he creature
reached the edge of the chasm. Big Gabe leaped forward with a second
shout of warning, but it came too late.

Horse and rider went over the brink!

CHAPTER XLIII.

A FRIGHTFUL PERIL.

Not a sound came from the lips of our hero as his horse went plunging
into the chasm, although, in the moment when he went over the brink, the
boy fully expected to be dashed to death in the dark depths below.

He saw Big Gabe leap to clutch him, but realized that the giant was too
late.

In that fateful moment Frank cleared his feet from the stirrups and made
a desperate effort to save himself.

Too late!

All he could do was to clutch at the high pommel of the Mexican saddle,
to which he clung tenaciously.

A wild, half human scream of terror came from the throat of the horse.

"Whoa up, thar!" roared the giant, as he made a clutch at the horse.

By rare good fortune the man clutched the flowing tail of the animal
fairly and firmly. His heels settled into a rift of the rocks, and he
surged backward.

Over went the horse, dangling, head downward, above the terrible chasm,
while the giant held it thus by clinging to the creature's tail!

And our hero held fast to the Mexican saddle!

Frank was amazed when he found the horse was not going downward, and,
being unable to see the big man, he wondered what held the animal
suspended in the air.

In a moment the man above cried:

"Are you gone, boy? Are yer done fer, youngster?"

"No," replied Frank, with sudden hope. "I am hanging to the saddle.
Drop a rope to me, and pull me up--quick, before the horse falls!"

"Can't do it."

"Why not?"

"I'm holdin' ther critter by ther tail, an', burn me, ef yer both won't
go to ther bottom ef I leggo!"

Then the boy realized what had saved him, impossible as it seemed, and
he marveled at the astonishing strength of the strange giant who had
been sent to Lake Tahoe to die of consumption.

"But he can't hold out long!" thought the lad. "He must give up in a
moment, and then we'll go down to death!"

It was not a pleasant thought, and still Frank was not terrified. He
wondered at his own coolness. He speculated on the length of time they
would be falling. Would he be conscious when they struck, or would the
fall rob him of his senses?

He looked down. Far below, ragged points of rocks jutted out from the
chasm wall, seeming to beckon to him. They would bruise and tear him,
and it seemed that they were awaiti