Book Title: The Secret of the Tarascan Ruins
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Juanita screamed a warning just in time for Jorge to pull back.
“Watch out, the ledge is falling!” She yelled with all her strength as the rushing water ate into the narrow ledge. “Hurry!” she yelled over the thundering waterfall.
Jorge wound the rope under Fernando's arms and yelled for Pedro and Rafael to crank the winch that pulled the rope. Very slowly the rope became taunt and with a cry of pain, Fernando was pulled up the cliff face. A lariat snaked down beside Jorge, and Pedro motioned to him to put on the loop. Jorge quickly ducked inside the loop and swung out beside Fernando, holding him close and trying to keep him from bumping against the rocks. As they neared the top, he realized that Fiesta was carefully pulling the rope taunt as a good quarter horse should. He hopped over the edge of the cliff face and grabbed Fernando to keep his injured leg from hitting against the ledge. Leora jumped off Fiesta and ran over to them.
“Get me some sticks,” she called to Elena, who instead stood on the edge of the cliff and cried,
“Where's Carlos?
Rafael ran back to the winch and started letting the rope out. He looked over the edge of the cliff and called out anxiously, “Carlos? Can you hear me?”
Juanita watched from the path that led up from the pool. With each gush of water more of the ancient cliff path crumbled and fell into the whirling pond beneath the waterfall. Carlos appeared at the mouth of the cave, tying something inside his jacket. He stepped out onto the path, but a sudden tremor warned him just in time to pull back as that piece crumbled and fell out into pool two floors below. He started to untie the rope that bound him to the tree when a sudden creaking sound shocked him. The tree was slowly falling into the waterfall! No longer trying to untie the wet knot, he quickly pulled out his pocket knife and started sawing at the rope.
Juanita watched fearfully as one by one the roots that held the tree to the cliffside pulled out and the tree leaned farther and farther over the waterfall. Carlos was still frantically sawing as the tree began to gather momentum, and, as the last roots gave way, suddenly dropped down into the deep pool below, pulling a desperate Carlos down with it, still sawing at the last threads.
He plunged deep into the water and for a heart-stopping minute, Juanita could see no sign of him. Suddenly a dark head appeared and Carlos grabbed onto the trunk of the tree. She was already urging a reluctant Guayaba down the path when he waved to her.
“A rope,” he called, as she desperately worked at untying the lariat from her saddle.
Using the wrist movement she had practiced while watching Rafael and Pedro, she tossed the rope out into the whirling pool. It fell short and she quickly pulled it back in. The tree was no longer whirling around the middle of the pool, but was already being carried toward the mouth of the river and the rocks being battered by the new rushing flood. This time she couldn't fail, she must get the rope to Carlos before he was carried into the rapids.
She carefully took an extra precious second to calm herself and, as if in slow motion, whirled the loop over her head and tossed it neatly upon his outstretched arm. He pushed himself away from the tree and swam against the flood towar
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