Part 25 (1/2)

The sentence trailed off into nothingness There was really no way of telling All about theravel andAndhere!” decided Blake in desperation, as with his bare hands he began throwing aside the dirt and stones Mr

Alcando watched hi up his idea as to where Joe lay beneath the dirt, he, too, started throwing on either side the clay and soil

Blake glanced down the hill The Indian er had disappeared, and, presue for help Then Blake bent to his Herculean task again When next he looked up, having scooped a slight hole in the side of the hill, he saw a procession ofup--men with picks and shovels over their shoulders He saw, too, a big slice of the hill in the Canal The wonderful as blocked at Culebra Cut

Blake thought little of that then His one idea and frantic desire was to get Joe out

”They'll never get here in tiet hiain he began digging

Mr Alcando had spoken the truth Theout in tiencies For not only was Blake unaware of the exact spot where his chum lay buried, but, at least so it seemed, there had been such a mass of earth precipitated over hiotten out

However, fate, luck, Providence, or whatever you choose to call it, had not altogether deserted thepicture boys The very nature of the slide, and the hill on which it had occurred, was in Joe's favor For as Blake, after a despairing glance at the approaching coluain to his hopeless task, there was a movement of the earth

”Look out!” cried Mr Alcando

He would have spoken too late had what happened been of greaterfrom beneath his feet, and jumped back instinctively But there was no need

Beyond hi slide had occurred, and between him and Mr

Alcando, and this last shi+ft of the soil, was a ridge of rocks that held them to their places

Down in a mass of mud went another portion of the hill, and when it had ceasedin a mass of red sand, was Joe hi out at grotesque angles

”Joe! Joe!” yelled Blake, preparing to leap toward his chuer--”

But no known danger could have held Blake back

”He is there!” Blake cried ”We were digging in the wrong place”

”I thought so,” said the Spaniard But Blake did not stay to listen to hie of rock which seeh to remain solid for so over his chum And then he sahat it was that had probably saved Joe's life The boy's big rubber coat had been turned up and wound around his head and face in such a manner as to keep the sand and dirt out of his eyes, nose and arment, was the camera

Rapidly Blake pulled the coat aside Joe's pale face looked up at him There was a little blood on the forehead, from a sged Blake ”Speak to ht?”

He bared his chu he could have done, for it brought Joe back to consciousness--slowly at first, but with the returning tide of blood the fainting spell passed

”Weup now

”Are you hurt? Can you walk?” asked Blake

Joe found his voice--though a faint voice it was