Then came a jerk that fairly took Chinook’s feet from under him, and with a louder subterranean growling the Big ’Quake came. Dead trees came crashing down, huge boulders pounded down the mountainsides and shook the ground anew, and a slab of canyon wall was jolted loose along a fault line and went splashing into the roiling river. Then came hail in great, driving sheets, and it was over. The cubs ducked to shelter as the icy pellets struck about their ears. There was an overhanging rock ledge that had withstood the wild confusion.
When they peeked to see what had happened, they found a great crack, as deep as a sapling pine and so wide they wouldn’t have ventured to leap across, where before had been level earth. It was an altered landscape in which they found themselves.
Then a comic sight struck their eyes. It was Cougar, whose den must have been shaken to pieces in all this tumult. The great cat was racing along with his tail tucked trembling between his legs, and his ears laid flat against the hail, while, to judge from the way his body hugged the earth, he was too terrified to stand. His nose was pointed down canyon towards the Coast, and at the rate he was speeding, Chinook thought it would be safe to count on his never coming back. As his own fright dissolved at the feel of the earth once more firm beneath his feet, Chinook’s little black eyes began to twinkle. His wish had come true.
THE END