I looked in the direction we had come from, and as sure as I"m writing this, there was some one running pell-mell right toward us. I saw right away it was a girl. You know how a girl runs, especially when she runs fast. She was holding her head way back and laughing, and her hair was all flying loose. There was something big and kind of gray colored around her neck--very big and clumsy. I stood just about a second, then I made a sprint for her. I never ran so fast in my life. We came toward each other just flying. Her cheeks were all flushed and her hair was all over her face and she was panting and laughing all at once.
She said, "I--I--I--I"ve--got--your--rope--so there. I--I--ran all--the way--with it. You--you said--I--I--I----"
"Don"t talk, give me the rope!" I said.
"Maybe--I--I--fooled you about--about the house--my own--house--but I can do things too--run--see? Here. They caught--the bandit--here----"
I ran pell-mell back to the edge with the rope. "Did he--did he go over?" I called.
"Hurry!" they shouted.
Gee, I wish you could have been there to see all that. There were the scouts of my patrol, all half dressed, jumping up and down and yelling, "_Hurry, hurry!_" There was Dora Dane Daring coming along behind me and all the scouts cheering her. I can hardly tell you just how everything happened. Westy grabbed the rope from me and by the time I looked over the edge, all panting and trembling, there it was right over the edge of the slanting shelf.
But Warde Hollister wasn"t there!
CHAPTER x.x.xI
TOMBOY
For about five seconds my blood ran cold. I kind of seemed to see everything just as if I were dreaming. Then I noticed that all the fellows were hanging on to the rope. And I saw that Will and Dorry hadn"t gone away. I saw that the rope was tight, down over the edge of the hill and across and over the edge of the shelf. I knew that Warde Hollister must be hanging on to the end of that rope. He wasn"t trusting his life to any old weeds now. That rope was held by scouts and he should worry. And we should worry, too, because by that time we knew Warde and we knew he wouldn"t let go.
I just jumped up and down shouting, "Hurrah, hurrah!" I couldn"t help it. It seemed awful funny for seven fellows to be holding one up, but Warde had come so near to death that I guess they wanted to make saving him double sure. Even Pee-wee was tugging on the rope with both hands, his cheeks all puffed out. The girl just stood there panting and laughing.
She said, "What"s on the other end of that rope? An elephant?"
I just went right up to her and I said, "Dora Dane Daring, on the other end of that rope is the best scout in the western hemispheres, including Flatbush and Hoboken--the best scout with one exception, and that exception is you."
She said, "Oh, isn"t it just too _funny_ to see that little Pee-wee pulling on the rope? Oh, _dear_! I could just kiss him. I"d run _two_ miles to see that!"
I said, "Tell me----"
"You finish before I tell you anything," she said. "Did I save the bee-line hike?"
"_Did you!_" I said. "You saved a fellow"s life too. You"re going to get a hero medal if I have to go over to National Headquarters and see Mr.
National personally. Meanwhile you can kiss Pee-wee six times if you want to."
"Look over the edge and see if the rope is chafing, Roy," Westy said to me.
"I"ll do more than that," I said. "I"ll go down there and stuff a jacket under it. Give me a jacket, somebody." I was feeling so happy I didn"t care what I said or did.
The fellows got beside a tree so that the rope went part way around the trunk. That way they could pa.s.s it out easily. We were sure of the rope, that was one thing. Hemp--you"ve got to go some to break that. That was no clothesline. Backyard ropes are all right, but not for scouts.
"Don"t take any chances," Westy said. "Just look and see if it"s chafing on the edge."
"If it is, tell me," Pee-wee puffed out.
"Let it down slowly," Warde called. "What are you waiting for? It"s all right down here."
There were only two places where that rope could rub; those were on the top of the wall right near us and down on the edge of the shelf. We knew it was all right below that on account of what Warde had said. In both of those places the rope went over clumps of bushes and moss. No rope will stand rubbing all the time, but all we had to do was to let it down to the bottom and we knew it would stand that much rubbing.
So we just pa.s.sed it out little by little and pretty soon it was slack.
Then we could hear Warde calling from away down below.
"All right," I shouted; "We"ll be down pretty soon. Take a rest."
We tied the rope good and fast to the tree and then I said to Will and Dorry, "How far did you go when you started from here?"
"Not more than ten or twenty feet," Dorry said.
"Then the bee-line hike is saved!" I said.
Dora said, "Oh, I"m so glad. I wondered how you"d _ever_ get down the cliff. When the men came back from Riverview Park they had that horrid bandit with them--just think!"
"What did I tell you?" Pee-wee said.
She said, "Oh, I think it was just wonderful how you fastened him there----"
"Without the loss of a single life," the kid shouted.
She said, "And when I saw that villainous creature and thought how you had _really caught_ him, and when I saw the men had your rope, I was just _stricken with remorse_ for the way we girls fooled you. I said, "I"m just going to run after them and take their rope so their hike won"t be spoiled." Because I thought you"d need it. So you"ll forgive me, won"t you, for pretending to be so brave when all the time it was my own house? You will, won"t you?"
I said, "I don"t know much about the girl scouts except that they giggle a lot but I"ll say this much, they know how to run and when it comes to good turns----"
"Will you let me _prove_ I"m a scout? A real one?"
I said, "You"re as real as real estate. All you have to do is say what you want."
She said, "Will you let me climb down that rope and go with you, and finish the bee-line hike with you?"
"_G-o-o-d night!_" I said.
CHAPTER x.x.xII
BEE-LINES AND THINGS
Gee whiz, I didn"t know what to say. I didn"t want to tell her that I was afraid she couldn"t do it. But we had just seen one narrow escape and I didn"t want her to take any chances.
I said, "If you think we"re mean, we"ll say yes, you can go with us.
Because we owe you a lot, that"s sure. I"d rather give up the whole thing than be mean about it. And I think you"re just as good at doing things as we are. But we wouldn"t do this ourselves if we weren"t already in for it. Our clothes are all torn already from going over roofs and climbing on those ferris-wheel cars, and you"ll only get your dress all torn and what"s the use?"