Suddenly, as Tom reached a bend, he saw a man coming towards them. He was an Italian, and carried a small red flag in one hand.

"Back! You-a git-a back!" cried the man, waving his red flag at them.

"Blas'! Blas'! You git-a back!"

The grade was downward and the man had appeared so suddenly that before Tom could bring the first automobile to a standstill he had gotten at least a hundred feet beyond the Italian, while the second car, run by d.i.c.k, was by the man's side.

"What's the trouble here?" demanded d.i.c.k.

"You git-a back! You git-a back!" exclaimed the Italian, frantically.

"Blas' go off! You git-a back!"

"Hi, Tom, come back here!" yelled d.i.c.k. "This fellow says there is a blast going off."

Tom was already trying to heed the warning. He had stopped so suddenly, however, that he had stalled his engine and now he had to take time in which to use the electric starter. In the meanwhile, the Italian workman ran still farther back, to warn Chester Waltham and anybody else who might be coming along the road.

"Oh, Tom! can you turn around?" questioned his wife anxiously.

"Maybe you had better run the car backward," suggested Sam. He had noted the narrowness of the roadway and knew it would be no easy matter to turn around in such limited s.p.a.ce. Besides that, there was a deep gully on one side, so that they would run the risk of overturning.

"Yes, I'll back if d.i.c.k will only give me room," muttered Tom, as he pressed the lever of the self-starter. Then after the power was once more generated he threw in the reverse gear and allowed the car to back up.

"That's the way to do it, Tom," yelled d.i.c.k. "Come on, I'll get out of the way," and he, too, began to back until he was close on to the Waltham runabout.

"Look out! Don't b.u.mp into me!" yelled Chester Waltham, who for the moment seemed to be completely bewildered by what was taking place.

"What's the matter anyway?" he demanded of the Italian.

"Oh, Chester, there must be some danger!" shrieked his sister. "Say!

they are both backing up. Maybe you had better back up too."

"All right, if that's what they want," answered the young millionaire, and then in his hurry tried to reverse so quickly that he, too, stalled his engine.

"Back up! Back up!" called out d.i.c.k. "We've got to get out of here!

There is some sort of blasting going on ahead!"

"Oh, d.i.c.k, be careful!" cried Mrs. Stanhope, and sprang up in the tonneau of the car in alarm, quickly followed by Mrs. Laning.

"You will run into Mr. Waltham, sure!" wailed the latter.

"Don't smash into me! Don't smash into me!" yelled the young millionaire in sudden terror. "If you b.u.mp into me you'll send me into the ditch!"

By this time d.i.c.k's car was less than three feet away from the runabout, while Tom's machine was still some distance farther up the road.

Boom! There was a distant explosion, not very loud; and following this came a clatter as of stones falling on the rocks. None of the stones, however, fell anywhere near the three machines.

"Oh!" cried Grace.

"Is that all there is to it?" queried Nellie, anxiously.

"I don't know," returned Tom. He had now brought his automobile once more to a standstill.

All in the three machines waited for a moment. Then they gazed enquiringly at the Italian who stood behind them.

"Say, is that all the blasting there is?" demanded Chester Waltham.

"Dat's heem," responded the foreigner. "He go off all right, boss. You go," and he waved the stick of his flag for them to proceed.

"Some scare--and all for nothing," muttered Tom. "The way he carried on you would think they were going to shake down half of yonder cliff."

"Oh, Tom, they don't dare to take chances," returned Nellie. "Why, if we had gone on we might have been showered with those stones we heard falling."

"You fellows want to be careful how you back up," grumbled Chester Waltham. "You came pretty close to smashing into me."

"Well, you should have backed up yourself when you heard us yell,"

retorted d.i.c.k, sharply. "We didn't know how bad that blast was going to be."

Tom had already started forward, and in a moment more d.i.c.k and Chester Waltham followed. But hardly had they done this when the Italian on the road suddenly let out another yell.

"Boss! Boss! You-a stop!" he cried. "You-a stop queek! De two-a blas'!

You-a stop!" and he danced up and down in added alarm.

Those who had gone on paid no attention to him, and an instant later pa.s.sed around a corner of the cliff. As they did this they saw a man on the open hillside waving his arm and shouting something they could not understand.

"Tom, something is wrong----" began Sam, when, of a sudden, his words were swallowed up in a fierce roar and rumble that seemed to shake the very ground beneath them. They saw a flash of fire in an opening of the cliff, and the next instant a burst of flames and smoke was followed by a rain of rocks all around them!

CHAPTER XXI

NEWS OF BLACKIE CROWDEN

It was a moment of extreme peril, and what made it seem worse was the fact that the Rovers and the others could do nothing to save themselves.

Rocks, small stones and dirt flew all around them, striking with loud noises the hoods and other metal parts of the automobiles, and even landing in the tonneaus of the larger cars.

"Hold up the robes! Protect yourselves with the robes!" yelled d.i.c.k, but before the ladies could heed his words the rain of rocks, small stones and dirt had come to an end.

"Great Caesar! that's a fine happening!" groaned Tom, who had been hit on the shoulder by a fair-sized stone. He looked quickly at those in the car with him. "Any of you hurt?"

"I got hit in the head with something," returned Sam. "But it didn't hurt very much. How about you?" and he looked at Grace and at Tom's wife.

"I--I don't think I am hurt any," faltered Grace, as she looked at some stones and dirt on the robe over her lap.

"I'm all right," answered Tom's wife. "But, oh dear! something--I think it must have been a big stone--flew directly past my face!"

"I hope the others got off as well as we did," remarked Tom. "Let us go and see," and, suiting the action to the word, he left the machine, followed by his brother.

The second car had a dent in the hood made by a stone as big as Tom's fist. All those in the automobile had been hit by some smaller stones and also covered with loose dirt, but no one had been seriously injured, although Mrs. Laning declared that some of the dirt had entered her left ear and also her eye.