the upper chasm!

The white youth rose to his feet, his eyes steadily fixed upon
Wabigoon's. His face was deathly pale.

"John Ball!" he repeated, as if he had just heard what the other had
said. "John Ball!" What seemed to him to be the only truth swept upon
him like a flood, and for a score of seconds, in every one of which he
could hear his heart thumping excitedly, he stood like one stunned.
John Ball! John Ball returned to life to find their gold for them, to
tell them of the tragedy and mystery of those days long dead and gone!
Like powder touched by a spark of fire his imagination leaped at
Wabi's thrilling suggestion.

Mukoki set to work.

"Hide!" he exclaimed. "Hide thees--thees--thees!" He pointed about him
at all the things in camp.

Both of the boys understood.

"He must see no signs of our presence from the top of the fall!" cried
Wabi, gathering an armful of camp utensils. "Hide them back among the
cedars!"

Mukoki hurried to the cedar bough shelter and began tearing it down.
For five minutes the adventurers worked on the run. Once during that
time they heard the madman's wailing cry, and hardly had they finished
and concealed themselves in the gloom of the old cabin when it came
again, this time from not more than a rifle-shot's distance beyond
the cataract. It was not a scream that now fell from the mad hunter's
lips, but a low wail and in it there was something that drove the old
horror from the three wildly beating hearts and filled them with a
measureless, nameless pity. What change had come over the madman? The
cry was repeated every few seconds now, each time nearer than before,
and in it there was a questioning, appealing note that seemed to end
in sobbing despair, a something that gripped at Rod's heart and filled
him with a great half-mastering impulse to answer it, to run out and
stretch his hands forth in greeting to the strange, wild creature
coming down the chasm!

Then, as he looked, something ran out upon the edge of the great rock
beside the cataract, and he clutched at his own breast to hold back
what he thought must burst forth in words. For he knew--as surely as
he knew that Wabi was at his side--that he was looking upon John Ball!
For a moment the strange creature crouched where the stub had been,
and when he saw that it was gone he stood erect, and a quavering,
pitiful cry echoed softly through the chasm. And as he stood there
motionless the watchers saw that the mad hunter