238 Recreations of a Sportsman 



and safe, the driver intelligent and competent, 

 and when he let the horses out on the down 

 grade we rejoiced, took our chances, and made 

 the most of the exhilarating pastime. 



Trees, mere trees, do not attract much at- 

 tention on the level lowlands, but in the moun- 

 tains, where you see them from every possible 

 level, from above, and below, see the sky line 

 change every moment as you drop into the canon, 

 they take on new meaning, new beauty. You are 

 constantly climbing or dropping out of the sky, 

 and to see the skill with which Bill handles the 

 horses on a shelf of the mountains, or on a 

 steep grade when the musical clanging of bells 

 comes up out of the depths, is a revelation. His 

 big-booted leg, which hangs over the side, is the 

 chief factor, the reins an incident. The team 

 relies on the brake, and if that gives well, there 

 you are, down in the canon, in the river, or 

 chaparral, but you are there. The only accident 

 I could hear of happened in that way, the 

 brake refused to work on the down grade near 

 the river. The driver, not Bill, was equal to 

 the occasion and he hurled his long lash into the 

 air like a snake: it was necessary to keep the 

 six horses ahead of the heavy coach that was 

 gathering headway like an avalanche, so he 

 doubtless made the race of his life, the six horses 

 running like the wind. On a straight road he 

 might have made it, but suddenly a turn ap- 



