"Don't suggest anything so awful," begged Margery.

"Oh! What's that!" exclaimed Harriet.

The others did not know to what she referred, but they felt a sudden
jolt as the vehicle lurched to the side of the road, then back again.

"What is it?" demanded Hazel.

"The horses have taken fright," answered the guardian calmly. "Be
careful that you do not excite them further."

"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