158 THE SILVER FOX 



beside the lean and crooked emblems of the 

 Druids. 



The grey horse was blowing and gulping, 

 yet he answered the furious spurring. Hugh 

 shouted again and again, with his eyes 

 straining after his wife's figure ; in the 

 white light of that agony he knew his love 

 for her and his helplessness to save her. 

 She turned Solomon at the fence beside the 

 Druid stones ; it was a big bank, with 

 withered branches of thorn-bushes masking 

 its outline, and she sent him at it hard. 

 The old horse jumped on to it like a cat, 

 seemed to stagger and hesitate, and they 

 both were gone. 



The grey felt his rider relax and sway, 

 but being young he did not understand 

 what it meant : he was nearing a bank that 

 he felt he could not jump, but the dread 

 of the spur was present with him. He did 

 his best, and but for a rotten take-off he 

 might possibly have scrambled over. As it 

 was, his knees took the bank, his hind- 

 quarters flew up, and he turned a somer- 



