So the camp was abandoned in much less time than it had taken them to arrange things. There was great need of haste, too, it soon proved.
"Oh! listen, Frank!" cried Paul, as he turned toward his chum, who managed to keep close by, ready to give a helping hand should the need arise.
"Yes, I hear it, Paul!"
"It sounds like a river broken loose!" continued the other, in an agitated voice.
"Just what it is, I reckon—a fresh river—the flood!" Frank told him.
"Faster, everybody!" called Mr. Wallace, conscious of the magnitude of their danger.
"Yep, move lively, 'case she's a-tearin' down the mountain like greased lightning!" Zander Forbes called out; lapsing into cowboy lingo, college graduate as he claimed to be.
As Jerry had to be in the van to serve as their guide, Zander had taken it upon himself to tow the pack-pony as well as his own mount. This was a tremendous responsibility under such conditions, and few punchers there were who could have managed it; but then Zander seemed to be little short of a wizard among animals.
The thunder still bellowed, while the rain fell in almost solid sheets, so that in all there was a hurricane of sound around the fleeing party. Still above this noise they could plainly distinguish that awful roar of rushing waters on the rampage, than which there can be no more terrifying sound possible.