"
"Are--are the hortheth running away?" stammered Tommy.
"Not yet," reassured Harriet.
"Don't be frightened," called back the guide encouragingly. "Jim can
hold any hosses that ever chewed a bit. We'll be on the bridge in a
minute; then they can thrash all they want to. Look out!"
There followed a crash, a breaking, splintering sound as the right rear
wheel of the carry-all swerved into the side of the covered bridge a
few inches from the outer end. The wheel put a hole through the siding
of the bridge. It was fortunate for the carry-all that the wheel had
not swerved a second earlier. Had it done so, the carry-all must have
been wrecked on the stout post at the outer end of the long bridge.
What had so startled the horses none of the occupants of the carry-all
knew. The driver knew that they had had a narrow escape from being
hurled down an embankment. It was a bad place for horses to take
fright. He had managed, however, to pick the team up by the reins and
set them down in the middle of the road, where they remained but a few
seconds before they were swerving to one side again, then they began
leaping and galloping through the long, covered bridge.
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