"I'd rather throw myself over the cliff than be clawed to bits by a
panther!" wailed 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 pounce 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 gratitude, while Barbara was
speechless until after Eleanor started to go, then she remonstrated
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 ward
off wild beasts!"
They were slowly advancing when another awful crash came from the slope
above.
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