As the girls neared the Second Peak their anxiety increased. They could see men hurrying about near the mine and they urged their horses to greater speed. However, one man, chancing to look in their direction, seemed to be much concerned because of their rapid approach and, seizing a red flag, he climbed out on the over-hanging rocks and waved frantically, while another, leaping to his side, motioned the girls to stay back.
They then drew rein and Margaret exclaimed: “What can it mean, do you suppose?”
“I think they must be going to blast,” Virginia replied, her face white as she shaded her eyes and gazed intently in the direction of the seemingly excited men.
“But, how can they blast if Malcolm, if anyone is buried in the mine?”
“I don’t understand,” Virg told her, “but I’m not going to worry more than I can help until I know that there is really something to worry about.”
“One of the men is mounting a horse now,” Margaret said. “Perhaps he is coming to explain to us what is happening.”
This surmise proved true, for they saw a cowboy approaching them on a racing mustang. “It’s Rusty Pete from the Slater Ranch. At least our suspense will soon be over, for he will tell us what it all means.”
It was very evident by the expression on the face of the cowboy that he dreaded telling the message he had been sent to convey. So pre-occupied and concerned was he that he jerked upon the reins of his mustang in a manner which his steed wrongly interpreted and the result was that it reared and plunged and arrived in the neighborhood of the girls in so nervous a state that it was with difficulty quieted long enough for the rider to speak.
“What have you to tell us, Pete?” Virginia eagerly inquired, when at last the restive horse was for a moment standing with all four feet upon the ground, although it continued to whistle and paw the sand with its right fore foot.
Rusty Pete was evidently at a loss for words to express his message. “Your brother, Miss Virginia,” he began, “that is, they’re going to blast,” he hurried on as though he couldn’t complete the sentence he had started, “and they sent me to say, don’t come nearer, till they signal.”