“They’s jest one chanct in a hundred we kin make it,” he called, as he started toward the tree.
Another flash burned through the cavernous gloom, and David saw his companion stooping among the fallen branches. Then he heard the chain jump taut with a snap, followed by myriad rustlings as the horses leaned to the creaking collars. He could hear Cameron’s voice urging them easily as they stumbled on the slippery corduroy. With a groan the tree swung parallel to the trail. The horses stopped.
“She’s a-comin’,” called Jim. “If they’d only light up ag’in so I could resk snakin’ her a leetle—”
With the flash that followed, Cameron called to the horses. Ross could hear them shouldering through the underbrush at the edge of the swamp.
“E-e-easy, thar!” Cameron backed the team and unhooked the chain. “Reckon we kin jest about squeak by,” he said, as he swung the hard-breathing horses to the wagon again. “She’s lettin’ up some, but that ain’t sayin’ much.” After some delay he found the axe which he had dropped after driving out the king-pin. He drove it in place again and climbed to the seat.
“When we git by this piece of corrugated cussedness, I calc’late we’ll make a noise like as if suthin’s comin’,” he remarked, wiping his forehead with a dripping hand. “Kin you see what’s the time?”
“About nine-thirty. I looked when you were unhitching. I won’t have time to change my clothes at the hotel.”
“Reckon not,” replied Jim, as he swung the horses round the crowding branches that whipped their flanks and snapped along the side of the wagon. In a few minutes they were on the natural roadbed again, swishing through pools of muddy water, and clanking over the stony stretches at a brisk trot.
A tiny red glow appeared on the edge of the night. It crept higher and higher as they jingled toward it. Presently it was a lamp, framed in the cottage window of the first habitation on the outskirts of Tramworth. Then more lights sprang out of the darkness, gleaming faintly through rain-blurred panes.
A dog ran out of a dooryard as they passed, barking raucously. Smoke growled his disapproval. It was bad enough to get wet to the hide without being insulted by an ill-bred animal whose valor was proportionate, in adverse ratio, to the proximity of the front gate. Smoke knew that kind.