"Oh, fo' de lan's sake, ma.s.sa, don' you go to confustigate dis yar----"

But in a flash Rob had clapped his hand over the garrulous black's capacious mouth. Jumbo's first fear that his last hour had come was speedily relieved as he saw who it was.

Rob, after a quick look about, a.s.sured himself that Jumbo's words had not aroused any of the sleepers. Then, taking his hand from the negro's lips, he quickly slashed his bonds. In another instant Jumbo, too, was at liberty.

"Wha' you go fo' ter do now, Ma.r.s.e Blake?" he whispered.

"Hush! Not a word. Follow me," breathed the boy.

"Dis suttingly am a pawtuckitus state of affairs," muttered the black, "don' see no mo' how we can git out uv this lilly place dan er fly kin git out of a mo'la.s.ses bar'l."

However, he followed Rob, who, on tip-toe, approached the clump of bushes where he knew the wire he had observed that afternoon lay hidden. With beating pulses he poked about in the scrub-growth till, suddenly, his fingers encountered the filament of metal. The most dangerous step of their enterprise still lay before him. What would happen when he pulled it? Would the ladder come down with a crash that would awaken their foes, or----

Rob lost no time in further indulging his nervous thoughts, however. He gave the wire a good hard tug. Simultaneously, from out of the blackness above them, something came snaking down. Rob dodged to avoid it.

He could have cried aloud with joy as, in the faint glow cast by the fire, he saw that, right in front of him were the lower rungs of a rope ladder. It was padded at the bottom so that its descent, abrupt as it had been, was almost noiseless. Rob noted, too, with inward satisfaction, that the ropes seemed strong and in good condition.

"Up with you, Jumbo," he ordered in a tense, low whisper.

The black turned almost gray with apprehension.

"Ah got ter clim' dat lilly ladder lak Ma.s.sa Jacob in de Bibul?" he whimpered.

"You certainly have, or----"

Rob made an eloquent gesture toward the camp of Hunt and his gang. The hint conveyed proved effectual.

"Mah goodness, dis am suffin' dis c.o.o.n nebber thought he hab to do,"

muttered Jumbo, "but all things comes to him who waits--so heah goes!"

He set his foot on the ladder and, rapidly ascending it, soon disappeared in the darkness above. As soon as the slackness of the appliance showed Rob that the negro was at the cliff summit, the boy prepared to follow him.

But as he set his foot on the lower rung the man by the fire awakened with a start. Before Rob, climbing like a squirrel, could mount three more steps he became aware that his prisoners were missing.

s.n.a.t.c.hing up his rifle he ran straight toward the rope ladder. The next instant Rob, with a hasty glance backward, saw that the weapon was aimed straight at him. His blood chilled as he recollected having heard Dale that afternoon boasting of his ability as "a dead shot."

CHAPTER XV.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN.

For only an instant did Rob remain motionless. Then, as if by instinct, he suddenly crouched. It was well he did so. A bullet sang above his head as he clung, swinging on his frail support, and flattened itself with an angry "ping!" against the rock wall above him.

The report brought the rest of the sleeping camp to its feet. In an instant voices rang out and hastily lighted lanterns flashed. Rob, taking advantage of even such a brief diversion, sprang upward. But with a roar of fury, Dale sprang to the foot of the ladder. Desperation gave Rob nimble feet. He literally leaped upward.

In his mind there was a dreadful fear. The ladder was hardly strong enough to bear two. By placing his weight on the lower part of it, it was Dale's intention to bring him down to the ground. That in such an event he could escape with his life, seemed highly improbable.

But fast as he went, he felt the ladder quiver as Dale's hold was laid upon it from below. At this critical instant a sudden diversion occurred.

From right above Rob's head, or so it seemed, a voice roared out through the night.

"Tak' yo' dirty paws off'n dat ladder, white man, or, by de powers, it's de las' time you use 'em!"

It was Jumbo's voice. But Dale answered with a roar of defiance. He shook the ladder violently. Rob felt himself dashed with sickening force against the cliff-face. But all at once there was a warning shout.

Something roared past his ears, just missing him.

"Haids below!" sung out Jumbo as he watched the huge rock he had dislodged go crashing downward.

It missed Dale by the fraction of an inch. But his narrow escape unnerved the fellow for an instant. In that molecule of time Rob gained the summit of the ladder, and Jumbo's strong arms drew him up to safety beside him.

"Well done, Jumbo," he exclaimed.

"Oh, dat wasn' nuffin'," modestly declared Jumbo, "if dat no-account trash hadn't uv leggo I'd have flattened him out flatter'n dan a hoe cake. Yas, sah."

"I guess you would, Jumbo. But there's no time to lose. Come, we must be getting on."

"One ting we do firs' off wid alacrimoniousness, Ma.r.s.e Blake," said Jumbo.

"What's that?"

"Jes' len' me dat lilly knife you take frum dat pestiferous pussonage below an' I shows yoh right quick."

Rob had thrust the knife into his scout belt. He now withdrew it and handed it to the negro. With two swift slashes, Jumbo severed the top strands of the ladder. A crash and outcry from below followed. Rob, peeping over, saw that Dale, who had just begun to mount after them, was the victim. He was rolling over and over, entangled in the strands of the ladder, while Stonington Hunt stood over him in a perfect frenzy of rage.

"Now den, Ma.r.s.e Blake, ah reckin' we done cook de goose of dem criminoligous folks," snorted Jumbo as he gazed. "He! he! he! dey is sure having a mos' fustilaginal time down dere."

"I guess they'll have plenty to think over for a time," said Rob, rather grimly; "come, let's set out. Have you any idea in which direction the camp lies?"

"No, sah. But I raickon if we des foiler de lake we kain't go fur wrong."

"We must go toward the south, then. See, there's the Scout's star, the north one. The outer stars in the bucket of the dipper point to it."

"Wish ah had a dippah full ob watah. I'm po'ful thirsty," grunted Jumbo.

"We'll run across a stream before very long, no doubt," said Rob.

With these words the lad struck off through the forest of juniper and hemlocks. The moon had not yet risen, and it was dark and mysterious under the heavy boughs. Jumbo held back a minute.

"Come on. What's the matter, Jumbo?" exclaimed Rob.

"It look powerful spooky in dar, Ma.r.s.e Blake."

"Well, I guess the spooks, if there are any, will do us less harm than that gang behind us," commented Rob.

Jumbo, without more words, followed him. But he rolled his eyes from side to side in evident alarm at every step. On and on they plunged, making their way swiftly enough over the forest floor. From time to time they stopped to listen. But there was no sound of pursuit. In fact, Rob did not expect any. With the ladder destroyed, there was not much chance of the Hunt crowd clambering over the cliff tops.

At such moments as they paused, Rob felt, to the full, the deep impressiveness of the forest at night. Above them the sombre spires of the hemlocks showed steeple-like against the dark sky. The night wind sent deep pulsations through them, like the rumbling of the lower notes of a church organ. All about lay the deeper shadows of the recesses of the woods. They were shrouded in a rampart of impenetrable darkness.