Mr. Fabian felt encouraged instantly by the wonderful acting of the little man who could thus speak and smile and joke, in face of what was now thundering and rumbling overhead—ever coming nearer the group huddling under the cliffs.
“Nothin’ like tobac to soothe the feelin’s when you’ve had a punctured rib or tire! If Maggie could only enjoy a whiff of this old friend of mine, she’d soon have got over her pain.”
That irritated his wife so that she snapped back: “Yes, a whiff of that would have killed me outright!”
The others laughed uneasily but the tense spell caused by the imminent danger was broken. Mr. Alexander puffed contentedly, but during this short exchange of conjugal sentiments of husband and wife, the slide rolled onward, and the roar now became so deafening that no one could hear a thing other than the thunder of the avalanche. Polly was the only one who really comprehended the full danger, but she showed no fear or nervousness, although she was doubtful as to the outcome of this mountain disaster.
Rocks, roots, and all kinds of débris half-frozen in snow now rolled over the cliffs and dropped over down the sides into the ravine that ran along the other side of the narrow roadway. At the quaking caused by the onrush of the avalanche, the automobiles rattled like tin toys and the cowering humans who tried to push still farther back into the rocky wall, watched the fragments of rock fall from overhead and pile upon the roadway.
The whole dreadful occurrence, thus far, had not taken more than a few minutes since the first pebble struck the roadster, but now was heard a terrible splitting and crashing as if two planets were colliding; then the very cliff where they sat seemed to roll over and shake the earth. The frightened tourists clung to each other and screamed in a panic, but the worst was really over.
The last horror was caused by the sudden impact of the land-slide when it struck the solid wall of rock that rose sheer up back of the cliff which skirted the road for tourists. This wall diverted the avalanche and threw it along the gully which had been made by other preceding snow-slides in the past. Had the present slide been able to crush the rocky wall and come straight on down the mountain sides, nothing earthly could have spared the tourists from being powdered under the grinding of rock and ice.
The roar and tumult of the avalanche continued a few minutes longer, but it gradually died away and Mr. Fabian stood tremblingly upon his feet and tried to see which way the slide had gone.
“Humph! ‘A miss is as good as a mile’!” quoted Mr. Alex.
“Maybe; but don’t you go out to survey until we-all are sure this shower of ice and trash is safely past us,” advised Polly.