But what the New York lawyer wrote was fated not to reach the ears of the party so deeply interested, just then at any rate. A scream smote the air, coming from some point around the nearest bend of the river road, and accompanying this the boys heard a wild voice, and the confused trample of a horse’s hoofs!
CHAPTER XI
A TIME FOR QUICK THINKING
“What is that, Frank?” cried Ralph, in excitement.
“Sounds like a horse running away!” replied the other.
Ralph saw his comrade’s face turn ashy white. Then he remembered something Frank had said only a short time before.
“Oh! what if it is Lef’s horse!”
Frank only groaned, and shut his teeth hard together. But at the same time he started to run forward. He had only taken half a dozen paces, when something shot around the bend.
“There it is, Frank!” shouted Ralph, ready to do anything in his power to assist his friend, yet hardly knowing just what to attempt first.
He thought of swinging his arms above his head wildly, of waving his hat, as he had read of cowboys doing when they wished to turn runaway steers; but then the river road at this point was narrow, and if the frightened animal ever swerved, it was almost certain to topple over into the water, which was both deep and swift.
“It’s them—Lef and Minnie!”