“‘Yes, and tired of waitin’,’ I answered.
“‘One—two—three!’
“As he said the last word, and it was so faint that I could hardly hear him, him and me fired our pistols at the same time, as you sometimes see at a foot race, though thar they ginerally have but the one pistol.
“You understand how it was,” added the trapper for the benefit of Herbert Watrous: “them shots war fur the avalanche. Bein’ as we war startin’ on a foot race, it war right that we should have a fair start, and the only way of doin’ that was by settin’ off some gunpowder. If the avalanche was hangin’, as it seemed to be, the shakin’ of the air made by our pistols would set it loose and start it down the valley after me. But onless it war balanced just that way the broadside of a frigate wouldn’t budge it.
“Howsumever, that war the lookout of the avalanche and not mine, but, bein’ as I meant it should be fair and square, I waited after firin’ my pistol, lookin’ and listenin’. I didn’t mean to start in ahead of the thing, nor did I mean it should get the best of me. As like as not it wouldn’t budge, and then of course the race war off.
“For a second or two I couldn’t hear nothin’ but the moanin’ of the wind away up where the other feller had climbed. Then I heard a sound like the risin’ of a big storm. It war low and faint at first, but it quickly growed into the most awful roar mortal man ever heard. Just then my friend shouted:
“‘Here she comes! Off with you!’
“I give myself a shove out over the top of the snow, curvin’ about, so that when I reached the middle of the gulch I started downward. In that second or two I seen the whole avalanche under way, hardly a hundred yards off, and it war comin’ for me like a railroad train, and goin’ faster every second.
“You can make up your mind that I war doin’ some tall travellin’ myself.
“Whew! boys, I can’t tell you much about that race. The avalanche didn’t flatten out and shoot down the gorge in loose masses, as I’ve seen ‘em do, but just stuck together and come like one solid half of the mountain itself.