lainly
saw that there was no time to be lost if he was to escape with his
own life, or save the damsel from a fate perhaps worse than death.

"Forward, Sultan!" he cried.

And the good horse dashed back upon the enemy; and the youth,
holding his weapon in both hands, strove as he passed to deal a
deadly blow to one of his assailants. But the man was quick, and
his own strength impaired by the injury he had received. The
lance-like point of the weapon inflicted a deep gash upon the face
of one of his adversaries, causing him to yell with rage and pain,
but no vital injury had been inflicted upon either; whilst a savage
blow from the other upon the youth's left arm had broken the bone,
and he felt as if his last moment had surely come.

But it did not occur to him even then to save himself by flight, as
he could well have done, seeing that he was mounted and that the
robbers were on foot. Disabled as he was, he wheeled about once
more, and half maddened by pain and the desperation of his case,
rode furiously upon the only man who had not yet received some
injury. The robber awaited his charge with a smile of triumph upon
his face; but he triumphed a little too soon.

Sultan was a horse of remarkable intelligence and fidelity. He had
known fighting before now--had carried his rider through many a
skirmish before this; and his fidelity and affection equalled his
intelligence. With the wonderful instinct that seems always to
exist between horse and rider who have known each other long, he
appeared to divine that his master's case was somewhat desperate,
and that he needed an ally in his cause. And thus when the pair
bore down upon the robber, who was coolly awaiting the charge,
Sultan took law into his own hands, and overthrew the plan both of
attack and defence by a quick movement of his own. For he swerved
slightly as he approached the man, and rising suddenly upon his
hind legs, brought down all the weight of his iron shoe with
tremendous force upon the head of the adversary, who fell to the
ground with a low groan, and lay as helpless as his former comrade.

But excellent as this manoeuvre was in one aspect, it disconcerted
the rider by its suddenness; and when as the horse reared the
second robber sprang upon the rider to try and drag him from his
seat, the effort was only too successful. The traveller was easily
pulled away from the saddle, and fell heavily to the ground; whilst
the foe uttered a savage exclamat