JONES BOY COMES TO GRIEF AT LAST.

THERE was a rumbling sound, not unlike the roar of a heavy freight train
coming down the grade of a mountain. All of the scouts plainly felt the
cabin quiver as though in the throes of an earthquake.

Then succeeded a crash, as the further end was knocked out. For a moment
Thad really feared they were done for, and his very heart seemed to
stand still with dread. Then, as the awful sounds died away, save for
the patter of small stuff on the cabin roof, he breathed naturally
again.

Whatever it was that had happened, no one had been hurt; and at least
they could find consolation in this.

"It's an earthquake!" exclaimed Bumpus, being the very first to recover
the use of his voice.

"A landslide, you mean!" echoed Giraffe, contrary minded.

"Thad, you say?" asked Step Hen; just as though the leader could
determine the nature of the calamity better than any one else.

"I think Giraffe struck it about right," Thad answered.

"You mean part of the hillside caved away?" further questioned Bumpus.

"Must have been the whole mountain top, by the racket it kicked up,"
Davy Jones grumbled; "say, my heart turned upside down; and I'll have to
stand on my head to get it to working again the right way."

"And look at what it did to our snug old cabin; tore the whole end off!"
observed Step Hen, ruefully. "Now, if it happened to be a cold night,
why, we'd just be freezing to death, that's what. Anybody seen my cap
around; my hair stood up on end with the scare, and I must have dropped
it? Thank you, Allan, for picking it up. I do have the worst luck about
losing my things you ever saw."

"Seems to me," remarked Allan, soberly, "that instead of complaining the
way you fellows are doing, we ought to be mighty thankful it wasn't any
worse."

"Yes, that's what I was thinking," Smithy added, as he let go Allan's
arm, which he must have unconsciously gripped in his sudden fright;
"what if we had run to that end of the cabin, things would look somewhat
different right now."

"Ugh! guess that's right," Giraffe admitted; "and for one I ain't goin'
to make any more complaint. But what under the sun was it hit us?"

"A big rock must have dropped down from the side of the mountain, and
tore out the end of the old cabin," Thad explained. "It came on this
night of all nights, just when we happened to be camped here. And the
cabin has stood unharmed for as much as thirty years, Bob White says."