Jack of the Pony Express | Page 9

and I expect to keep on."
"Huh! Maybe you will, an' maybe you won't!" was the snarling retort.
It was quite dark when Jack finally started with the mail. He also had
several express packages, one of which was securely sealed, indicating
that it contained valuables.
"Guess I'll stow that away in an inside pocket," Jack said to himself,
and he suited the action to the words.
The first part of the trail leading out from Golden Crossing was not
especially bad, and Jack ambled along it slowly enough. About two
miles out from the settlement he had to cross, on a rather frail wooden
bridge, a rushing mountain stream.
As Jack neared the middle of the bridge he felt a plank suddenly give

way with the pony. In an instant he clapped his heels to the side of the
horse, and slapped him sharply on the flank.
Sunger sprang forward, and only just in time, for in another second he
would have stepped through a hole in the bridge where a plank had
fallen off into the stream below. And had the pony fallen Jack would
probably have been thrown over the bridge railing into the water.

CHAPTER IV
IMPORTANT LETTERS
"Whoa! Steady old boy! Easy now!"
Thus Jack exclaimed, as he leaped from the Saddle and held the reins
lightly to restrain Sunger.
The pony snorted, whinnied, and, after prancing about a few moments,
stood still.
"That's better!" commented Jack. "Now let's see what happened."
There was, as Jack said, "half a moon," and by the light of this he was
able to see, as he glanced over the part of the bridge he had traversed, a
place where a plank had fallen out. A gap was left--a gap wide enough
to have allowed a horse's leg to slip through, with disastrous results to
animal and rider.
"Well, Sunger, old boy," went on Jack, "did we do that; did it just
happen of itself; or was it done on purpose?"
For, in a second's flash, there had come to him his father's warning.
"Well, if it's some one after my job, it's a mean trick they have played
in trying to get it," mused Jack, aloud. "I wouldn't so much mind for
myself, for I guess I could have swum out all right. But I guess you'd
have been pretty well banged up, old boy," and he patted his pony,

which now had gotten over his first fright.
Jack, whose wildly-beating heart had now somewhat calmed itself,
stood beside his faithful pony and considered what his next move had
best be. Among other thoughts was the one that he must, in some way,
repair the bridge so that any one coming after him would not slip
through the holes left where the misplaced planks had fallen into the
stream.
"I can get a couple of logs or some big branches in the woods," thought
Jack, "and stick them in the holes."
Instinctively he looked to see if the mail and express pouches were safe.
Yes, there they were on the saddle front. None of them had slipped off
when the pony rider himself had so narrowly escaped.
Then, with a quick motion, Jack's hand went to the breast pocket of his
coat, where he had placed the small, sealed express package. To his
consternation he felt no bulky protuberance there, such as would have
been made by the parcel.
"Whew!" whistled Jack. "Great Scott! I hope I haven't lost that!"
It was very possible that he might have done so, for he remembered
pitching forward on his pony's neck, as he leaned over to save himself.
The package could easily have slipped from his pocket.
In a veritable frenzy of alarm, Jack rapidly searched through his other
pockets, thinking he might, by some chance, have thrust the valuable
parcel into one other than the first he had selected as being the most
secure. But it was not to be found.
"Just my luck!" he cried aloud. "It's lost. This will end my services as a
pony express rider!"
His steed whinnied, thinking, perhaps, that his master might have been
speaking to him, as Jack frequently did. Indeed, the lad often talked to
his horse as one might to a human being, and Jack stoutly maintained

that Sunger understood as much if not more than some people.
"Well, if it's gone, it's gone," Jack said, sadly enough "And it wasn't my
fault, either. I couldn't know those planks in the bridge were loose. It's
lucky Sunger felt them giving in time, and gave me the alarm, or we
might both be lying somewhere with broken legs, if not worse."
He glanced back to the place where the accident had so nearly occurred.
In the gleam of the moon he could see