from the open Mall; and horse and rider passed into the
stretch of scented coolness at a brisk trot. The path, little more
than six feet wide, was innocent of railing. But much riding in the
Himalayas hardens the nerves to these tight-rope performances, which
are part and parcel of life in the hills.

For a while they went steadily forward, well content; till, on rounding
a sharp corner, Shaitan stopped dead, his forefeet firmly planted on
the roadway, his sensitive ears thrust forward; and Lenox, who had
fallen into an absorbing train of thought, found himself confronted by
a sufficiently startling reality.

The path ahead of him was blocked by the unwieldy forms of five
buffaloes, in charge of a naked brown wisp of humanity four feet high,
armed with a no more formidable weapon than a pine branch stripped of
its needles. But the crux of the situation lay in the fact that,
between the fourth and fifth buffaloes an Englishwoman, in a brown
habit, mounted on a restive chestnut pony, was in imminent danger of
slipping off the road to certain death among the rocks and boulders
below. For the chestnut had succeeded in wrenching his hindquarters
outward, his heels were already over the edge, and his rider, leaning
well forward, was applying whip and spur with a coolness and vigour
that could not fail to excite the man's admiration.

It was a matter of seconds: Lenox could not stop to calculate possible
risks. Buffaloes and herd-boy scattered right and left before his
furious onset. A swinging blow from his hunting-crop sent two of the
bulky beasts scrambling up the inner slope, while Brutus, who found the
situation all that heart of dog could desire, sent a third crashing
over the khud to the accompaniment of shrill lamentations from the
terrified child in charge.

The whole thing passed in a flash; the pony, by a frantic but futile
effort to right himself, had just sent a shower of loose stones
rattling from under his hind feet, when Lenox, dismounting, gripped the
cheek-strap with one hand, the other being occupied with his own reins.

A vigorous forward pull landed the chestnut, panting and quivering,
with all four feet on terra firma. But the rider's right arm had
fallen limply to her side, and Lenox, looking up, for the first time,
into a face deeply shadowed by a wide-brimmed helmet, recognised . . .
his wife.

Her breath was still coming In small, quick gasps; but there was no
shadow of fear in her eyes;