BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 139 



CHAPTER X. 



A DULL roar vibrated through my dreams at some 

 unknown hour of the next morning, and with such 

 faculties as were not absorbed by the feat of slid- 

 ing head-first down Snowdon on a telegraph wire, 

 I set it down as being a manifestation of the 

 circus ladies and gentlemen. Later on I realised 

 that the circus ladies and gentlemen did not mani- 

 fest themselves to any appreciable extent before 

 luncheon-time ; and while we sat at a lonely break- 

 fast in the coffee-room, and inhaled through an 

 open window the rainy wind that was preferable 

 to the prisoned aroma suggestive of " a wet night," 

 the vibrating roar fell at intervals into our moody 

 silence. Between the gables of temperance hotels, 

 and through the cold drifts of rain, the sheer face 



