stiff and tenfold more tired than before. Great as
the temptation is to rest, you should first finish your
race, the whole day s journey, before you let your
nerves relax.
Slowly as we moved, however, our pursuers did not reappear. We were still on the ridge, in spite of the sharp and eccentric turn it had taken around the head of the river.
As the sun went down, broad, blood-red ban ners ran up to the top of Shasta, and streamed away to the south in hues of gold; streamed and streamed as if to embrace the universe in one great union beneath one banner. Then the night came down as suddenly on the world as the swoop of an eagle.
The Doctor, who had all the afternoon kept an uncertain seat, now leaned over on his mule s mane, and had fallen, but for the Prince who was riding at his side.
Klamat came back and set his rifle against a pine. We laid the feeble man on the bed of quills, loosened the sinches as the mules and ponies let their noses droop almost to the ground, and prepared to spend the night. This was imperative. It was impossible to go farther. That would have been the death of the man we wished to save.
A severe ride in the mountains at any time is a task. Your neck is wrenched, and your limbs are weary as you leap this log or tumble and stumble your tired animal over this pile of rocks or through that sink of mud, until you are tired enough by night ;
