the cave is,” said Grandpa Martin to Ted, as they neared the place. ”But be careful not to fall into it again.”

”Oh, I've got a grapevine rope so I can pull myself out,” said Jan's brother. ”Here it is, over this way.”