"You slip through here. I'll take your horse around."
On the other side, the cowboy assisted her to mount, and pulling his
horse in beside hers, led off down the trail. The rain steadily
increased in volume until the flashes of lightning showed only a grey
wall of water, and the roar of it blended into the incessant roar of
the thunder. The horses splashed into the creek and wallowed to their
bellies in the swirling water.
The Texan leaned close and shouted to make himself heard.
"They don't make 'em any worse than this. I've be'n out in some
considerable rainstorms, take it first an' last, but I never seen it
come down solid before. A fish could swim anywheres through this."
"The creek is rising," answered the girl.
"Yes, an' we ain't goin' to cross it many more times. In the canyon
she'll be belly-deep to a giraffe, an' we got to figure a way out of
the coulee 'fore we get to it."
Alice was straining her ears to catch his words, when suddenly, above
the sound of his voice, above the roar of the rain and the crash and
roll of thunder, came another sound--a low, sullen growl--indefinable,
ominous, terrible. The Texan, too, heard the sound and, jerking his
horse to a standstill, sat listening. The sullen growl deepened into a
loud rumble, indescribably horrible.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180