"I don't see what else he could have
done" sa'd Tanpa, the Guardian, her
fingers hysterically interlocking. "Some-@
body had to go up; and he 's the oldest
boy--a Patrol Leader. But, oh! I wish@
my husband were here. Run and meet
him, a couple of you!" She glanced appealingly
at the scouts. "Oh! do--and
hurry him back--back from the spring."

Meanwhile Stud had forgotten even his
backers in the feminine hearts below and
was banking all on just one trusty ally--the
headlight on his breast.

"Without the light, the little safety
lamp, I couldn't do-o it," he told himself.
"Gee! but it is as black in here as Erebus,
a Tinker's Pot, indeed--the blindest passage
-blindest bargain--I ever struck!
So--so sharp underneath, too!"

Yes, difficulty masked was in the
"bargain", yet he crept on over tapering@
ridges of rock that now and again buckled@
like teeth. But he knew by the parched@
sound of his own voice, as he shouted a
[[149]]

p148 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p149w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p150

v?