e, Indian fashion. On one side of them rose the mountain, huge
and majestic, and on the other was a sheer drop of a hundred feet or so
into a rocky canyon.

The girls had always loved this ride because of the wonderful view it
afforded them of the surrounding country. But that very morning Dan
Higgins had warned them not to go that way.

"The mountain is pow'ful oncertain," the old man had told them. "Part of
it is apt to fall on you any time if you get too close to it."

Betty thought of this warning, but too late. An ominous rumbling jerked
her eyes upward and she saw a sight that almost froze the blood in her
veins. It seemed indeed to her terrified fancy as if the whole mountain
were falling upon them. A great mass of dirt and brush and rock was
hurtling down upon them with sickening velocity. A landslide--and they
were directly in its path!

CHAPTER XI

IN THE CAVE

Luck was with the Outdoor Girls that day--or fate--call it what you
will. In the side of the mountain close to where they were, had been
drilled a hole forming a large, artificial cave--probably the work of
some miner who had abandoned operations almost at the beginning either
from lack of funds or ambition.

Into this hole the girls dashed, driven on by their frightful peril. Amy
was the last to enter, and she had barely urged her nervous little filly
into the opening when, with a terrific rumbling and rattling, the mass
of earth and stones fell, covering the mouth of the cave and leaving
them in such absolute darkness that it seemed as if they must suddenly
have been stricken blind.

"Oh! oh!" moaned Amy, her trembling hand striving vainly to quiet the
frightened animal under her. "We're buried alive, girls, we're buried
alive! We'll never get out of this--never!"

"Please stop that, Amy," Betty's voice came out of the darkness, harsh,
unnatural, like the crack of a whip. "The only danger we're in is the
danger of losing our heads. Whoa, there, Nigger, old boy. Take it easy,
beauty--there's nothing to be frightened about--there--there----" and
she crooned to the big beast soothingly.

Someway, the other girls managed to follow her example, enough at least
to quiet their restless mounts. Grace was sobbing, more from nervousness
than fright, but she managed to say with a catch in her breath, "Stand
still, Nabob--don't be such a s-silly. Isn't your Auntie Grace here with
you?"

But it was Mollie who had the real problem. For while "