but he could not leave it below, as that would be putting it into
the hands of the poachers if they should return too soon.

In vain he twisted and squirmed, he could get no farther, and
moreover he was afraid the gun might go off by accident in his
struggles. When he found that he could not possibly go up, he
decided to go down; but he found, to his horror, that he couldn't
do that either. There he stuck, and an angrier man than Angus
Niel it would have been hard to find. A projecting rock punched
him in the stomach, and when he pressed back against the rock
behind him, to free himself, he scraped the skin off his back.
Casting prudence to the winds, he howled with pain and rage, and
the sound, carried up through the narrow passage, echoed in the
cave like the roar of a lion.

The children, meanwhile, had kept in hiding, and when they heard
these blood-curdling sounds, they at first did not know what
caused them, because, of course, they could not see what was
happening below, but they knew very soon that they were not made
by a wild animal because wild animals do not swear.

"It's Angus, stuck in the secret stairway," Alan said, smothering
his laughter. "He's too fat to get through!" He crept to the edge
and peeped down the hole. There, far below, he could see the top
of Angus's head and the muzzle of his gun.

The Chief was a boy of great presence of mind. He backed hastily
away from the hole and ran to the fall, snatching up the pan as
he passed. This he filled with water and, rushing back, he
instantly sent a small deluge down upon the head of the hapless