STOLEN HORSES 9 I 



US, and we had a prime evening in spite of our troubles. 

 About ten Pete came in with the four mules we had hired 

 to help us the next day. 



As the tide was not low until noon, we did not start the 

 following morning until nine. Then with four mules 

 hitched on ahead of our team we went down to the beach 

 and began the eighteen miles of plowing through the loose 

 shingle. Just as we were getting away I took a long whip 

 with the commission to ride along beside the mules and urge 

 them along. The first time I swung this whip my horse 

 threw me off so quickly that the whip never reached the 

 mules, but he did not get away and soon learned the whip 

 was not for him. When we got well into the shingle 

 Pete had to take to running along beside the mules, and 

 drove them with the most varied and loudest vocabulary 

 I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. In places the 

 mules made us trouble by refusing to go into the shallow 

 pools of water left by the retreating tide, but by straight- 

 eaing them out from time to time, we made fair progress. 

 In places we came upon small bunches of the southern 

 penguins sitting on the rocks so stupidly that Pete 

 knocked one over with the long whip which he carried, 

 and could have done so right along. About three we 

 pulled off the beach and fed the horses. Here Pete said 

 good-bye, and after standing for his picture, disappeared 

 with his mules on a full run to get back before the tide 

 should cut him off entirely. We only went five or six 

 miles further, camping for the night at a small pond. 



Next morning we rose early and after a hasty breakfast, 

 Billy and I started out to find the horses. An hour failed 

 to locate them in any of the likely places, so we had to 

 come back and begin trailing them step by step. We soon 

 found the track with spoor so fresh as to make us feel 

 certain that they had been there within a couple of hours; 

 but the tracks led away down a long draw, and turned on 



