Читать книгу Held for Ransom - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 11

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Skippy did not lose that premonition even after they lost by distance the significant throbbing of distant motorcycles speeding up mountainous roads. The dread increased despite the noisy congratulations which Sam was heaping upon Mole as an expert driver.

“Yuh lost ’em even before they spotted us, Mole,” he was chuckling boisterously. “I didn’t think yuh could lose ’em ’at quick.”

“Yeah, an’ we’ll lose ’em for good when we hit that road after the bridge. It’s nothin’ more’n a cowpath an’ it’ll be hard ridin’, but it comes back onto the road we want right at the top of the mountain. Silver showed me the way the last time we was comin’ down from the shack. Lucky, too. He said I might wanta use it sometime, in case any snoops got tailin’ me.”

Mole slowed down a little indicating that they were in the neighborhood of the bridge. Skippy barely kept his balance he leaned so far out of the window. But he was determined to be on the watch when they approached the bridge for the darkness was almost impenetrable. Moreover, a fine mist held sway in the vicinity.

Suddenly, they came upon it, a narrow rickety-looking affair whose white paint was all that made it visible in that dark night. Near the approach, a part of the railing had either rotted away or had been broken away by some strong impact. In any event, it had never been replaced and stood gaping before them, an unguarded jumping off place to the black void of the lake below.

Skippy was fascinated by it for the brief second that it took for them to approach it. He had time to be fascinated—to be conscious of that thought and no more, for suddenly Mole was seized by a convulsive sneeze. It was apparent that it was entirely unexpected and that it caught him off guard for the act shook him with such force that his hands flew from the wheel. Just long enough it was for him to lose entire control of the car.

Skippy saw all that in a flashing, breathtaking second. And it was all that he did see, for he felt the car leap from under them into space and instinctively, he put his hand on the door and flung it open.

Sam screamed, Mole shouted hoarsely, and then Skippy felt his body hurtled into mid-air. He seemed to be rushing down into darkness...down....