forward, caught at a camp-stool, recovered himself with an apologetic
smile, and turned inquiringly to his neighbor.
A light laugh--instantly suppressed--at what was at first supposed to
be the effect of the "overflowing hospitality" upon the speaker himself,
went around the male circle until it suddenly appeared that half a dozen
others had started to their feet at the same time, with white faces, and
that one of the ladies had screamed.
"What is it?" everybody was asking with interrogatory smiles.
It was Judge Piper who replied:--
"A little shock of earthquake," he said blandly; "a mere thrill! I
think," he added with a faint smile, "we may say that Nature herself has
applauded our efforts in good old Californian fashion, and signified her
assent. What are you saying, Fludder?"
"I was thinking, sir," said Fludder deferentially, in a lower voice,
"that if anything was wrong in the reservoir, this shock, you know,
might"--
He was interrupted by a faint crashing and crackling sound, and looking
up, beheld a good-sized boulder, evidently detached from some greater
height, strike the upland plateau at the left of the trail and bound
into the fringe of forest beside it. A slight cloud of dust marked its
course, and then lazily floated away in mid air. But it had been watched
agitatedly, and it was evident that that singular loss of nervous
balance which is apt to affect all those who go through the slightest
earthquake experience was felt by all. But some sense of humor, however,
remained.
"Looks as if the water risks we took ain't goin' to cover earthquakes,"
drawled Dick Frisney; "still that wasn't a bad shot, if we only knew
what they were aiming at."
"Do be quiet," said Virginia Piper, her cheeks pink with excitement.
"Listen, can't you? What's that funny murmuring you hear now and then up
there?"
"It's only the snow-wind playin' with the pines on the summit. You girls
won't allow anybody any fun but yourselves."
But here a scream from "Georgy," who, assisted by Captain Fairfax, had
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