LIGHTNING AND DARKNESS. 87 
was continually jerking its head and bringing the 
pack-horse in front of them, and in the conse- 
quent confusion, one or more of them was in 
imminent danger of going over the bank to cer- 
tain death. 
One other way remained to be tried. Mrs. 
Maxwell, with her horse between the other two, 
drew the horses’ heads as close together as was 
possible and leave them room to walk— took a 
rein from the bridle of the pack-horse with a rein 
from the bridle of the beast she was riding in one 
hand, and a rein from the hateful broncho’s bit 
with the remaining one from her bridle in her 
other hand, and holding her horse so firmly it 
could not turn its head, hoped she had solved 
the problem. 
Not at all ! Exasperated at not being able to 
defend itself with its teeth, her horse began kick- 
ing vigorously, and she and her child barely 
escaped being thrown over its head and killed. 
To remain on its back under such circumstances 
was impossible. There were still fully five miles 
between them and any shelter. They were 
drenched through, and shivering with the cold. 
The darkness was perfect ; their narrow ledge of 
road only visible when some flash of vivid light- 
ning lit up the awful depths beneath them, and 
the terrific thunder, crash on crash, jarred the 
earth on which they stood. To stay there was 
impossible, to go forward was perilous. 
