ut to his utter astonishment the last man's pony stopped short, sending
the rider over its head, and Chris tore on, with the intention of
passing through the line.

It was a furious race now, for at intervals quite a dozen of the enemy
were trailing along now to cut him off, and victory was bound to be to
the most swift. But the enemy were clever enough not to trust to the
result of this race, for several hundreds of yards out another line of
horsemen was tearing over the plain, whirling their bows and spears over
their heads and using them mercilessly upon the flanks of their steeds.

It was a good race, during which Chris's mustang proved its speed, going
over the grass _ventre a terre_, as the French call it, and, to his
delight, the boy was able to pass round the farthest horseman, who
strove vainly to head him, as he made now for the open plain.

The effort was vain, for the second line was closing-in at full gallop,
and seeing the hopelessness of repeating his first feint, Chris now
urged his pony on again parallel with the edge of the cliff, with some
idea of riding round the end of the great depression so as to get to the
far side, and then, trusting to the speed of his brave little mount,
escaping there.

But it was of no use. At first he began to feel hopeful, for he was
going fast and getting well on towards the head of the valley, which
after a gallop he finally reached. The open country beyond was before
him, he was bending down again to reach forward and pat the pony's neck,
shouting cheering words to it the while, when he suddenly became aware
of the fact that right in front, and coming from quite a different
direction, there was another party of the enemy, which no sooner caught
sight of the chase than they increased their pace, spreading out into a
line the while.

Chris began to draw rein, slowly checking his pony's gallop to a canter,
and then easing it down to a walk, for he had been gradually edged more
and more towards the rim of the great depression, till there was not
more than a hundred yards between him and the precipitous descent, which
presented an effectual barrier to all escape there.

"They're too much for me," panted the boy breathlessly, and quite
innocent of this naive way of expressing himself, for it never occurred
to him how pitifully small his chances of escape had been in pitting
himself, a mere lad, against nearly a hundred of the active warriors of
the plain.

"But I'm