By this time Dick was opening his eyes once more, and this time he
kept them open.

"I -- I -- that was a nasty tumble, wasn't it?" he muttered. "I'm glad
I didn't go under the horses' feet."

"How do you feel?"

"I guess I had the wind knocked out of me, that's all." He tried to
get up, but his legs refused to support him. "I'll have to keep
quiet awhile."

"Yes, don't you move," said Sam. "We can't get across the stream
anyway, now the bridge is down. We'll have to go around to the
other bridge."

"It's queer the workmen didn't put up some sort of a sign as a
warning," said Fred Garrison. "I believe they can be held liable
for this disaster."

"To be sure they can be held liable," burst out Peleg Snuggers.

"But a sign wouldn't have kept the brake from breaking," said Tom.

"True, lad, but ye must remember that it was their duty to put the
sign up at the beginning of this road, which is on the top of the
hill. If the sign had been there we would never have started to
come down this way."

"Perhaps we missed the sign," put in another cadet.