At last there came a muffled shout, and all of us, retreating
twenty or thirty yards, watched for Ben and Rufus to emerge. Some of us
were counting off the seconds. We could hear Ben and Rufus coming,
climbing over the rocks. Then suddenly there was an outcry and the sound
of tinkling glass. At the same instant Ben emerged, but immediately
turned and went back into the cave.
"Hurry, Rufe!" we heard him call out. "What's the matter? Hurry, or it
will go off!"
Consternation fell on us, and some of us started for the mouth of the
cave; but before we had gone more than five paces Ben sprang forth. He
had not dared to remain an instant longer--and, indeed, he was scarcely
outside when the explosion came. It sounded like a heavy jolt deep
inside the mountain.
To our horror a huge slab of rock, thirty or forty feet up the side of
the Fall-off, started to slide with a great crunching and grinding;
then, gathering momentum, it plunged down between us and the mouth of
the cave and completely shut the opening from view. Powder smoke floated
up from behind the slab.
There was something so terrible in the suddenness of the catastrophe
that the whole party seemed crazed.
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