THE MAJORS STORY. 2S3 



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. 



