"No," agreed Douglas, gathering up the rope of the bob-sled. "Well, we might as well begin our upward hike."
"Wait a minute!" cried Don. "Did you hear a crash just then?"
None of them had. "Must have been some snow falling, or an old tree crashing down," Terry suggested. They turned to go back but once more Don stopped them.
They stopped and were silent for a long interval, but there was no sound. Vench laughed.
"Don's hearing things," he said. "We'll have to get him back to the top of the hill right away."
"No, I tell you I did hear something," insisted Don. "Listen, there it is again!"
This time, clearly and distinctly on the night air, a call echoed through the woods.
"Help!" cried a faint muffled voice. "Help, somebody!"
"Someone is in trouble!" cried Vench, as the startled cadets looked at each other in the dense gloom.
"Yes, and we had better get on the job," announced Don, with decision. "The call came from over this way."
"Shall we leave the bob here?" Douglas asked.
"Might as well," Jim nodded. "It will only be in the way. We can easily find it when we come back."
There was no sound from the one who had called out a few moments ago, but the boys had the direction in mind, so they struck off into the tangle of the woods without further delay. They had gone about two hundred yards when they came upon a country road which had been cut through the woods.
"I wonder if the call came from this road?" mused Don, as they halted in perplexity.
"I think it did," Terry replied. "I don't believe that it was in the woods. Shall we split into two parties?"
"You mean one go up and one down the road?" Don asked.
"Yes. You and I will go east and Vench, Doug and Jim can go west. We'll sing out if we see anything."
This plan was agreed to and the boys set out, Terry and Don running along the road in the general direction of Portville. But they had not gone far before someone whistled back of them.
"That's Jim," Don said, as they halted. "They must have found something. Let's go back."
Accordingly, they turned around and ran back, passing the spot where they had split and continuing on until they came to a bend in the snow-covered road. Around this bend they found the other boys gathered around a small automobile, the nose of which was smashed against a tree. The three boys were busy around the car as Don and Terry hastened up. By the faint light of the one headlight that was burning the two boys could see that a figure was hunched over the wheel of the club coupe. The others were trying to pull the man out and finding it a trying task, for the driver was tightly pinned by the wheel, which had rammed into his stomach.
