THE SILVER FOX 169 



He lay in a heap in the obscurity forfcy feet 

 below, on loose rocks among dark water; 

 his head was doubled under his chest at an 

 impossible angle that told the tale of a 

 broken neck. The uttermost effort of a 

 good horse had not been enough to save 

 him, when he had tried to jump out from 

 the top of the high bank across a chasm 

 nearly twenty feet wide. That endeavour 

 and all his simple and gallant life seemed 

 expressed in the wreck of strength and in- 

 teUigence that lay below, with the water 

 washing over the flap of the saddle, over 

 the shapely brown fetlocks, over the thin 

 and glossy mane. 



It was mysterious water, an underground 

 stream that slid out of the dumb and sight- 

 less caverns of the rock, and passed away 

 into them again with a swirl, a stealthy 

 swift thing, escaping always from the eye 

 of day, and eating the foundations of the 

 limestone walls that sheltered it. 



Lady Susan still held the hand that had 

 rescued her; it led her through the brush- 



