14 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



Rising slightly from the saddle to ease my horse, I 

 gave the brave beast a couple of pats on the side of the 

 neck, for I felt that he would not fail me at a pinch, and 

 would do all that was required of him. 



" See ! " shouted G ; " look at those three columns 



of smoke from the picket on the hill at the right of the 

 neck that is the alarm signal look at the people all 

 running along the side of the hill from that infernal 

 village. If they reach the neck before we do they will 

 form a line across it, and it will be a hundred to one if we 

 can get through them alive, so let out your horse a bit." 



Notwithstanding the awful nature of our death-ride 

 notwithstanding the heavy stake depending upon it 

 I had a feeling almost of exultation, and could have 

 shouted aloud. My good horse, puffing and snorting as 

 he bore upon the bit, the thudding of his hoofs as he 

 sped along, the wind whistling past my ears, all tended 

 to raise my spirits. Men ride in earnest when the 

 hounds are running into a sinking fox ; but no men ever 

 rode more earnestly than we twain did for our dear lives 

 a strained sinew, a stumble, a girth failing, and I 

 should not have been here to-day to tell the tale. 



The natives were racing down in hundreds to try and 

 reach the neck before we did, and it became a question 

 as to who would reach the neck first. 



Nearer and yet nearer we were almost at the neck 

 from the hills on the right about sixty natives, the 

 advanced guard of those who were coming from the 

 village, were running down into the valley to block our 

 track. We saw that we must pass them within a very 

 few yards, and that it was merely a question of seconds 

 as to whether we got past them at all. We bent our 

 horses to the left, for they were almost in front of us now. 



