Like a flash, both boys turned. What they saw caused their breath to stick in their throats and their hearts to beat madly.
The whole mountain side seemed to have been torn loose. Huge boulders were tumbling toward them. The few trees that dotted the landscape were uprooted and toppled with majestic force. The air was filled with flying pieces of rock!
Above all rose that sullen, deep-throated roar like a giant in anger.
CHAPTER II
A Missing Brother
“Ride!” Teddy yelled. “It’s a landslide! Watch out for—”
His words were drowned by a bo-o-o-m! that seemed to shake the mountain to its very base. Teddy wasted no more time in useless explanations. Wisely he gave Flash his head and let the bronco pick his own path down the treacherous incline.
As horse and rider catapulted toward level ground, Teddy’s first thought was for his brother. He turned swiftly in the saddle, and his heart gave a leap when he saw that Roy had disappeared. Frantically the boy peered through the haze of dust which hung over the landscape like a pall, but Roy was nowhere to be seen. Teddy knew it would be hopeless to yell, as he could never make himself heard over the crashing roar of the landslide.
With a silent prayer for his brother’s safety, the rider was forced to use all his skill to retain his seat in the saddle. Lucky for him that he had, as his father put it, “been born aboard a bronc,” else he must surely have been flung to the ground, to be seriously injured, if not killed, by the rocks and trees that were sweeping swiftly down the mountain side, almost at his heels.
Flash, his eyes white with fright, was leaping for safety like some wild animal. Now and then he would give a whinny of terror as a rock landed at his side with a thud. The chances were about even that the boy and his pony would avoid the falling stones. Yet, as each one hurtled by, it seemed certain that the next must strike and send the horse and rider crashing to the ground.