etter jump in," he said; and there was a tone and an
inflection at the pause, as if another word, that would have been
tenderly spoken, hung refrained upon it. "We must get well ahead of
that old catapult."

They drove on rapidly along the level; then they came to the long,
gradual slope that brought them down into Brickfields.

To the right, just before reaching the Basin, a turn struck off that
skirted round, partly ascending again until it fell into the Cone
Hill road and so led direct to Hill-hope.

They could see the buildings, grouped picturesquely against rocks
and pines and down against the root of the green hill. They had all
been painted of a light gray or slate color, with red roofs.

They passed on, down into the shadows, where trees were thick and
dark. A damp, rich smell of the woods was about them,--a different
atmosphere from the breath of the hill-top. They heard the tinkle of
little unseen streams, and the far-off, foaming plunge of the
cascades.

Suddenly, there came a sound behind them like the rush of an
avalanche; a noise that seemed to fill up all the space of the air,
and to gather itself down toward them on every side alike.

"O, Rodney, turn!" cried Sylvie.

But there was a horrible second in which he could not know how to
turn.

He did not stop to look, even. He sprang, with one leap, he knew not
how,--over step or dasher,--to the horse's head. He seized him by
the bridle, and pulled him off the road, into a thicket of
bush-branches, in a hollow rough with stones.

The wheels caught fast; Rodney clung to the horse, who tried to
rear; Sylvie sat still on the seat sloped with the sharp cant of the
half-overturned vehicle.

There was only a single instant. Down, with the awful roar of an
earthquake, came crashing swift and headlong, passing within a
hand's breadth of their wheel, the enormous, toppling, loaded team;
its three strong horses in a wild, plunging gallop; heels, heads,
haunches, one dark, frantic, struggling tumble and rush. An instant
more, of paralyzed breathlessness, and then a thundering fall, that
made the ground quiver under their feet; then a stillness more
suddenly dreadful than the noise. A great cloud of dust rose slowly
up into the air, and showed dimly in the dusky light.

The gray horse quieted, cowed by the very terror and the hush.
Sylvie slipped down from the tilting buggy, and found her feet upon
a stone.

Rodney reached out one hand, and she came to