“Open out! Let him through!” shouted Longback and Socker; while Elmer and Pud, terrified at the impending tragedy threatened by their trick, simply stared at the scene in silence, their faces white, their mouths agape.
But in the instant that had followed his discovery of the little girls starting up the roadway, Harry had made up his mind what to do—and acted.
With a sudden pull, he jerked the sled from its course, headed it between two of the posts which supported the guard-rail—and the double-runner leaped over the embankment at a spot less than six feet from where the group of girls and the two children stood, panic-stricken and crying.
CHAPTER II—JED BROWN FINDS A PROTECTOR
Several of the other boys who were members of Rivertown High, among them Paul Martin and Jerry Post, had reached the turn just in time to see the sled as it took its mad leap over the embankment.
For a moment, they, as well as the girls, gazed in silence at the spot where the double-runner with its lone passenger had disappeared. Then, as with one accord, they broke into lusty cheers at the aversion of the tragedy which had seemed inevitable.
But their joy was quickly checked.
“Don’t cheer! You don’t know what has happened to that nervy chap!” shouted Paul Martin.
And as his words brought silence, he and Jerry rushed to the edge of the embankment, while the others followed.
Fortunately Harry had landed in a pile of underbrush, and as the white-faced boys and girls lined the rail he was picking his way out, none the worse for his experience save a few rents in his clothes.