222 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



' " Hold hard, and sit back, Armorer," was all I 

 heard from Eobert, as we rushed away, our ejes 

 fixed on the flying stallion. Scarcely did I notice 

 then the broken chasms, the huge boulders, the 

 narrow, crumbling rocks, over which, goat-like, my 

 horse made his way. Mad with excitement, on we 

 bounded, where a stumble would have been certain 

 death. At length, at a wave of the hand from 

 Eobert, turning to a more circuitous and safer path, 

 I lost sight of my companions, and, pulling on my 

 horse at a slow trot, I crowned the heights and came 

 npon a low level green gorge of galloping ground, 

 where I rejoined Paginton and Robert, and could see 

 Charley and John just disappearing round a bend. 

 Pressing on steadily over turf, level as a bowling 

 green, no doubt the bed of some primaeval water- 

 course, we again caught sight of the stallion, Char- 

 ley's mare at his quarters, seemingly almost within 

 reach of the glorious beast. Presently the gorge 

 began to close up ; a solid wall of rock, higher than 

 a cathedral tower, loomed before us. " Hurrah, 

 hurrah ! " I shouted. " He's pounded ! " 



' " Hold your tongue ! " cried Eobert. '' You'll 

 need breath before night. There's a road to the 

 bottom that will make us sweat before we've done." 

 Presently we saw the dark shadow of a horse and 

 horseman appear for an instant on a crag above us, 

 as he emerged from a narrow defile, which under the 

 wall of solid rock wound from the gorge along which 



