THE MAJOR'S STORY. 283 



light; then sight was gone, and a momentary darkness 

 settled on our eyes. The horses crouched to the ground 

 in terror, and Sarah bowed her head as if in the presence 

 of God. 



" All this was the work of an instant, and the next, 

 Tom's horse sprang by us on a furious gallop, dragging 

 Tom by the stirrup. He had been in the act of mount- 

 ing when the flash came, and his horse swerved and 

 jumped so that his foot caught, and he was dragged with 

 his head on the ground. 



" There was a point in the road, about fifty yards 

 ahead, where it divided into two. The one was the car- 

 riage-track, which wound down the mountain by easy de- 

 scents; the other was a foot-path, which was a short, pre- 

 cipitous cut to a point on the carriage - road nearly a 

 quarter of a mile below. 



" Calling to Sarah to keep back and wait, I drove the 

 spurs into my horse, and went down the steep path. 

 Looking back, I saw her following, her horse making tre- 

 mendous speed. She kept the carriage-road, following 

 on after Tom, and I pressed on, thinking to intercept his 

 horse below. 



"The pace was terrible. I could hear them thunder- 

 ing down the track above. I looked up and caught sight 

 of them through the trees. I looked down, and saw a 

 gully before me full eighteen feet wide and as many deep. 



"A great horse was that black horse Caesar, and he 

 took the gully at a flying leap that landed us far over it, 

 and a moment later I was at the point where the roads 

 again met, but only in time to see the other two horses 

 go by at a furious pace, Sarah's abreast of the gray, and 

 she reaching her hand out, bravely trying to grasp the 

 flying rein, as her horse went leap for leap with him. 



