the brave little cob swept over the sand, spurning it at every effort in
a blinding shower right in the lion's face, while Dyke, lying prostrate,
clinging with hand and knee, was in momentary expectation of being
thrown off.

The pursuit was not kept up for more than three hundred yards. Then the
lion stopped short, and sent forth a series of its thunderous,
full-throated roars, every one making Breezy start and plunge
frantically forward, with the sweat darkening its satin coat.

But the danger was past, and for the next ten minutes Dyke strove hard
to master a hysterical sensation of a desire to sob; and then gaining
strength, and beginning to breathe with less effort, he drew himself up
erect, and tried by voice and caress to slacken the frightened animal's
headlong speed.

"Wo-ho, lad! wo-ho, lad!" he cried, and the speed slackened into a
canter.

"My word!" muttered the boy to himself, "I don't know how I managed to
stick on!"

Ten minutes later he managed to stop the cob, and sliding off wearily,
he stroked and patted its reeking neck, unbuckled and slipped in the
bit, attached the reins to the loose side, and arranged them ready for
mounting. Then dragging the saddle back into its place, he properly
tightened the girths, and gave two or three searching glances backward
the while.

But the lion, far or near, was well hidden, and they were well out in
one of the barest parts of the plain, which now spread tenantless as far
as eye could reach, while the eland was quite out of sight.

And now, as he proceeded to mount, Dyke awoke to the fact that his back
was bruised sore by the gun, which had beaten him heavily; he was
drenched with perspiration; and it was an effort to lift his foot to the
stirrup, his knees being terribly stiff. He was conscious, too, of a
strange feeling of weariness of both mind and body, and as he sank into
the saddle he uttered a low sigh.

But he recovered a bit directly, and turning the cob's head, began to
ride slowly in the direction of Kopfontein, whose granite pile lay like
an ant-hill far away, low down on the eastern horizon.

He was too tired to think; but he noted in a dull, half-stunned way that
the sun was getting very low, and it struck him that unless he hurried
on, darkness would overtake him long before he could get home.

But it did not seem to matter; and though it hurt him a little, there
was something very pleasant in the easy, rocking motion of Breezy's
can