For a moment a sense of impending1, if not actual, disaster held them all motionless. Then Tinny cried:
“Come on! We’ve got to get Ned!”
But Jerry, swinging his horse across the trail, barred for an instant the progress of Mallison.
“Wait!” shouted Jerry above the howling of the wind and the pattering of the rain. “Don’t ride your horse there! The trail may have gone down in a landslide2!”
“That’s right!” Tinny answered. “Poor Ned!” All their hearts were heavy with fear.
Bob and the mine foreman pulled back their horses when they saw Tinny and Jerry dismounting.
“We’d better go up there—the edge of the place where Ned went over—on foot,” said Jerry.
[214]
With the downpour of rain, the fierceness of the lightning and the terrific force of the thunder seemed to be lessened3. It was as though the flashes and explosions had torn a hole in the sky to let the flood down, and, having accomplished4 this, the electricity was held in abeyance5 for a time. But in an instant all of them were drenched6, so torrential was the fall of rain.
“Hold the horses, Bob, while we go forward and look,” suggested Tinny, handing the reins7 of his animal to the stout8 lad, while Jerry did the same with Cromley.
Cautiously the two made their way down the rain-drenched trail to the spot where Ned had last been seen. But in the fast-gathering blackness they saw no cavern9, no hole where the road had dropped away or where it had been covered in a landslide. And the theory of a landslide lost its plausibility10 when they recalled that they had heard no sound of shifting rocks and trees.
Before them, winding11 its way down Thunder Mountain, was the trail, in as good shape as that part which lay behind them, and over which they had traveled since finding the old miner.
“What in the world happened?” murmured Jerry, in somewhat of a daze12. “Where did Ned disappear to?”
Tinny was about to answer that he did not know, or, at best, knew only as much as Jerry[215] could gather from what they saw, when above the roar of the storm a voice suddenly hailed them.
“Hey! What’s the matter with you fellows? Why don’t you come in out of the wet?” some one wanted to know.
Then Tinny saw Ned standing14 in what seemed to be the entrance of a cave in the side of the mountain. Back of the lad could be observed his horse. Their position, snug15 and sheltered, was in grim contrast to that of the others.
“Are you all right, Ned?” cried Jerry, his voice trembling from the reaction on finding his chum safe.
“Right? Of course I am! Why didn’t you come in here? I thought you were right behind me. It’s a dandy place, dry as a bone, and you can’t get struck by lightning in here.”
“He’s right,” said Tinny. “And we’ll have more and worse lightning soon, if this storm is like all the others on Thunder Mountain. Come on back, Jerry. We’ll all go into that cave.”
Returning to Bob and Cromley, who had remained with the horses, Jerry and Tinny soon explained that Ned was safe in a sheltering cave.
“Gosh, that’s good!” murmured Bob. “We can build a fire in there and dry out—and eat!” he added, as a sort of afterthought.
“In a big cave, is he?” asked Cromley, as he[216] climbed rather stiffly into his saddle, for his recent fall had jarred him. “I didn’t know there was a cave on this side of Thunder Mountain.”
“Neither did I,” replied Tinny. “I shouldn’t be surprised to find that this cave had been uncovered by a landslide. I mean to say that the cave was always there, of course, under the mountain, but the entrance to it was blocked. A landslide would open the mouth.”
“We’ll soon find out,” said Jerry.
Through the rain, which seemed to come down harder than ever, they rode over the edge of a little hill on the trail until they were in front of the cave in which Ned had taken shelter.
“Come on in—it’s fine!” cried Ned.
Tinny looked about before he would permit this, however. He wanted to see if his theory would prove, and he wanted to make sure that it would be safe.
“That’s what happened here,” he said. “There’s been a landslide within the last day or two. It carried away the dirt, rock and trees and bushes that were in front of the entrance to this cave. I don’t believe any one knew of its existence before.”
“I saw it, all of a sudden, as I was riding along,” explained Ned, as his companions rode in—for the entrance was high enough to permit this, after Mallison had signified that it seemed safe enough. “I thought this was one of the[217] shelter places you spoke16 of, Tinny, and I supposed you were right behind me.”
“No,” said the mine owner, “I never knew about this. It’s a new one to me. Where I thought we could get shelter is at the old cabin less than a mile from here. But this will do very well—better in fact. There’s no danger from lightning in here.”
As he spoke there was another flash, like the terrifying ones that had snapped about before the rain came, and a great crash of thunder reverberated17 down the mountain slopes.
“It’s doing its best to get at us, though,” remarked Jerry, as he slid out of the rain-soaked saddle, an example followed by the others.
“It can’t get in here,” chuckled18 Ned. “Say, isn’t this a great place, though? It’s a made-to-order barn, house and everything. Get the saddles off and we can build a fire. There’s a lot of dry wood.” He indicated some off to one side. Just enough of the fast-disappearing daylight, gloomy as it was, remained to show the heap of wood. It seemed to have been deposited there by some subsiding19 flood, and when the travelers took out their flashlights and pressed the switches, in the gleams it could be seen that once the cave had held water. The marks of the different depths, or levels, were visible on the rocky walls.
“Now we can have a meal,” remarked Bob, as[218] he began to loosen the pack he transported on his horse. Each one carried part of the camping outfit20, consisting of blankets, food, and cooking utensils21. “Will it be safe to make a fire in here?” he asked.
“Why not?” inquired Jerry. “There’s nothing much to burn.”
“There’s a good draft in here,” declared Ned. “The air is good and fresh. Go on, Chunky, light up. Some hot coffee will go to the right spot.”
The saddles were taken off and the horses tethered further back in the cavern. Its extent was not even guessed at, but it seemed large. Cromley found some dried grass, probably carried in and left there when water had entered the cave, and this served as fodder23 for the horses, the animals seeming to relish24 it.
Stripping off most of their wet garments, the refugees gathered about the genial25 blaze Bob started, and while their clothes were hanging about on pinnacles26 of rock to dry, a meal was gotten ready.
As Ned had observed, there was a good draft in the cave, and the smoke went up, losing itself in the vastness of the vaulted27 roof. Near the entrance the wind blew in, bringing rain with it.[219] Also the sound of the storm could be heard.
While the coffee was boiling Jerry and Tinny, wrapping blankets about them, blankets that had been kept dry inside the rubber-covered saddle roll, walked to the cave entrance.
As they reached it and looked out into the almost complete darkness, they were startled by a great flash of lightning. In its glare they saw a strange sight.
Across the trail was the side of a hill, and as the two looked part of this hill seemed to separate and slide down, being loosened by the rain or because lightning shattered some holding rock.
“Another landslide!” cried Tinny. “I’m glad we aren’t out there!”
“Look! Look!” shouted Jerry. “See the blue rock! Blue rock, Tinny!”
He pointed28 to a mass of earth and stones sliding down into a gulch29, and in the vivid glare of the lightning it could be seen that the rock was as blue as indigo30!
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1
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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2
landslide
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| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
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3
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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5
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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6
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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7
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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9
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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10
plausibility
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| n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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11
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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12
daze
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| v.(使)茫然，(使)发昏 | |
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13
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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14
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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15
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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18
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
subsiding
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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20
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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21
utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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23
fodder
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| n.草料；炮灰 | |
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24
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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25
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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26
pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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27
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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28
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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29
gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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30
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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