"An earthquake?"
"Hardly that, Lanky. So far we haven't felt any movement to the mountain here. That wind, though, is whipping things something fierce. See that big branch of a cedar tree going off like a balloon! It's more like a cyclone than anything else, but I never heard of them in a mountain district."
"Grab hold of something!" bellowed Lanky, alarmed by the growing darkness and the wild clamor. "Did you ever see such a country for big things happening—first a cloudburst, and now—this whooper of a tornado!"
"I'm bothered most about something else," admitted Frank, though he had to say it in the ear of his chum to make himself heard.
"What is it, Frank?"
"A landslide!" came back, to make Lanky shiver afresh.
"Great Cæsar's ghost! do you reckon we're going to be caught by a slip of the mountain side, Frank?"
"I hope not, Lanky. But we're unfortunate to be in the path of that kind of turnover."
"Humph, I always said I'd be willing to try anything once," Lanky admitted, as if in contrition. "But say, I draw the line at getting in the path of a slide that could bury a whole town like Columbia. Frank, can't we do something to better our chances?"