CHAPTER III
THE RUNAWAY
Grace cantered along the pleasant country road on the back of Prince. The noble animal had lost some of his fiery eagerness to cover the whole earth in one jump, and now was mindful of snaffle and curb, the latter of which Grace always applied with gentle hand. Prince seemed to: know this, for he behaved in such style as not to need the cruel gripping, which so many horsemen—and horsewomen too, for that matter—needlessly inflict.
"Oh, but it is glorious to ride!" exclaimed the girl, as she urged the animal into a gallop on a soft stretch of road beneath wonderful trees that interlaced their branches overhead. "Glorious—glorious!"
"I hope those papers are not so valuable that it would be an object for—for some one to try to take them away from me," she mused. Instinctively she glanced behind her, but the peace-
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