des more tightly, and felt
how the beast responded by increasing its pace.

On still, and on, over the rich green flower-decked earth; past groves
of trees whose names he did not know,--some bearing the thin foliage of
grey or sage green, with delicate shades of pink and blue, others like a
coarse-leaved spiky-looking fir, whose boughs touched the ground, and
densely clustered upward in a pyramid of dark glistening growth that
would have hidden a dozen men from a traveller's gaze.

There were the mountains, too, in a long ridge, stretching away to right
and left, and always of a delicious amethystine blue, that looked as
transparent as water, but always as far off as ever.

A grand, a lovely ride, but a terrible one in that heat; for this was
the time when the doctor always had a midday halt by water and in the
shade of trees. But there was no stopping for hours at a time like
this. Nic felt that he must get on as fast as he could, and with his
eyes fixed upon the notch he rode forward to the regular beat of his
horse's hoofs.

Hotter and hotter grew the day, and as Nic glanced from side to side he
saw that he was not the only sufferer, for the dogs were trotting along
with their heads down, and they gazed up at him and whined. His horse,
too, began to look more distressed, but it did not flag, keeping up that
steady canter toward the blue mountains that never seemed to grow any
nearer.

For a few moments the idea lingered in Nic's brain, that he must draw
rein in the shade of the next clump of trees, but the thought evoked the
face of his father, back there at the waggon, anxious about those dear
to him, wondering how all had sped at the Bluff, and he felt that he
could not halt even for an hour--that he must go on and on.

Then he began wondering how he would find the place--whether the blacks
had been during his father's absence, and attacked it when it was only
defended by women and the servants, who might have escaped for their
lives.

This idea of the place having been attacked sent such a thrill through
Nic that he felt ready for any amount more exertion, and instead of
halting he urged his willing steed on, shouted to the dogs and made them
leap forward, while his eyes wandered about in search of enemies, but
only to see something moving in the distance which, resembled the
ostrich of his old picture-books. There was no sign of man, no house,
flock, herd, or water, while his tongue was beginning to f