Billy's advance arrangement went somewhat awry, for it was Schneider's red top showing first in the light over the brink, and Roque was the one hauled, almost a dead weight, to solid ground and safety at the end of the swaying rope, looped under his armpits. The secret agent's right hand rested in an improvised handkerchief sling, and his face was set in the pallor of pain. But how strangely gentle had grown the piercing fixity of those hard-speaking eyes when turned upon the rescuers who had dared so much in a feat wonderful to record in aviation annals. "You might have waited until daylight," he chided, his voice freighted with emotion, "and with less risk to yourselves." "And the morning found a couple of maniacs cavorting around this wilderness. No, sir, the rest cure wouldn't have been the right prescription for us. Eh, Henri?" "He's as right as a trivet, Mr. Roque; we took the proper tonic," assured Henri. "A man's size swallow for all that," was Schneider's amen. CHAPTER XVII. A MIGHTY STONE ROLLER. CAREFUL examination revealed that Roque's injury was not of broken bones, but a severe sprain, due to the twisting suspension from the bush which had checked his fall. Schneider had gone down feet foremost, breaking through the growth until he struck the ledge. "I didn't expect Mr. Roque so soon," he said, with a face-wide grin, "but I knew him by his legs, and gave him an open-arm reception." "Until Schneider reached for me," related the secret agent, "I thought there was nothing underneath but the bottom of nowhere. It was certainly a curious accident, all in all, the two of us tumbling as we did, stopping in the very same place, and both of us alive to tell it." "There was mighty near a good third on your peculiar track," interposed Henri, "for Billy had set his heels for that very slide which you two took." "If it had not been for Henri," asserted Billy, "there is no telling how deep I would have gone." "And if it had not been for both of you, there was hardly more to look for than a miserable end for Schneider and me. We could have proceeded neither up nor down, for there was nothing to put hand or toe into for many rods either way." Roque did not propose that the boys should lose any of their dues for gallant achievement by other belief than that two lives had actually depended upon their prowess. When Schneider intimated that he thought it was time for another attempt to find material for a fire, there were two young rebels emphatically against the proposition. "We'll move where there is wood in sight," was the joint declaration. Roque agreed that a change of base was desirable, and a flight from the mountain top was in immediate order.