CHAPTER VI.

ENGINEERING IN A TREETOP.

What the patrol leader had called out, as he hurriedly returned to them, gave the other three scouts a great surprise. They stepped back a few paces and strained their eyes in the effort to locate the object mentioned by Hugh.

It is always much easier to see and do things when some other person has first marked out the way. Columbus had an experience along those lines, you will remember, after he returned from discovering America. The jealous Spanish courtiers and sea commanders sneeringly declared that his task had been very simple, as all he had had to do was just to “keep on steering straight westward”!

So it was that when Hugh had found out the truth and imparted the information to the rest of the boys, Billy and Arthur quickly discovered, also, the unlucky aeronaut.

“Show me, won’t you?” begged Bud, who appeared unable to locate the exact spot in his excitement. So they bent their heads close together, allowing him to get the range of their extended fingers.

“There he is,” said Billy, “just where that last fair-sized branch shoots out toward the left. Look hard, and you’ll be sure to see something caught in the crotch. That’s the man, Bud. And believe me, it must have been a whopper of a jar when he struck there, after being dragged by that runaway balloon.”

“I wonder if he is dead?” said Arthur in an awed half whisper.

“Don’t you believe it,” Billy declared.

“But he might be, Billy,” added Bud, taking sides with Arthur, “because, as you just said, he must have been slammed into that crotch terribly hard.”

“But you never saw anybody that was dead move his arm, did you?” demanded the positive Billy.

At that the others showed signs of surrender.

“Course not,” remarked Bud; “and if you saw him do that, he must be alive. What do you think, Hugh?”

“I’m not so sure as Billy,” returned the patrol leader, “but I thought I saw his arm move once. That might have been only when it slipped down from some position. But I’m going to find out right away, boys.”

“Hugh’s going to climb the tree,” suggested Bud quickly, taking it for granted that this was what the other meant when he made his last remark.

“But whether the poor fellow’s alive or not, how are we going to get him down from away up there?” asked Arthur.

“Leave that to Hugh,” said Billy wisely.

The first thing Hugh did was to glance hastily around him, as though looking for something he expected to need.

“Oh! it’s that long rope he brought with him to use in the cliff-climbing experiments!” exclaimed Arthur, as he saw the other bend down and secure the article in question, which he must have dropped when he arrived under the tree where the wandering balloon had met its final Waterloo.

Billy looked relieved. His faith, then, had not been misplaced, for Hugh now had means in his possession for lowering the unfortunate aeronaut. Just how the boy would go about it, of course Billy did not exactly know; but he smiled, and took a new interest in the matter.

“Somebody cut away that rope from the basket,” Hugh directed first of all.

“You mean the one that was trailing down?” asked Bud, as he immediately produced his pocket knife, the blades of which he always kept in prime condition.

“Yes, be quick, Bud. I’m going to knot it to my rope, if it seems stout enough,” the leader told him. “That ought to give me a long enough line to double from the ground up to that place.”

“Oh! I see how you mean to do it, Hugh!” observed Billy, wagging his head as though understanding Hugh’s solution for the puzzle.

Already Bud had cut the trailer rope just where it was fastened to the overturned basket. As he did so, he could not fail to notice that a number of seemingly valuable instruments, such as are used by aeronauts in their daring voyages among the clouds, were scattered about, and that a little box lay near them.

“Here it is, Hugh!” he remarked, coming up on the run with the line coiled on his left arm, where he had hurriedly placed it while on the move.

“Stretch it out, while I make a safe knot, one of the best we had to learn before we could be tenderfeet,” Hugh told him.

Bud hastened to cast the coils down, while Billy picked up one end and ran off with it.

While the leader was undoubtedly in something of a hurry, he did not mean in the least to neglect his duty; and never was a knot made more amply secure than the one that united those two ropes. Hugh tested it to his heart’s content, and then appeared satisfied that it would easily bear all the weight that must be placed upon it when they started to lower the aeronaut.

“Next thing is to examine the rope from the balloon, to make sure it’s all right,” Hugh said; “I know mine is up to standard, because before I came out to-day I tested it with a weight three times as heavy as Billy here, and that’s going some, let me tell you.”

He quickly ran over the rope, looking for defects and straining at each portion. In this way possibly precious seconds passed; but it was Hugh’s policy that “haste often makes waste.” He agreed with the backwoods Congressman, Davy Crockett, that it was always better to be sure he was right before going ahead.

“All right, is she, Hugh?” asked Bud eagerly, as the other reached the end of the second rope.

“Yes,” came the reply; “and now I want you fellows to keep hold of this end down here. You understand what I expect to do, don’t you?”

“I reckon it’s to pass the rope over a limb above the man, and then fasten it snug and tight to his body the best way you can,” replied Billy.

“Then we are to haul in the slack, till we get a tight rope,” added Arthur, taking up the thread of the explanation.

And finally Bud broke in with his share,

“And after you manage to get him started out of the crotch, which we’ll help by pulling on the rope, why, all we have to do is to lower away, you keeping him free from other branches till we get him safe down.”

“That’s the ticket,” announced Hugh; “and I’m off!”

Most boys are good climbers, and Hugh was especially at home in a tree. He could do all sorts of agile tricks, using some convenient limb as his trapeze, when he felt in the humor for exercising. But just now he was out for business, and once the boys had boosted him up to the first limb, in order to hasten his progress, he had but one object in view, which was to reach the spot where the man who had been torn from the basket of the balloon was caught and held fast.

The others stood below, in as good positions as they could find, where they might watch his progress. It was hardly a minute after his start before Billy announced that he had arrived close to the dark spot that told of the unlucky aeronaut’s presence.

“Hurrah! he’s up to the place, boys!” he announced joyously; and then, elevating his voice until you would have thought he was trying to address some one on a distant mountain peak instead of a chum just sixty feet away, he roared out: “Say, how is it, Hugh? Can you make it with the rope?”

There was a brief silence, and they understood that the comrade aloft was investigating to ascertain just the best way to manage. Billy guessed what might be the trouble, for at that distance from the ground the branches must be rather small, and Hugh was finding some difficulty in selecting one that could be depended on to bear a good weight, above the burden to be lowered.

Waiting for a signal from above, the three scouts bunched together down on the ground. Billy and Bud had taken possession of the rope, but Arthur did not seem to object. Perhaps he realized that there was only room for two to retain a firm hold, and as both fellows were stout and strong, they could manage better alone. Besides, Arthur had a little scheme of his own which he wanted very much to put through; and he was patiently waiting his opportunity.

“Ready down there?” called the boy in the treetop.

“Yes. Tell us what to do first, Hugh!” answered Billy promptly.

“Strain on the rope, gently, you know, at first. We’ve got to raise him a foot or so before I can swing him out of the crotch. Start away hauling, boys!” came down from above in distinct tones.

So Billy and Bud took in what small amount of slack there was, and, when the rope became taut, they started to pull. The resistance was considerable; but then, Hugh was up there engineering the job and they had the utmost confidence in his ability to run things.

“Stop! That’s enough!” sounded suddenly. “Now wait a second till I get things free. Start lowering very slowly, remember, and no slipping! Go on! That’s the way, boys! A little more, now! Careful, you’re going a bit too fast! Easy! Easy now!”

So encouraging and admonishing, Hugh kept along with the descending burden. This was necessary because the branches were thick, and there was always a possibility of things getting clogged.

Now they could plainly see the man held in the folds of rope. He seemed to dangle there just as Hugh had caught him in the loop, and it was utterly impossible to tell whether he were alive or dead. The boys experienced a strange feeling at the very thought of lowering a _body_ out of a treetop; surely such a happening could never before have come the way of any Boy Scout.

Both Billy and Bud stuck to their duty manfully, however, despite their intense anxiety. They had been given their share in the rescue work by the patrol leader, and both were firmly resolved that no accident should happen through any fault on their part.