CHAPTER XVIII

WAITING

“Jiminies,” I said to Dub, “I’d like to see those Indians if they’re real, wouldn’t you?”

“Look,” he said.

We all looked where the boy movie hero was going, with Pee-wee alongside him. The three young men just sat where they were, in a row--they didn’t seem so much interested. As long as they didn’t follow those two, we didn’t either. I guess maybe we were afraid they would think it wasn’t fair. Maybe we were so surprised that we didn’t, I don’t know. Anyway we just stood there watching. Dub sat down on a rock, then Sandy and I did, too. The three young men were talking to each other. Jiminies, I didn’t know what to make of it all. But anyway I wasn’t worrying because I knew Pee-wee could do anything that Daredevil Daraway Bravado of the Demon Deep, or whatever his name was, could do. “Don’t worry,” I said to Dub and Sandy. “They’re not going to do anything so very wonderful, he’s just kidding Pee-wee.”

I’ll tell you how it was in that end of the chasm. It was wide where that camp was. But just beyond that it was very narrow with the sides straight up and down. If you’ll look at the map you’ll see how it was. At the east end of the chasm, that’s where you should look. Where the brook comes in do you see where it goes to a point? Well that’s where I mean. Near that point it’s very narrow and high. If you go up on top there and drop a stone it makes a funny sound, a kind of an echo. That’s where they went, those two. It’s easy to go up where the chasm is wide.

We could see the two of them standing up on top right near the edge. I don’t know how wide it is up there--maybe it’s about seven or eight feet wide. Maybe ten, I don’t know. Tom Slade says the higher up you are the narrower a place like that seems. He says you have to be careful with your calculations when you’re high up. I should worry, I guess he knows. Anyway about maybe ten feet below the top of that place, there’s a crazy tree growing out from one side--it’s all crooked like. It looks all bushy. I guess brush and stuff like that fell down on it from the top, maybe. Way up there, even, we could hear Pee-wee shouting away. When he gets excited it always seems as if he’s mad. I heard him say something about Silver-plated Foxes (that’s my patrol) and Sandy thought he was telling that other fellow he was only a silver-plated hero, because that’s the way he talks.

All of a sudden I noticed those three grown up fellows--they were talking excited together. Just then a couple of them jumped up and came out in the middle of the chasm and one shouted, but the fellows up on the top didn’t pay any attention. Pee-wee was waving his hands and talking as loud as he could and all the while the grown up fellow down in the chasm was shouting trying to make the two of them listen. Then the other one jumped up and started running for all he was worth. He ran up where it was wide and not so steep and all the while he was shouting, “_Cut it out, don’t let him do that._”

Anyway it was too late. All of a sudden Pee-wee backed away so he could get a head start and _good night_, if he didn’t go running to the edge! It seemed to me as if he tripped. Anyway he jumped and he just missed the other side of the precipice. I felt kind of hollow--sort of cold like when you’re in an elevator and it stops short. Then the three of us went running pell-mell into the narrow part of the chasm. The two grown up fellows ran there too. But Pee-wee wasn’t on the ground there. I almost stepped on a little bird without any feathers on it that was sprawling around on the rocks. Then I saw another one flopping around.

“Look,” Sandy said. He was holding a little branch of a tree with a nest on it. And then I knew that the whole business had broken off from the tree that stuck out away up above us. I could hear a voice up there calling _help, help_, but it didn’t sound like Pee-wee. All of a sudden a rotten piece of a branch fell on my head and we heard a crackling sound up there.

One of those big fellows shouted, “Hang on up there. Get hold of two limbs so if one breaks you’ll have the other. Hang on and don’t get excited.”

I knew Pee-wee had caught in the tree, lucky for him, but I knew it was rotten and might break with him any minute.

I said, “Where’s that canvas that was around your lean-to last night?”

One of the men said, “What canvas?”

“Don’t you know there was a canvas?” I said.

I went running for all I was worth to the lean-to, but I couldn’t find any canvas anywhere. Dub came running after me and we pulled all the brush from the roof of the robber’s den or whatever it was, and dragged it into the narrow place right under the tree.

“There’s a coat of mine in there--hurry up,” one of the men said.

Sandy ran and got the coat and came back dragging some more brush. We spread the brush right about under the tree, covering up the rocks and making the ground as soft as we could. Then the two grown up fellows held the coat stretched out between them ready to try and catch Pee-wee if he fell. Dub and Sandy got hold of the other two sides of it. It was a pretty good way and that’s what I wanted the canvas for. Only an overcoat isn’t big enough. I was wondering what became of the canvas. Because with just an overcoat if Pee-wee should fall all of a sudden it would be too quick for them to get in just the right place to catch him. Even while they were holding the coat spread out there was a sound like wood splitting up above. Then a kind of a forked shape piece of wood came down, but it didn’t land in the coat.

“Let’s stand just where that fell,” Dub said.

All of a sudden there was a loud crackling sound and I heard a scream. But only some leaves and twigs came down. A couple of them landed in the coat.

“Clinch your fingers and hang on hard,” one of those men said. “Double your fists tight. Something is starting to bust up there.”

Just then there were more loud screams and Pee-wee yelled, “_Help, help!_” But kind of it didn’t sound like Pee-wee.

One of the men said, “I’m afraid the whole blamed rotten tree is coming down.”

Just then, _oh boy wasn’t I scared_, I heard a voice shouting, “I’m coming down.”

They stretched the coat out tight and kept looking up so they could get into the right spot quick. But nothing happened, only a twig or something fell down on Sandy’s face. It hit him plunk in the face because he was looking up.

One of the men said, “Never mind that, keep your eyes peeled up there and when you move, whatever you do don’t trip on these blamed rocks.” He kicked some of the brush we had laid there out of the way so his feet wouldn’t catch in it.

It made me feel kind of cold and kind of funny in my throat, the way the four of them stood there waiting and just looking up.