CHAPTER XXXI.
A DANGEROUS TUMBLE.
"Pull up quick, boys! The rope is on fire!"
Such was Dick's agonizing cry as he made his dire discovery.
"The rope is on fire?" repeated Bob. "How did that happen?"
"I must have set it on fire with my torch. Quick! or it will part and I'll have a bad fall."
"Hoist away, all hands!" sang out old Jacob, and exerted all of his strength.
The old tar and the others meant well, but it would have been much better had Dick been lowered to his original resting-place. Yet up he came, until he was almost within reach of the top of the fissure.
Then came the dreaded parting of the burning rope.
Down shot the boy, down and down.
His feet struck the ledge; but he could not save himself, and with a scream that rang in his companions' ears for days afterward, he went over the ledge, down and down, until nothing more could be heard of him.
