Another quarter of an hour went by. To Dick and Leander it seemed an age. Again they cried out, but the top of the hole being smaller than the bottom, their voices were as muffled as though they were prisoners in a huge bottle.
"This is truly a pickle," groaned Dick, as he threw himself on one of the fallen rocks. "I must say, I'm stumped."
"So am I."
"I'm going to try throwing stones out of the hole," said Dick, after another interval of silence. "Anything is better than doing nothing."
Both boys began to shy out all of the stones they could pick up.
"We're really making the hole deeper," observed Leander, when suddenly the opening above them was darkened, and they saw a negro boy looking down at them with eyes as big as saucers.
"Hullo, help us out!" cried Leander, eagerly; but at the sound of their voices the negro boy took to his heels as fast as' he could go.
"He's gone!"
"Perhaps he has gone for a rope."
"More than likely he was scared to death. He'll go home and say he saw a ghost."
Another quarter of an hour went by. Then they heard footsteps approaching, and two stal-
