It was not pleasant riding now, for the ground was very steep, and the
trees very thick and low; and when after long scrambling down they came
to a stream at the bottom of the hill, the children found no better
path than a very rough track by the water, full of great boulders, over
which the ponies stumbled continually. Presently they crossed the
water, and then for the first time the children perceived that the
woman was no longer with them, though where she had left them they
could not tell. Still the idiot guided them on through the woods,
uphill and down and across more than one stream, till at last he led
them into a grass path, where after walking for some time he suddenly
stopped and listened. Then pointing down it, he grinned and touched up
Stonecrop to make him trot, and after running for some time alongside
them, dropped behind. Dick began to think that the path was familiar
to him, and the ponies began to pull, as though they knew it also. In
another five minutes they came down into the road by which they had
driven up on the previous morning, and there stood the Corporal and
another servant, both of them mounted, not a hundred yards away.
Dick shouted joyfully, and the Corporal galloping hastily up,
dismounted and ran to them. He was white, haggard and unshorn, and for
a time only patted their ponies apparently unable to speak.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96