at, Nick?" demanded the boy.

"Oh! lots of people says the same thing," replied the other, as if
carelessly.

"That a landslide is going to start things going on Thunder Mountain
any time--is that what you mean?" Peg insisted on repeating.

"Any day, er night. Things have been lookin' that way for some time
now. I reckon she's due with the next big cloud-burst that sails this
way."

It was evident that, for some reason, Nick was trying to frighten his
young employer. Perhaps he himself really wished to get away from the
mountain with the bad name; and took this means of accomplishing his
end without showing his hand. If that were true, then he was gaining
his end, for Peg certainly gave evidence of increasing uneasiness.

"But why didn't you tell me all this before?" he demanded, indignantly.

"What was the use, boss? Ye was sot on comin' here, and ye made Joe
and me a rattlin' good offer. 'Sides, it didn't matter much to me. I
had my life insured. A rope might have skeered me; but say, I don't
keer that for landslips," and Nick snapped his fingers contemptuously.

But Frank, who knew the sly cow puncher so well, believed that more or
less of his indifference was assumed.

"Well, I do!" declared Peg, with emphasis; "and if I'd only known about
that sort of thing before, blessed if I'd a come. I've heard what
happens when the side of a mountain tears away, and how everything in
the path goes along. They showed me the bare wall where one broke
loose up in Colorado. Say, it was the worst sight ever. You'll have
to excuse me from nosing around here another day, if that sort of thing
is hanging over this place. Me for the ranch on the jump. Get that,
Nick?"

"Oh! now, what's the use botherin'? Chances are three to one they
ain't agoin' to be any sech upsets as that yet awhile," the cowboy said.

"Only three to one!" burst out Peg. "All right, you can stick it out
if you want, and I'll pay you all I agreed; but just you understand,
Nick Jennings, when to-morrow comes, I want you to get me down on the
prairie, where I can make a blue streak for the X-bar-X ranch house."

"But ye sed as how ye was detarmined to find out what made them roarin'
n'ises, up here on old Thunder Mountain!" protested the guide, although
he evidently expressed himself in this way only to further arouse the
obstinate boy.

"I've changed my plans, that's all," Peg announced. "Any fellow can do
that. It's always the privile