unt after Herne the
Hunter; but here, behind them, hunted Death.

The animals neither saw nor knew what waited them, as they rushed down
on to the broad, gray stream, veiled from them by the slope and the
screen of flickering leaves; to save them there was but one chance, and
that so desperate that it looked like madness. It was but a second's
thought; he gave it but a second's resolve.

The next instant he stood on his feet, as the carriage swayed to and
fro over the turf, balanced himself marvelously as it staggered in that
furious gallop from side to side, clinched the reins hard in the grip of
his teeth, measured the distance with an unerring eye, and crouching his
body for the spring with all the science of the old playing-fields of
his Eton days, cleared the dashboard and lighted astride on the back of
the hunting five-year old--how, he could never have remembered or have
told.

The tremendous pace at which they went swayed him with a lurch and a
reel over the off-side; a woman's cry rang again, clear, and shrill,
and agonized on the night; a moment more, and he would have fallen, head
downward, beneath the horses' feet. But he had ridden stirrupless and
saddleless ere now; he recovered himself with the suppleness of an Arab,
and firm-seated behind the collar, with one leg crushed between the
pole and Maraschino's flanks, gathering in the ribbons till they were
tight-drawn as a bridle, he strained with all the might and sinew that
were in him to get the grays in hand before they could plunge down into
the water. His wrists were wrenched like pulleys, the resistance against
him was hard as iron; but as he had risked life and limb in the leap
which had seated him across the harnessed loins of the now terrified
beast, so he risked them afresh to get the mastery now; to slacken them,
turn them ever so slightly, and save the woman he loved--loved, at least
in this hour, as he had not loved her before. One moment more, while the
half-maddened beast rushed through the shadows; one moment more, till
the river stretched full before them in all its length and breadth,
without a living thing upon its surface to break the still and awful
calm; one moment--and the force of cool command conquered and broke
their wills despite themselves. The hunter knew his master's voice,
his touch, his pressure, and slackened speed by an irresistible, almost
unconscious habit of obedience; the carriage mare, checked and galled
in the full