Part 3 (1/2)

Instinctively he put out both hands as far as he was able, to grasp anything which ht come within reach and thereby check his awful doard course

The lantern fell fro rock

Then his right hand slid over the ends of a bush growing out of a fissure He caught the bush and held on like griave way, but not instantly, and his descent was checked so that the tumble to the bottom of the hole, fifteen feet further doas not near as bad as it would otherwise have been

Yet he ca a flat rock, he was knocked insensible

Half an hour went by, and he opened his eyes in a wondering way Where was he and what had happened?

Soon the truth burst upon hiered to his feet to see if any bones had been broken

”All whole yet, thanks to ht ”But that's a nasty lump on the back of my head Hullo, up there!”

He called out as loudly as he could, but no answer caone

”Well, I always allowed that I would explore the Devil's Chimney some day, but I didn't calculate to do it quite so soon,” he went on ”What can have becoone off for help? If I can read character I fancy that dick Arbuckle will do all he can for me--and, by the way, can his father's corpse really be down here?”

He brought forth a match and lit it The battered lantern lay close at hand, and, although without a glass, it was still better than nothing, and, turned well up, gave forth a torch-like flas for a dozen feet or more No body was there, nor did he find any for the full distance up and down the dismal hole

”The boy was mistaken; his father wandered elsewhere,” was the boomer's conclusion ”Poor fellow, he was in no mental or physical condition to push his claims in the West He should have re Western lawyer to act for hients they'll swindle hiive hireat scout laughed softly ”When I get the chance is good

I reckon I had best pull myself out of this ation of the rocks At no point was there anything which gave pro to the top

”In a pocket and no error,” he ot to stay here like a bull-croaker at the botto pool between the slanting rocks He threw a chip into this pool and saw that it drifted slowly off between two scrub bushes growing partly under a shelving rock

With the light he made an inspection of the locality, and a cry of surprise escaped hiular, but apparently large cavern

The strea

”Must be some sort of an outlet beyond,” he mused ”I'll try it and see,” and in aon hands and knees

He had not far to go in this fashi+on Twenty feet beyond the cavern becae that he could stand up with ease He flashed the light above his head

”By Jove! a miniature Mammoth Cave of Kentucky!” burst from his lips

On he went until a bend in the forained Here the stream of water disappeared under a pile of loose stones, and the opening becaht