We pulled until the noose tightened under Skinny's shoulders. Then we waded into the water as far as we dared and pulled steadily on the rope. Skinny scrambled along through the water, digging his finger nails into the bark, with Bill holding on to his collar as long as he could reach. By the time we had him out it had grown so dark that we hardly could see Bill, but we knew he was out there because we heard him say "great snakes." "Throw me the rope," he called. He put the noose around his own shoulders, and with our help was soon standing on the ground. "I swam her all right," said Skinny, "but I hadn't ought to have done it. Ma told me not to go swimming to-day." Just as he said that something seemed to shut us in. The light was blotted out and we stood there in the dark, scared and wet, wondering what was going to happen. We groped our way along until we reached the cave and crawled in through the water. I didn't like to do it because I knew that if the dam should give way the cave would be flooded. But we had made it stronger and we had the rope to climb out by at the upper hole, if the worst should come. The water didn't reach far into the cave, and soon we had a light, for we always keep candles and matches there. It didn't seem so scary when we could see, sitting down together on a piece of old carpet which the folks had given us, where we had sat many times before. What happened next, they say, was a cloudburst. Something burst, anyhow. Skinny had just grinned and said that he thought maybe it was going to rain, when it started. And rain! Say, we never had seen it rain before. It came down in chunks and pailfuls. Pretty soon the water began to creep farther into the cave, and we got out the rope and made ready to crawl through into the other part, if it should come much farther. But the dam held, and there we were, snug and safe, with our candle throwing dancing shadows, and up against one side of the cave, where we had hung it long before, our motto: "Resolved, that the Boys of Bob's Hill are going to make good." Then we heard a distant roar, different from anything we ever had heard before and different from any other noise the storm was making. It scared us because we couldn't think what it was. "Gee!" said Skinny. "What's broke loose, now?" "Great snakes!" I heard Bill say. "I wish I hadn't come." Benny didn't say anything, but he grabbed my hand and by the way he hung on I knew he was doing a lot of thinking. That roar seemed to be the end of the storm, for the rain stopped as quickly as it had come. It began to grow light again and somewhere in the woods we heard a bird singing. We were glad enough to get out into daylight once more and make our way back to the road. "Let's see what it was that roared so," I said. "It isn't going to rain any more and Skinny is nearly dry." We could see great patches of blue sky and knew that the storm was over.