“Well, Ebeneezer, when I see you waste good tobacco like that, I know you are so unbalanced that you don’t know what you’re doing,” retorted Mrs. Alexander.
This remark caused a laugh and everyone felt better immediately. Then Mr. Fabian turned to the little man and said: “We had better see how much damage is done to the roadster. Perhaps it will have to be towed to the next stopping place.”
It took another good hour to overhaul the little car and even then it was found to be too badly damaged to travel under its own power. While the two men were trying to repair the car, the girls worked to clear away the stones and débris that encumbered and blocked the road. The large rock that had caused the accident to Mrs. Alexander’s car, could be avoided, with careful steering, if the other trash was out of the way.
Polly showed her companions how to construct rough brooms of the brush that had fallen over the cliff, and soon they were sweeping for dear life, with the queer-looking implements. But the brush-brooms did the work thoroughly, and when the cars were ready to continue on the way, the road was cleared.
“Prof., before we leave here, I think we ought to place a sort of warning on the other side of that awful heap and the chasms in the roadway that the avalanche caused. We might use the red-silk shirt-waist I have in the bag,” said Polly, anxiously.
“Or go on to report to the nearest forester we meet,” said Mr. Alexander, from his western experience.
“We’ll do both,” returned Mr. Fabian. “It won’t take long to ram a pole in the débris and tie the red flag on it, but it may save others a great deal of danger.”
“Better still, if we can crawl over the slide that is piled high up on the trail, I might tie the flag to a young tree far enough down the roadway to spare anyone the climb to this narrow pass where they cannot turn around,” added Polly.
So Mr. Fabian and Polly managed to creep warily over the obstructions which were heaped over the roadway and, further down the trail, they found a tree that grew beside the road. Here the red blouse signal was left flying from the stripped young tree, and a warning was printed on the white silk cuff, telling of the dangers ahead in the path.
When the tourists were settled in the cars again, the large car leading and the crippled roadster being towed behind, they felt that they had done their duty and expressed their deep gratitude for their own safety, by leaving the signal flag for others to see and read.