Free Lucky Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page B

me!”
    They scurried away from the shelter of the rocks, the raindrops once again stinging them like needles. The wind almost toppled them, and they had to bend forward at the waist to get anywhere at all.
    Carole followed her father blindly, trailing after his dark shape as he pushed his way through the wind and rain. The thunder crashed directly over them, and just a few hundred yards away, Carole saw a bolt of bright lightning streak down from the sky. It crackled around the top of one tall pine, and the highest tree limbs exploded like a bomb. Carole could make out the dark outline of birds fleeing the sudden inferno.
    “Keep your head down!” her father called. “I think the trail’s over here!”
    Shaking with fear, she followed him to the edge of some scraggly trees. Underbrush tugged at their jeans as they tried to press themselves beneath the branches. Abruptly her father stopped.
    “Wait.” He turned and tried to peer through therain at where they’d just been. Carole turned and looked too, but her flashlight was useless and she could see clearly only when the lightning flashed. Unfortunately, that was when it was hardest to keep her eyes open.
    “Oh, no!” she heard her father cry.
    “What?” She was barely able to make herself heard above the wind and rain.
    “We must have gotten disoriented when we got up so fast,” he called, his voice now hoarse from yelling. “The trail’s over there, right across from where we just were.”
    Carole’s heart skittered with fear. “You mean we’re going to have to cross the mountaintop again?”
    Her father nodded as raindrops dripped off his chin. “These trees won’t be safe if that storm stays on track.” He looked down at her and grinned. “Are you with me, kiddo?” he asked softly.
    Again, she only nodded. She was afraid that if she spoke out loud he’d know how scared she was.
    “Okay, then, let’s go!” He shifted the telescope to his other shoulder and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Semper fi!”
    Colonel Hanson waited until a clap of thunder rolled away, then stepped out from the shelter of the skinny trees. Again they had to bend at the waist and throw themselves into the wind. The rain seem to hit them from all directions, and Carole felt icy raindropssliding down her back, under the collar of her jacket. Everything she had on was soaked, and her feet slid inside her shoes. Still, she slogged after her father.
    They had almost reached the middle of the mountaintop when suddenly the sky lit up as if a million fireworks had all exploded. A crash of thunder like no other boomed around Carole’s ears. The earth itself seemed to tremble beneath her feet. The sky went bright, then dark; then she couldn’t see anything. Where was her father? He had been there just a moment before. The sky lit up again, and she saw his crumpled form.
    “Dad!” she screamed, just as another thunderclap crashed above her head.

“Y EOW !” L ISA SAT straight up in her sleeping bag, her heart thumping in her chest. “What was that?”
    “I think it was a horse.” Stevie blinked sleepily, but she was already sitting up. “Something’s wrong downstairs. We’d better go check it out.”
    They switched on the hayloft light and began to crawl down the ladder. Suddenly a loud boom shook the roof overhead; then the shrill scream of a horse split the air.
    “That’s what woke me up!” cried Lisa.
    “I bet it’s Patch,” said Stevie as rain began to ping like marbles against the barn’s tin roof. “You know how crazy he gets when we have thunderstorms.”
    The two girls hurried down to Patch’s stall. Sure enough, the old pinto stood there terrified, his earsslapped flat against his head, the whites of his eyes showing all around.
    “Whoa, boy,” Stevie said softly, reaching out and trying to pat the horse’s nose. “Take it easy.” Patch swished his tail and stomped his right foreleg. Stevie wanted to go into the stall and put her arms around him, but he