thin' 'cept stick it out, I reckons," replied Nick Jennings.

The superstitious cowboy was more or less anxious, himself. Frank,
eagerly listening, could tell this from the way in which the fellow
spoke. But Nick did not mean to fall into a panic. To try and rush
down the precipitous side of that mountain in the dark would be
madness. And with all his faults Nick was at least smart enough to
understand what it meant by "jumping from the frying pan into the fire."

Another roar, louder than any that had yet broken forth, interrupted
the excited conversation between the son of the mining millionaire and
his guide. The whole mountain quivered. Bob himself was much
impressed, and began to wonder more than ever what it could mean.

The noise died away, just as thunder generally does, growing fainter,
until silence once more brooded over that wonderful mountain. Then
again the two crouching lads caught the complaining voice of Peg.
Bully that he was under ordinary conditions, he now showed his true
colors. That awful sound, coming from the heart of the rocky mountain,
as it seemed, had terrified Peg.

But Frank was not surprised, for he had all along believed that a
fellow who could lift his hand to strike a small girl must be a coward
at heart, no matter how much he might bluster and brag.

"This is terrible, Nick!" exclaimed Peg. "Can't you think of some way
we might get out of this? Oh! I'd give a thousand dollars right now
if only I was safe down on the plains again! What a fool I was to come
here!"

"Well," drawled Nick, possibly with a touch of real envy in his voice,
"I'd like right smart to 'arn that thousand, sure I would, Peg. But
hang me if I kin see how it's agoin' to be done. We can't slide down;
walkin's a risky business, and likely to take hours; an' right now I
don't feel any wings asproutin' out of my shoulders, even if you do."

"Oh stop joking, Nick, and talk sense," complained Peg. "We've just
got to do something. Why, the old mountain might take a notion to
slide, and carry us along with it."

"I sure hopes not, at least right now," replied Nick, uneasily. "But I
do reckons as how we're agoin' to git that storm afore mornin'."

"But see here, Nick," Peg went on, anxiously; "didn't you notice
anything when you were leading me up here like a lamb to the slaughter?
I mean, you ought to have seen whether this side of the old mountain
was more likely to drop off than any other."

"Y