er one of those foolish questions!" laughed Tommy. "We're not
talking at all, little man!" he continued. "We're getting our shoes
shined! What are you doing in there?"

"We're not in here at all!" replied Sandy. "We're up on the Masonic
Temple, watching a Columbia Yacht Club regatta!"

"Aw, cut it out!" advised Will. "Are you boys all safe?"

"Sure we're all safe!" answered Sandy, "George has a grouch because he
hasn't anything to eat here, but the rest of us are all right!"

"Where's Bert?" asked Frank.

"In here!" was the answer.

"We brought a surgeon for him," Frank went on.

"He doesn't need a surgeon now!" replied George. "What he needs more
than anything else is a cook!"

"We'll give him two cooks!" shouted Tommy.

"Why don't you hurry up and get us out?" demanded Bert, in a weak voice.

"If you remain in there a few weeks," Tommy laughed, "perhaps you'll get
so thin you can crawl out of this crack!"

"Well, get to digging!" replied George.

"And for the love of Mike," exclaimed Sandy, "when you get to digging,
don't drop any rocks on top of us! We have a little hole here now about
four feet square!"

After making a study of the situation and advising with Doctor Pelton as
to the proper course to pursue, the boys began prying at a large rock
which lay almost on top of the shelf upon which the boys had ridden to
the thicket. The rock moved, but grudgingly.

"If you can move that rock," the doctor said, "I think the one just
above it will slide down and leave an opening large enough for the boys
to pass out of. It ought not to be much trouble to move it!"

Notwithstanding the doctor's predictions, the boys worked at the rock
with their home-made handspikes for an hour before it broke loose and
rattled down upon the shelf just above the fire.

"Come out of that now," cried Tommy stooping down and looking into the
cavern. "Come on out, now!"

Sandy was not long in obeying instructions. George came next and then
the two lads turned about and lifted Bert out of his cramped position.

"That pigeon hole we've been occupying is about four inches square!"
Sandy declared. "And I'm just about dead for a good long breath of fresh
air! I never knew before how good air tasted."

Bert glanced around the circle of faces and smiled amusedly as he saw
that his chum was there with the rest.

"Where'd you go, Frank?" he asked.

Frank hastened to the lad's side and bent over him.

"I headed for the cabin," h