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I told you so," cried Fred. "I can draw yards and yards in, and yards and--" He was suiting the action to the word, hauling more and more of the rope towards him, when there was an end to the rattling sound, and one dull flap. "What is it, Fred?" "I--I'm not sure." "I am," cried Scarlett, in agony. "Why, you've dragged at the rope till it has come untied." "I'm afraid so," faltered Fred, in a husky voice. "And nobody saw us come here," cried Scarlett. "Oh, Fred, Fred, we shall be buried alive!" CHAPTER SIX. UNEXPECTED AID. For a few minutes the two lads were so overcome by the horror of their position that they stood there in silence, afraid to move. Then Scarlett recovered himself a little, and said huskily-- "Pull the rope again, and make sure." "I'm sure enough," said Fred, sulkily. "It's all down here. How could you have tied it so badly?" "I don't know. I thought it was tight. Ah! there it is again." There was a whizzing, whirring sound heard above the plash and whisper of the water down below, and for a few moments the boys remained perfectly still. "Why, I know what that is," cried Fred. "Pigeons. I've often seen them fly into the holes of the rocks. They build in these places, and roost here of a night." "Wish I was a pigeon," said Scarlett, sadly. "We shall never be able to climb up that hole." "We shall have to try," said Fred, "unless we can find a way down. Here, let's creep to the edge and look." Scarlett hesitated for the moment, but it was a work, of stern necessity; and together, using the greatest caution the while, they crept on hands and knees to the edge of the great shelf, and looked over to see that the light came in from some opening away to the right, to be reflected from the wall of rock opposite, and shed sufficiently strong a dawn to let them see fifty feet below them the creamy foaming water which flowed in and then ran back. "Don't see any way down," said Fred, rather despondently. "This place sticks right out over everything." "But we can get down by fixing the rope up here, and sliding down." "I'd forgotten the rope," said Fred, with a deep sigh. "But suppose we do get down. What then?" "Why, we can find our way to the mouth of the cave, and look out and shout at the first boat that comes by." Fred brightened up. "I say, Scar," he said cheerfully, "what a clever fellow you are! Let's try at once." "Hadn't we bet
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