"It"s gone---gone!" wailed Ned.
"That settles him," answered the guide in a hopeless tone.
"Oh, he"s lost, he"s lost!" cried Walter. "Can no one do anything?"
Chunky, with sudden determination, threw off his coat, and started on a run for the river. Dodging the Professor"s outstretched hands, Chunky sprang into the water.
With a roar Dad hurled the rope toward the fat boy. The guide had no time in which to fashion a loop, but he had thrown the rope doubled.
Fortunately the coil caught Chunky"s right foot and the lad was hauled back feet first, choking, half drowned, his head being dragged under water despite his struggles to get free.
The instant they hauled him to the bank the Professor seized the lad and began shaking him.
"Leggo! Lemme go, I tell you. I"m going after Tad!"
Stacy Brown was terribly in earnest this time. He was fighting mad because they had pulled him back from what would have been sure death to him. They had never given Stacy credit for such pluck, and Ned and Walter gazed at him with new interest in their eyes. It was necessary to hold the fat boy. He was still struggling, determined to go to Tad"s rescue.
In the meantime their attention had been drawn from Tad for the moment.
When they looked again they failed to find him.
"There he is," shouted Ned, as the boy was seen to rise from the water and plunge head foremost into it again. Tad did not appear to be fighting now.
"He"s helpless! He"s hurt!" cried the Professor.
"I reckon that"s about the end of the lad," answered Nance in a low tone. "There"s nothing we can do but to wait."
"I see him again!" shouted Walter.
They could see the lad being tumbled this way and that, hurled first away from the sh.o.r.e, then on toward it. Nance was regarding the buffeted Pony Rider keenly. He saw that Tad was really nearing the sh.o.r.e, but that he was helpless.
"What has happened to him?" demanded the Professor hoa.r.s.ely. "Is he drowned?"
"It"s my opinion that he has been banged against a rock and knocked out. I can"t tell what"ll be the end of it, but it looks mighty bad.
There he goes, high and dry!" fairly screamed Dad, while his whiskers tilted upwards at a sharp angle.
Tad had been hurled clear of the water, hurled to the dry rocks on which he had been flung as if the river wanted no more of him. The watchers began to shout. They danced about almost beside themselves with anxiety.
No one could go to Tad"s a.s.sistance, if, indeed, he were not beyond a.s.sistance.
A full twenty minutes of this nerve-racking anxiety had pa.s.sed when Dad thought he saw a movement of Tad"s form. A few moments later the boy was seen to struggle to a sitting posture, where he sat for a short time, both hands supporting his head.
Such a yell as the Pony Rider Boys uttered might have been heard clear up on the rim of the Grand Canyon had there been any one there to hear it. Dad danced a wild hornpipe, the Professor strode up and down, first thrusting his hands into his pockets, then withdrawing and waving them above his head. Stacy had settled down on the rocks with the tears streaming down his cheeks. Stacy wasn"t joking now. This emotion was real.
They began to shout out Tad"s name. It was plain that he heard them, for he waved a listless hand then returned to his former position.
"That boy is all iron," breathed the admiring guide.
The noise of the river was so great that they could not ask him if he were hurt seriously. But Tad answered the question himself a few minutes later by getting up. He stood for a moment swaying as if he would fall over again, then staggered to the wall, against which he leaned, still holding his head.
"He must have got an awful wallop," declared Dad.
Shortly after that Tad appeared to have recovered somewhat, for he was seen to be gazing up over the rocks, apparently trying to choose a route for himself.
"How can he ever make that dizzy climb in his condition?" groaned the Professor.
"We"ll see. I think he can do anything," returned Nance.
Tad walked back and forth a few times, exercising his muscles, then turned toward the rocks which he began to climb. He proceeded slowly and with great caution, evidently realizing the peril of his undertaking, but taking no greater chances than he was obliged to do.
Little by little he worked his way upward, Now and then halting, clinging to the rocks for support while he rested. After a time he looked down at his companions. Nance waved a hand, signaling Tad to turn to the right. Tad saw and understood the signal and acted accordingly.
Once he stood up and gazed off over the rugged peaks, sharp knife-like edges and sheer wails before him. There seemed not sufficient foothold for a bird where he was standing, and though a thousand feet above the river, he seemed not to feel the height at all nor to be in the least dizzy.
It was dangerous work, exhausting work; but oh! what self-reliance, what pluck and levelheadedness was Tad Butler displaying. Had he never accomplished anything worth while in his life, those who saw him now could but admire the lad"s wonderful courage.
They hung upon his movements, scarcely breathing at all, as little by little the lad crept along, now swinging by his hands from one ledge to another, now creeping around a sharp bend on hand and knees, now hanging with nothing more secure than thin air underneath him, with face flattened against a rock, resting. It was a sight to thrill and to make even strong men shiver.
For a long time Tad disappeared from view. The watchers did not know where he had gone, but Nance explained that he had crept around the opposite side of the b.u.t.te where he had last been seen, hoping to discover better going there, which Jim was of the opinion he would find.
This proved to be the case when after what seemed an interminable time, the Pony Rider once more appeared, creeping steadily on toward the trail above the broken spot.
This went on for the greater part of two hours.
"He"s safe. Thank G.o.d!" cried the guide.
The Pony Rider Boys whooped.
"You stay here!" directed the guide. Nance began clambering up the rocky trail to a point from which he would be able to talk to the boy.
Arriving at this spot, Dad waited. At last Tad appeared, dragging himself along.
"Good boy! Fine boy! Dad"s Canyon is proud of you, boy!"
Tad sank down, shaking his head, breathing hard, as the guide could see, even at that distance. After a time Tad recovered his wind sufficiently to be able to talk.
"What happened to you?" called Dad.
"I got a b.u.mp. I don"t really know what did occur. The ropes are all washed away, Dad. I don"t know how I"m going to help you up here now that I have got up. Aren"t there any vines of which I could make a ladder?"
"Nary a vine that"ll make a seventy-five-foot ladder."
"Then there is only one thing for me to do."
"What"s that?"
"Hurry to the rim and get ropes."
"I reckon you"ll have to do that, kid, if you think you"re able. Are you much knocked out?"
"I"m all right. Tell them not to worry. I may be gone some time, but I shall be back."