he halted
then and there, he could not tell which way to turn himself. He would
be lost!

He grew more than anxious. He became frightened in earnest.

What was he to do? Leap down, and risk his neck in the fall? He would
lose his quagga and his saddle as well--he regarded the eland as already
lost--he would have to walk back to camp, and get laughed at on his
return.

No matter for all that; his life was in danger if he kept on. The
quaggas might gallop twenty,--ay, fifty miles before halting. They
showed no symptoms of being blown--no signs of giving out. He must
fling himself to the ground, and let quagga and saddle go.

He had formed this resolution, and was actually about to put it in
practice. He was just considering how he might best escape an ugly
fall--looking for a soft spot--when, all at once, a grand idea rushed
into his mind.

He remembered that in taming this same quagga and breaking him to the
saddle, he had been vastly aided by a very simple contrivance--that was
a "blind." The blind was nothing more than a piece of soft leather tied
over the animal's eyes; but so complete had been its effect, that it had
transformed the quagga at once from a kicking screaming creature into a
docile animal.

Hendrik now thought of the blind.

True, he had none. Was there nothing about him that would serve as one?
His handkerchief? No, it would be too thin. Hurrah! His jacket would
do!

His rifle was in the way. It must be got rid of. It must be dropped to
the ground, he could return for it.

It was let down as gently as possible, and soon left far behind.

In a twinkling Hendrik stripped off his jacket. How was it to be
arranged so as to blind the quagga? It would not do to drop it.

A moment's consideration served the ready boy to mature his plan. After
a moment he bent down, passed a sleeve upon each side under the quagga's
throat, and then knotted them together. The jacket thus rested over the
animal's mane, with the collar near its withers, and the peak or skirt
upon the small of its neck.

Hendrik next leaned as far forward as he could, and with his extended
arms pushed the jacket up the animal's neck, until the skirt passed over
its ears, and fell down in front of its face.

It was with some difficulty that the rider, bent down as he was, could
retain his seat; for as soon as the thick flap of cloth came down over
the eyes of the quagga, the latter halted as if he had been shot d