have to go thirsty; but just when she was beginning to feel that
she must not venture farther, she found herself upon a slight rise or
swell from which she made out a group of cattle in the distance, and
with this promise of success before her she put her horse to a gallop
and set out for it, slapping him with the reins. Presently, the ring
of black muck becoming plainly visible, she knew her quest was at an
end; and her thirsty animal quickened his pace as if he caught scent of
the water.

There now ensued a course of conduct upon the part of the horse which
was strange. There was a small mesquite bush near the water-hole which
lay directly in the horse's course, and Janet, seeing he was almost
upon it, and not wishing him to leap it, as a running cow-pony will
often do, gave the reins a jerk to make him dodge it, the which he did,
and that with a suddenness which only a cow-pony would be capable of.
A cowboy's horse is so used to outdodging wild cattle that such a
sudden turn is nothing to him. But now, instead of going to drink, he
gave a leap and broke into a mad race, splashing right through one end
of the water-hole and continuing onward. It was such a burst of speed
as only the wildest rider could have roused him to; and he kept it up
despite Janet's efforts to stop him. To her, it seemed as if no horse
had ever gone at such a pace before. At every leap forward she felt as
if he must shoot straight from under her. She supposed he had taken
fright at something; but instead of slackening his pace as he got
farther away, he rather added to his speed like a horse in a race.
Though there was nothing ahead which he seemed to be going to, and
nothing behind which he could now be running from, he did not abate his
efforts; he pushed forward--

As one pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe
And forward bends his head.

Poor Janet, utterly ignorant of the cause, and knowing not whither she
was bound, rode a mad ride to nowhere-in-particular. At times she
pulled hard on the bridle, but without effect; he kept right on with
her. She clung desperately to her seat. There was nothing for her to
do but ride; and so many strange things seemed to have happened at once
that she was almost bewildered. Altogether he gave her a ride which,
in her own opinion afterwards, threw into insignificance the adventures
of Mazeppa or John Gilpin, or even the experiences of the Ancient
Mariner "alone