-mile
farther that I couldn't help wondering what it was all about. Anyhow,
I knew we agreed it was never to be worked for nothing, so thought the
best thing I could do was to call in the mare, and see if I could
find out anything then. When I got alongside, I could see that Miss
Falkland's face was that white that something must be up. It weren't the
mare she was afraid of. She was coming back to her. It took something to
frighten her, I knew. So it must be something I did not know, or didn't
see.

'"What is it, Miss Falkland?" I said.

'"Oh!" she cried out, "don't you know? Another fifty yards and we'll be
over the downfall where the trooper was killed. Oh, my poor father!"

'"Don't be afraid," I said. "We'll not go over if I can help it."

'So I reached over and got hold of the reins. I pulled and jerked.
She said her hands were cramped, and no wonder. Pulling double for a
four-mile heat is no joke, even if a man's in training. Fancy a woman,
a young girl, having to sit still and drag at a runaway horse all the
time. I couldn't stop the brute; she was boring like a wild bull. So
just as we came pretty close I lifted Miss Falkland off the saddle and
yelled at old Brownie as if I had been on a cattle camp, swinging round
to the near side at the same time. Round he came like one o'clock. I
could see the mare make one prop to stop herself, and then go flying
right through the air, till I heard a beastly "thud" at the bottom.

'Miss Falkland didn't faint, though she turned white and then red, and
trembled like a leaf when I lifted her down, and looked up at me with a
sweet smile, and said--

'"Jim, you have paid me for binding up your wrist, haven't you? You have
saved me from a horrible death, and I shall think of you as a brave and
noble fellow all the days of my life."

'What could I say?' said Jim. 'I stared at her like a fool. "I'd have
gone over the bank with you, Miss Falkland," I said, "if I could not
have saved you."

'"Well, I'm afraid some of my admirers would have stopped short of that,
James," she said. She did indeed. And then Mr. Falkland and all of you
came up.'

'I say, Jim,' said one of the young fellows, 'your fortune's made. Mr.
Falkland 'll stand a farm, you may be sure, for this little fakement.'

'And I say, Jack,' says old Jim, very quiet like, 'I've told you all the
yarn, and if there's any chaff about it after this the cove will have to
see whether he's best man or me; so don't make a