“Oh! drive on, Tommy!” she cried. “I don’t want to look down there again. What a fearful drop it is! Hold the ponies tight, Tommy.”
“Pshaw, you are making a great adieu about nothing,” snapped Mary Cox.
“I’ll have a care, Nell; don’t you fear,” assured her brother.
Ruth was as serious as her chum, and as she had a quick eye she noticed a strap hanging from the harness of one of the ponies and called Tom’s attention to it.
“There’s a strap unbuckled, Tom,” she cried. “Do you see it hanging?”
“Good for you, Ruthie!” cried the boy, leaning out of his seat to glimpse the strap. “Here, Mary! hold these reins, please.”
He put the reins into the hands of The Fox and hopped out. She laughed and slapped them across the ponies’ backs and the beasts reared and snorted.
“Have a care what you’re doing, Mary Cox!” shrieked Helen.
“Whoa!” cried her brother, and leaped to seize the nearest pony by the bit. But the half wild animals jerked away from him, dashing across the narrow trail.
“Pull up! pull up!” shouted Tom.