toward Dunbarton: we must
try one of the roads, and I would rather work toward home than away from
it."

Nick was busy while talking; he saw that the mare was becoming
panic-stricken, and it required all his strength and firmness to keep
her from breaking away from him.

[Illustration: "O Nick," moaned Nellie, "we are going to be burned
alive."]

By using the whip, he managed to turn her again in the road, and then he
struck her sharply with the lash.

"Nellie, catch hold of my arm," he said to her, feeling that even if
everything came out in the best form, a severe struggle was before them.

The mare sniffed, and, glancing to her right and left, gave a whinny of
terror as she dropped into her swiftest trot, which, a minute after, she
changed to a gallop; but Nick brought her down instantly to her more
natural gait.

Nellie slipped her arm under the elbow of her brother, and then clasped
her two hands, so as to hold fast for the shock which she believed would
soon come.

A large branch had fallen across the road, and Nick did not catch sight
of it until too late to check the flying mare. The carriage seemed to
bound fully a foot into the air, and an ominous wrench told the driver
that it had suffered material damage.

But there was no time to stop and examine; the terrified horse sprang
into a gallop again, and this time Nick did not restrain her.

There was smoke all around them; the air was hot and suffocating; they
could hear the crackling of flames, and now and then the crimson flash
through the murky vapor showed that a frightful forest fire was raging
on every hand.

Still the mare kept forward at the same swift gallop, and Nick knew that
more than once she felt the blistering heat on her haunches. It is a
strange peculiarity of the horse, which often shows a wonderful degree
of intelligence, that he generally loses his wits when caught in a
conflagration. Instead of running away from the flames he often charges
among them, and there remains, fighting those who are trying to save
him.

Very probably the mare would have acted similarly in the instance of
which I am speaking had the circumstances permitted it; but there was
fire all about her, and the temptation was as strong, therefore, in one
direction as another.

Nick kept his self-possession. He knew by the desperate energy with
which Nellie clung to his arm that she was helpless, and that every
minute they were likely to plunge headlong into a