Part 32 (1/2)

There were nine beasts for nine riders We rove of trees to where a broken palingof cultivated land There for the h deep, clogging snow He wanted to avoid any sound till ell beyond earshot of the house Then we struck a by-path which presently ed, south-west by west There we delayed no longer, but galloped furiously into the dark

I had got back all my exhilaration Indeed I was intoxicated with theUnder the black canopy of the night perils are either forgotten or terribly alive Mine were forgotten The darkness I galloped into led me to freedom and friends Yes, and success, which I had not dared to hope and scarcely even to dream of

Hussin rode first, with me at his side I turned my head and saw Blenkiron behind me, evidently mortally unhappy about the pace we set and the ood for his liver, but it was a gentle aallop that he liked, and not this hs were too round to fit a saddle leather We passed a fire in a hollow, the bivouac of some Turkish unit, and all the horses shi+ed violently I knew by Blenkiron's oaths that he had lost his stirrups and was sitting on his horse's neck

Beside his, and wearing round his neck some kind of shahose ends floated behind him Sandy, of course, had no European ulster, for it was months since he had worn proper clothes I wanted to speak to him, but somehow I did not dare His stillness forbade lish hunting seat, and it was as well, for he paid no attention to his beast His head was still full of unquiet thoughts

Then the air aroundinding up from the hollows

'Here's the devil's own luck,' I cried to Hussin 'Can you guide us in a mist?'

'I do not know' He shook his head 'I had counted on seeing the shape of the hills'

'We've aPray God it lifts!'

Presently the black vapour changed to grey, and the day broke It was little co at the head of the party I could but dimly see the next rank

'It is time to leave the road,' said Hussin, 'or we may round which was for all the world like a Scotch led snow-laden junipers, and long reefs of wet slaty stone It was bad going, and the fog ood course I had out the map and the compass, and tried to fix our route so as to round the flank of a spur of theat

'There's a stream ahead of us,' I said to Hussin 'Is it fordable?'

'It is only a trickle,' he said, coughing 'This accursedbefore we reached it that it was no trickle It was a hill streauessed, in a deep ravine Presently ere at its edge, one long whirl of yeasty falls and brown rapids We could as soon get horses over it as to the topmost cliffs of the Palantuken

Hussin stared at it in consternation 'May Allah forgive hway and find a bridge My sorrow, that I should have led my lords so ill'

Back over that moor itha start, and Hilda von Einem would rouse heaven and earth to catch us up Hussin was forcing the pace, for his anxiety was as great as mine

Before we reached the road the ht across to the hills beyond the river It was a clear view, every object standing out wet and sharp in the light of e with horsemen drawn up across it, and it showed, too, cavalry picketsthe road

They saw us at the same instant A as passed down the road, a shrill whistle blew, and the pickets put their horses at the bank and started across the rowled Hussin, as ung round and galloped back on our tracks 'These cursed Zaptiehs have seen us, and our road is cut'

I was for trying the stream at all costs, but Hussin pointed out that it would do us no good The cavalry beyond the bridge was h the hills that I know, but it must be travelled on foot If we can increase our lead and the mist cloaks us, there is yet a chance'

It was a weary business plodding up to the skirts of the hills We had the pursuit behind us now, and that put an edge on every difficulty There were long banks of broken screes, I remember, where the snow slipped in wreaths from under our feet Great boulders had to be circu, where the streams from the snows first irths Happily the h it hindered the chase, lessened the chances of Hussin finding the path

He found it nevertheless There was the gully and the roughupwards But there also had been a landslip, quite recent froe scar of raw earth had broken across the hillside, which with the snow above it looked like a slice cut out of an iced chocolate-cake

We stared blankly for a second, till we recognized its hopelessness

'I's,' I said 'Where there once was a way another can be found'

'And be picked off at their leisure by these rilance behind showedup on us They were now less than three hundred yards off We turned our horses andthe skirts of the cliffs