"And the first thing we've got to do," his companion told him, "is to look for shelter. Under these big trees we might find a place to keep dry, for there's one that's hollow right now; but the danger of its being struck by lightning is too great for me to risk."

"Whew! We're in for it, I expect!" cried Will, who apparently had received quite a severe shock upon making this sudden discovery, when up to the time that loud thunder clap startled them neither of the boys had suspected anything.

Frank began to look hastily about him. He knew what he wanted to find above all things, and fortunately the country around that section was capable of producing such a safe shelter.

"Hurry along this way, Will!" he called out. "If I remember rightly I noticed some outcropping ledges back a little bit. We may be lucky enough to find shelter under a shelf of rock."

"That's a good idea, Frank," admitted Will, as he tried to keep close on the heels of his hurrying comrade.

"If the rain will only hold off ten minutes, even less, we ought to get to that rocky section, unless I miss my guess," Frank threw back over his shoulder.

They pushed on with all their vim. Meanwhile it grew very dark and forbidding. Will could not remember ever to have seen the day swallowed up in the gathering shades of night so quickly before. It appalled the boy, for he did not possess the same unconquerable nature as Frank.

One crash of thunder followed another in rapid succession. The very earth under their flying feet seemed to quiver with the concussions.

Lightning shot downward with such vivid flashes that it fairly blinded them; so that Will's soul was filled with awe.

"Frank, oh, Frank!" cried the boy in the rear.

"All right, Will, what is it?" replied the other, who kept glancing back at very brief intervals to make sure his chum still ran at his heels, for he feared that should they ever be separated in that gathering gloom it would be impossible for them to come together again.

"Do you think we can make it?" demanded the other, with a touch of despair in his voice, for the situation looked frightfully appalling to Will.

"Sure we will!" he was immediately a.s.sured in Frank's most cheery fashion. "Right now I can see the first of the rocks. Given two more minutes at the most and we'll be able to crawl under a shelf, and lie there as snug as two bugs in a rug."

Frank did not feel any too sanguine himself, but he would not let Will know of any fears he possessed regarding the possibility of their not finding the shelter among the rocks after all.

A terrific peal of thunder drowned their conversation for a brief interval, but they were pushing resolutely forward all the while.

Frank was straining those keen eyes of his to some purpose. He knew they were at the border of the rough, rocky section now. If only they could run upon the friendly outcropping shelf which he remembered to have seen at the time they pa.s.sed before, they would find shelter.

All would have been easy enough had they been given ordinary daylight so as to look around them. The gathering gloom made it very difficult to see twenty feet away with any degree of certainty. Frank was being guided partly by instinct, and the knowledge that he had taken his right bearings to start with.

"Frank, I felt the first drop of rain!" shrilled Will, filled with a new fear, for he was afraid that his pet camera would be ruined should they be soaked to the skin, which was a calamity terrible enough to break his heart.

Frank did not need to be told of the falling rain, for he, too, had discovered the ominous fact even before his chum announced it. There was nothing to be done but set their teeth grimly and bear it. The rocks were now all around them. If only they could discover that friendly ledge!

"Yes, it's beginning to come down now, because I can hear it in the treetops over that way, can't you, Frank?"

"What you hear is mostly the wind, Will; but that sounds bad enough, I own up. There, I remember that broken tree making a bow above the path we followed. And the ledges were close by it, I'm dead certain.

Come this way, Will; chances are we'll run on them right off."

This cheery talk buoyed up the despondent spirits of the other, and he set his teeth grimly, determined to hold out to the end. Another flash that almost blinded them, quickly followed by a resounding bellow of thunder, announced that the downpour of rain must be very close indeed; doubtless it would descend upon them with that furious gale of wind.

"Hurrah! here they are, Will! Brace up, old fellow, for it's going to be all right!"

So dense had the darkness become that Frank found himself relying almost wholly on the electric flashes for his illumination. The last brilliant charge had disclosed the fact of the near presence of the ledges which he had kept in mind so long.

Fortune favored them in that Frank was able to discover the largest ledge close at hand. It stood out far enough to allow of their crawling well underneath, where the rain, no matter how it was driven by the furious wind, could not reach them.

Even as the two fugitives dropped down on their hands and knees, and started to creep under the flat rocks, the rain began to fall heavily. In fact it seemed to Will that hardly had his feet been drawn under the accommodating shelter than the heavens opened, and the floods descended.

The two boys pushed well in and made themselves as comfortable as their condition allowed. This of course was not saying much, for they were sitting on hard rock, with their heads touching the shelf that hung above.

It was utterly impossible for them to exchange a single word just then, owing to the riot of sound that came from beyond. The thunder bellowed, the wind roared, trees could be heard at intervals crashing to the ground, and the rain beat a terrible tattoo on the rock that sheltered them.

So fast did the lightning play that they were glad to close their eyes lest in staring into that dazzling glare they should find themselves blinded.

Will managed to push up close to his chum. Somehow it seemed to give him more confidence just to feel the contact. Thus he knew he was not alone in the midst of that hurricane, really the worst he had ever experienced in all his life.

The time wore on. Once the dreadful storm seemed to have pa.s.sed, and it even grew considerably lighter. Will plucked up fresh hope, believing the end had come, and that they could soon be on their way to camp, to reach there at dusk perhaps.

Frank, however, began to see things in a different light. He noted that there were signs telling of a return of the gale. The second spell might be as bad as the first; and if it kept them confined there under the rocks until night came on it would be utterly out of the question to think of setting forth.

So Frank, foreseeing fresh trouble ahead, braced himself to meet it.

They would have to make a virtue of necessity, and stay there all night. That was not a pleasant outlook, but then things might be a lot worse, Frank told himself.

Sure enough the gloom once more descended, and again the thunder took up the old rumble and crash. Perhaps the wind was not as furious as was the first rush, and the rain may have been less in quant.i.ty, but the second part of the storm was severe and terrifying enough.

"If it wasn't that we've had an even worse spell," Will managed to call out, "I'd think this was the worst ever. Frank, what's the answer to all this? How are we going to get back to camp?"

"Walk, of course," replied the other; "it's the only way."

"But even now the afternoon must be pretty well gone," objected Will.

"It certainly is," he was told.

"We don't know the exact way to camp," continued Will, "the night is coming on in a hurry, the trees are dripping with water, and in lots of places they have been thrown down every-which-way by that hurricane. We never can make camp to-night, that's sure!"

"I'm glad you understand that, Will, because I was just going to break it to you. No, it would be foolish for us to try such a thing. We've been pretty lucky as it is to escape getting wet jackets. We'll have to put in a long night here the best we can."

"Whew! it will be a terribly long one, too," declared Will, listening to the retreating growl of the thunder. "And the worst of it is the weather usually turns cold after one of these storms. We'll get to shivering to beat the band. I wish we could make a fire some way or other."

"I'm afraid that's going to be out of the question," Frank told him.

"Of course we have matches in plenty, but we couldn't get dry wood after that deluge. You see we had no chance to look around us for a dead tree, and we have no camp hatchet along with us to do any chopping."

"Oh, well, I guess we can stand it, Frank. Morning is bound to get here sooner or later. We've gone through as bad times as this more than once, haven't we?"

"I should say we had," Frank immediately replied, anxious to buoy up the spirits of his companion as much as possible. "And for one thing, that wind isn't going to reach in under here to any extent."

"You're right about that," admitted Will; "it comes from back of the ledge, now that it's shifted into the west. Surely we have lots to be thankful for. But of course we'll feel pretty hungry, because neither of us is used to going without supper, you see."

At that Frank laughed.

"I thought I'd do it for a joke, first of all," he remarked; "you see I'd been reading about the way the Indians make their pemmican by drying venison, and how they carry a handful in their pouches when they have a day's journey afoot to make, munching on it once in a while."

"But what has that to do with us, Frank; we have no pemmican in camp, have we?"

"No, but that piece of dried beef made me think of it, and for fun I carved off a small hunk, intending to spring it on you as a joke if you happened to say you felt hungry, I've got it here in the pocket of my coat."