“This is awful,” moaned Emma.
No one gave heed to her words. Even Stacy Brown had lost his voice, for he had not uttered a word since Tom ordered him to help with the tents. In the meantime, so busily engaged had the members of the party been that they had forgotten all about Lieutenant Wingate. Hippy was having a strenuous time trying to keep the ponies from breaking their tethers and stampeding. Such a result would have been fatal to them, for in the darkness the animals undoubtedly would have plunged down the mountain-side to their death.
After the storm had raged for a full hour there came a sudden blast that seemed as if it were tearing the mountain apart. So severe was the shock that the Overlanders were almost stunned. Emma toppled over and lay moaning, while the others struggled to pull themselves together. As for Hippy Wingate, with the blast he crumpled up in a heap, struggled for a few seconds, got to his feet, then fell forward and slid away into the darkness.
The big blast was the last for that night. The storm, from that moment, abated and the clouds slowly drifted away. The stars began to show and then the skies cleared.
Then for the first time since he had gone to look after the horses, the thought of Hippy occurred to the Overlanders.
“Hippy!” cried Nora, springing up in alarm.
“The storm is all over, Hippy,” shouted Tom Gray. “You may come in now.”
There was no reply.
“Hippy!” called Grace.
“Oh, something has happened to him,” wailed Nora, starting to run towards the tethering ground.