“Seems to me that spring is around here some place,� Roy declared, pulling his horse up suddenly.
“Let’s separate, and see if we can find it,� suggested Teddy. “I’ll go down the mountain a way, and you go up. If you find it, yell, and I’ll do the same if I locate it. If we miss it, we can meet here in ten minutes.�
Roy nodded his approval of the plan. He turned his steed to the right, and started up the incline at an angle. Teddy watched him for a moment, and then, licking his dry lips, faced in the opposite direction. Chirping to his pony, he took a firm grip on the reins and started the descent.
Riding down an incline is never as easy as riding up. Teddy realized this, and he guided the pony slowly down Mica Mountain. As he rode, he turned his head from side to side, seeking for the spring. The boy was getting more thirsty every moment.
He came to a spot which seemed more treacherous than the rest. The footing was of loose stone and very steep. Teddy seriously debated whether it would not be better to dismount and lead the pony.
Fate, in the guise of a hornet, decided the problem for him. As the hornet thrust his poisoned lance into the pony’s flank, the horse gave a snort of pain and leaped forward. Teddy made a grab for the saddle horn, missed, and went flying through the air. He landed face downward on a bed of knife-like stones, and, as the horse regained his balance and trotted off, Teddy, with a wild yell, went sliding down the mountainside!
CHAPTER IX
FACING A MOUNTAIN LION
As Teddy Manley rolled and tumbled down the incline, sudden stabs of searing, burning pain shot through his body. There was one thought paramount in his mind—that he must stop himself soon or be dashed to death on the rocks below. His fingers sought to grasp some solid object, that he might cling to it; but with a sob the boy realized that there was nothing here to seize except loose stones which mocked his efforts by falling upon him in an avalanche.
The thought came to him that perhaps this was the end—that he had escaped all the other dangers of life, only to be killed, ignominiously, so it seemed to him, by a fall down a mountain side. Strangely enough, he could look at this picture with clear imagination, even while his arms were pressing vainly the earth as he shot downward. Never, it seemed, had he been able to think so clearly. Flash, his pony, where was he now? Teddy hoped whoever had him would treat him well. He deserved it. Flash was a good bronc. None better. If only Roy hadn’t— That small tree just below—reach out and grab it—hold on—hold on—
With a breath-taking jolt, Teddy hit the tree and clutched desperately at its slim trunk. For a second that seemed an eternity, he clung there, hoping. Then a sharp crack, the tree gave way, and Teddy slid down, down—