let me take him over for you!--Shall I?"
and he bustled forward, looking eagerly up at Carette.

"Stand back!" I said brusquely. "You'll have quite enough to do to take
yourself across, I should say," and we were off.

"I'll bring you back on Black Boy," cried Torode consolingly to Carette.

Gray Robin's mild eyes glanced apprehensively into the depths as we went
slowly over, and his ears and nostrils twitched to and fro at the growl of
the surf down below on either side. I held him firmly by the head and
soothed him with encouraging words. The old horse snuffled between
gratitude and disgust, and Carette clung tightly up above, and vowed that
she would not cross on Black Boy whatever Torode might say.

She was devoutly thankful, I could see, when Gray Robin stepped safely onto
the spreading bulk of Little Sercq. I lifted her down, and loosed the old
horse's bit and set him free for a crop among the sweet short grasses of
the hillside, while we sat down with the rest to watch the others come
over.

Caution was the order of the day. Most of the girls kept their seats and
braved the passage in token of confidence in their convoys. Some risked all
but accident by meekly footing it, and accepted the ironical
congratulations on the other side as best they might.

Young Torode had waited his turn with impatience. He and Black Boy were on
such terms that the latter would have made a bolt for home if the grasp on
his bridle had relaxed for one moment. Again and again his restlessness had
suffered angry check which served only to increase it. Neither horse nor
rider was in any state for so critical a passage as the one before them.
There was no community of feeling between them, except of dislike, and the
backbone of a common enterprise is mutual trust and good feeling.

To do him that much justice, Torode must have known that under the
circumstances he was taking unusual risk. But he had confidence in his own
skill and mastery, and no power on earth would have deterred him from the
attempt.

He leaped on Black Boy, turned him from the gulf and rode him up the
Common. Then he turned again and came down at a hand gallop, and reaped his
reward in the startled cries and anxious eyes of the onlookers. The safe
sitters in the heather on the farther side sprang up to watch, and held
their breath.

"The fool!" slipped through more clenched teeth than mine.

The stones from Black Boy's heels went rattling down into the depths