It was pitch dark in the woods, though now and then a flash of distant lightning came to momentarily relieve the gloom.

Jerry started in the direction he believed the sounds came from.  Now and then he paused to listen, and in this way managed to keep going straight.

“Hello! where are you?” he cried, finally, as a dreadful silence fell upon the forest ahead, a silence that made him very anxious indeed.

Immediately a voice called out wildly: 

“Oh, here I am, under this fallen tree!  Please come and help me!  I can’t hardly move, and I think my arm is broken.  Don’t leave me to die!”

“It’s all right.  Don’t worry, for I’m not going to run away.  Speak again so I can get to you.  It’s awful dark under here.”

The other took him at his word, and commenced to rattle on, saying all manner of things, simply to direct his rescuer to the spot.

“It’s Andy Lasher, as sure as I live,” said Jerry to himself, as he recognized the other’s voice, despite the agony in it.

So making his way forward he finally came to the tree under which the other was pinioned by some of the branches.

“I can’t see you, it’s so dark here.  Wait!” he said aloud.

“Oh! please don’t leave me now; I’ll go out of my mind, sure!”

“I don’t mean to; but I must have some light.  Now, I happen to have the stub of a candle in my pocket, and the wind has died out, so I think it will burn if I stick it down low.  I’ll get you out somehow, Andy,” said Jerry, cheerily.

He struck a match.

“Why, is it you, Jerry?”

“Sure thing.  See there, that burns all right, I guess.  Now, I’ll put it here in the shelter of this stump, while I look into things.”

“You won’t leave me here, Jerry?  You ain’t that kind of a feller, I know?”

Andy was evidently alarmed.  He could not but remember that there had been bad blood between this lad and himself for a long time.  Indeed, some recent events that were not at all to his credit, must have cropped up to make him anxious.

“Not much.  Say, you just had the escape of your life, I tell you.  This heavy limb almost hit you in falling.  If it had, then it would have been one, two three for you.  You seem to be held down mostly by small branches,” observed Jerry, after he had made a critical examination.

“Do you think you can get me out, Jerry?” asked the other, very humbly.

“Easy.  Just you wait, and when I tell you what to do, go ahead.”

With that he started operations.  By breaking off the smaller branches one at a time, he gradually weakened the network that was binding the prisoner.  Every obstacle, however small, that was removed, made things easier.  And finally Jerry gave a pull at the imprisoned boy.

Andy let out a howl of pain, but all the same he came free.

“My arm!”

“I’m going to look at that now, right away.  If it is broken the sooner you get back to Centerville and see a doctor the better; but, somehow, I’ve got a notion it’s only badly bruised.  Here, bend it back, so I can slip it out of the sleeve.”