Slipping back as quietly as he had come, Pepper started on his away again.  When he had gotten far enough from the place so that, he thought, it would not attract the attention of those there, Pepper sounded a call on his bugle.

“Perhaps the boys are out looking for me when I didn’t get back on time,” he said, sounding the call from time to time as he went on, but which brought no response.

“Thank goodness!  I’ve got to the end of the woods,” he exclaimed a little later, when he saw an open space not far ahead of him.

Hurrying forward he found himself, not, as he had expected, on the road, but on the top of a high bluff which descended almost perpendicularly for a hundred feet to a roadway, which was a welcome sight.  Just below him, looking over the edge, he saw that there was a broad ledge about ten feet down and that, below this again, the cliff sloped at an acute angle to another narrow ledge, but below this again there was seemingly nothing but the bare side of the cliff.

“No use trying to get down that way,” he soliloquized.  “I’ll just follow along the edge and see where I come out.”

Turning, he was about to step back when the earth, where he was standing, gave way, sliding down to the ledge below and carrying him with it.

“Goodness!” he cried, picking himself up and shaking off the dirt with which he was covered.  “I wonder what next?  Now, how am I going to get out of this?  I doubt if I can get back up there, and it don’t look inviting below.”

It was impossible to climb up the side of the cliff, as it was almost perpendicular, but upon the small ledge below he noticed that a stunted tree was growing from the rocks.

“I wonder if I can catch that tree,” considered Pepper, preparing to slide down to the ledge.  “I guess it ain’t a question of can, I’ve just got to do it, and I won’t be any worse off there than I am here, and I may be a good deal better.”

Carefully calculating his distance he let go, sliding down until he reached the ledge where he clutched a tree and held on until he could gain a footing.  The ledge, which was about a foot in width, ran but a short distance in either direction, but to the right, a few feet below, was another level space, which Pepper judged he might gain.  Moving cautiously along until he was over the point he let himself down to the lower ledge.  Following this along he was able to gain another, and so on, slipping at times and tumbling, until he finally came out upon a small plateau at the foot of the hill.

“Thank goodness!” he cried as he got up and shook himself.  “I’ve got to the bottom, anyhow.  I hope there isn’t anything more coming my way or I won’t get that message there to-day, and I’ve got to move pretty quick, as it is.”

He had gone but a short distance when he heard a loud “hello,” and looked up to see a strange boy in the Scout uniform standing on the rocks not far above him.