io8 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



were conscious of any progress was detestation 

 of Griffith Roberts. A sodden twilight, not born 

 ©f sunset or moonrise, came down about us, and 

 the tormented vapours writhed up to meet it from 

 the voids on either hand as we went delicately 

 along the ridge that leads, like a horse's crest, 

 from shoulder to summit of the mountain. The 

 ridge grew more and more slender, and we picked 

 our aching steps more and more carefully. One 

 of the Tommies' saddles would have been almost 

 wide enough to have spanned it comfortably at 

 one place — the happy Tommies, now doubtless 

 sleeping like infants in their little beds at Rhyddu ; 

 and ]\Iiss O'Flannigan has since admitted her 

 almost uncontrollable desire to traverse it after 

 the manner of a serpent. 



It was half- past nine o'clock when Griffith 

 Roberts led his now speechless prey up to the 

 tiny plateau whereon were a large cairn of stones, 

 two men, and two squalid wooden shanties. 



" Ze taap," observed Griffith Roberts, coldly. 



