"Now we haven3't a thing to eat, and no blankets for the night! I knew this was a foolish outing," complained Barbara.
Eleanor failed to hear her sister's selfish remark, for she was driving her burro closely upon Noddy's heels. Anne was so impatient at Barbara that she urged her horse after Eleanor to keep herself busy.
"Good gracious! Am I to sit here alone and freeze! I'm sure I'm not such a fool as to have the same thing happen to me as it did to Choko," cried Barbara, but the wind carried her words back to Grizzly5 Slide.
Polly slid from her saddle and stretched out flat upon the brink6 to peer over the edge for a possible sight of the burro. As she did so, she saw a mass of baggage and burro scramble7 upright and shake itself violently. Then a plaintive8 whinny rose up to welcome the fearful girls.
"Whoa! Whoa, Choko!" shouted Polly, instantly.
Jumping up, she called to Eleanor: "Choko fell upon a ledge9, but there's a great hole behind him and should he back he will surely fall in and be lost. I'm going down to lead him out!"
"Oh, Polly, don't risk your precious life for a burro!" screamed
Barbara, hysterically10.
"If Noddy can creep down, I'll save Choko without risk to myself," declared Polly, climbing in the saddle.
"If Polly goes, I go too!" exclaimed Eleanor, turning her burro to follow Noddy.
"Don't you dare! Nolla—think of mother grieving for you, and me left alone in Colorado, helpless!" cried Barbara.
"Now I'm going, anyway! I'd like mother to appreciate me," was Eleanor's unexpected reply, but Anne caught an undaunted look in the girl's eyes.
The combined persuasions11 of Barbara and Anne had no effect on Eleanor, who, truth to tell, exulted12 in this daring feat13 and would not have missed the thrill for anything. But her burro balked14 at the point where Noddy began the descent.
Noddy was making for a place where the ledge met the downward slope of the mountain-side. The burro felt about for sure footing and then took a step forward. Prodding17 carefully again, she took the next step, and so on. Sometimes, feeling suspiciously, she would essay a step and as suddenly bring back her hoof18 before breaking into the pit. Thus taking one assured step after another, she finally reached the beginning of the ledge where Choko had landed.
Upon the mountain-side where the frozen girls and beasts trembled, the wind howled and the blizzard19 swept along between the trunk of trees, but on the ledge Polly found comparative shelter and only now and then a blast of the gale20.
She stopped to beckon21 to Eleanor and then urged Noddy along the foothold cleft22 from the cliff. Above, the rock-wall rose to the mountain-top; beneath, Polly could not gauge23 the depth—it was too dreadful and was now blurred24 by fine drifts from the blizzard.
After what seemed an age, Polly reached Choko, who still stood obedient to his mistress's command of "Whoa." But he shook and seemed completely broken up with fear and the shock of the fall.
"Dear little Choko!" purred Polly, jumping from Noddy's back and softly patting the burro's woolly face.
The burro affectionately nosed Polly, who gazed quickly at what she thought to be a pit back of the little beast. She gasped25 in wonderment and went to the dark hole. Then she quickly ran back and took hold of Noddy's and Choko's bridles26. Standing27 thus, she shouted to the anxious girls above:
"Come down as carefully as I did and here you will find a cave." With that she disappeared into the yawning black hole, leading both burros. Barbara and Anne stared at each other in amazement28, and the latter said: "Come carefully! Anything is better than freezing here."
Eleanor had already reached the ledge, when Polly came forth29 from the cavern30 to shout out advices. The two older girls made the perilous31 descent safely, and then guided their horses along the ledge until all stood before the cave where the burros were waiting.
"Isn't this a miracle?" cried Polly, the moment all were safe and the poor beasts were being led inside the refuge.
The girls laughed and cried hysterically when they saw the haven, but the animals seemed uneasy, and Noddy came up to Polly with fear apparent in her expressive32 eyes.
"Noddy, are you frightened? Surely no wild beast can be in here, at present?" queried33 Polly, looking around in the semi-gloom.
"Polly! What can it be?" shrieked34 Barbara, clinging to Anne in fear.
"Better get out again, Polly," suggested Eleanor, seeing the horses paw the floor, and strain their eyes to see.
"Are we safe here, Polly dear?" asked Anne.
"Safer here than up there," returned Polly, and as she spoke35 a great tree was flung down over the edge of the gorge36 just where ledge and slope met.
"Now we can't crawl out if we wanted to—the tree obstructs37 the way," declared Polly, decidedly.
"But we must see what it is that disturbs the animals," advised Anne.
"I'd rather throw myself over the cliff than be clawed to bits by a panther!" wailed39 Barbara.
"The horses are quieting down now, and Noddy seems as much at home as anywhere, so I reckon it was only strangeness that made them act queer," said Eleanor.
"But something may pounce40 out upon us, and take us unawares!" wailed
Barbara.
"I propose to smoke them out as soon as I make a fire!" said Polly, looking about in the darkness of the cave for a possible stick of wood, but not finding any.
"I'll have to chop some of that pine! Noddy can carry me safer than I can walk on this ledge, so I want you girls to promise to keep the horses close about you and wait right here until I get back!" said Polly, taking the ax from the pack.
"Polly, I'm coming too! Two axes are better than one, and I can ride my burro, too!" declared Eleanor.
Anne and Polly sent the girl a look of gratitude41, while Barbara was speechless until after Eleanor started to go, then she remonstrated42 volubly.
The two girls crept toward the down-thrown pine, and Eleanor said,
"We'll need wood for a fire, won't we?"
"Yes, we will have to remain in the cave all night, and it gets so terribly cold upon these mountain peaks that we will be frozen unless we warm up the interior of the cavern. Then, too, we may need to keep fires going at the back end of the cave as well as in front, to ward16 off wild beasts!"
They were slowly advancing when another awful crash came from the slope above. Both girls ducked instinctively43, but the decayed pine that was broken off above ground fell over the edge of the cliff just in front of them and obstructed44 the way so that progress was impossible.
Eleanor quaked and cried, "Oh, let's go back, Polly!"
But Polly laughed. "Glory be, our fire-wood came to us
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