THE horse's rescue. 221 



Whe^ anj of the wheels set up their yell we removed 

 the cause. The lameness increased in my mare a lit- 

 tle ihroufrh the da v. I could not see the cause. I 

 well knew it was no nails thai held the shoe on. She 

 was young. She had a colt's foot on her, and a good 



one. 



"Beach, here is a hotel,'' said I. '"The snn is two 

 hour's high. We must stop here for the night. Switch 

 off beside the road. We will drop these trains. These 

 horses are all very tired, and we will not kill them, if 

 it takes all summer to get this train through." 



" Doan," replied Beach, "I don't like the looks of 

 thino-s here. Why, look at the sign ; it is all daubed 

 and smeared over with something. Look over the 

 door; that is all daubed." 



"Nevermind that," I rejoined. "I am going to 

 anchor here for the night. It is a half day's drive to 

 the next port for our horses with this train. It would 

 be likely to kill some of the horses to make it to-night. 

 Unhook ; let us get the horses in the barn and have 



a rest." 



All seemed very quiet around the barn and house. 

 The landlord was asleep on a lounge, but he roused 

 up and showed us where to put our horses. After 

 this was done I saw him get a heavy log chain and 

 pad-lock and go out to the wagons. He locked two 

 wag-ons tofrether on one of these trains. I asked him 

 what he did it for. He said : "To keep folks from 

 stealing them." 



"I think there is not muMi danger of that," said I 

 " They can get all the wagons they want now. There 

 are some that are not locked. They can take them. 



