Part 10 (2/2)
”No. It hurt us more in getting him out.”
”Ask him if he found the provisions ruined?” suggested the Professor.
Tad informed them that nothing save some of the cooking utensils had been damaged.
All had been too securely packed and wrapped with canvas to insure them against exactly the kind of an accident that had happened.
”Think you can get the stuff up here?” asked Ned.
”I'd like to know how? The rope is all down here. I can't very well throw the things up to the top of the mountain,” replied Tad.
”That's so. We had forgotten that,” muttered the Professor. ”And young gentlemen, will you tell me how Master Tad himself is going to get back? Don't you see my judgment was right when I said it was a dangerous undertaking?”
”It seems so,” answered Ned ruefully. ”But there must be some way to get the provisions out.”
”Bother the provisions,” interrupted the Professor, impatiently.
”We've something more important than food to consider just now.
Master Tad is down in the canyon and from the present outlook he is liable to remain there for some time. Any of you think of a plan that will help us? Here, Eagle-eye, perhaps you can tell us how to get that young gentlemen out of there.”
The Indian shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
”Him stay. Spirits git um bymeby.”
”You stop that kind of talk,” commanded Ned.
”Tad is calling,” interrupted Walter.
”What is it?” asked Ned.
”Get a rope and let down here.”
”There is not ten feet of rope in the outfit.”
”Send for help then. I've got to get out of here somehow.”
”Tell him there is no help that we could depend upon, within twenty or thirty miles of here,” said the Professor.
CHAPTER VI
MAKING THE BEST OF IT
They were well along in the afternoon now and their predicament was apparently serious.
”There seems to be only one way out of the difficulty,” said the Professor, after a little thought.
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