Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/274

 "That's them!"

They heard the splashing of horses, and then Nan and Edith and Ben came around a jutting point. The riders stopped as though they doubted their own eyes, for they, too, had seen Edith's cow-pony tumbling in the flood.

Nan, who had been leaning over the saddle-horn, straightened herself.

"Bob!" she cried, but he was too far away to hear, nor did he see her white, grief-stricken face before the color returned.

They were still all but speechless with astonishment when they met, but Mr. Strunk said breezily: "Lemme make you acquainted with the human fly."

They laughed, all of them, a little hysterically.

"I didn't think you had a chance on earth," said Ben.

"I hadn't but one," Bob replied. "And now if I can hire Spiser's horse here"—he looked at the saddle-horse behind the buckboard.

"Spiser's horse? Clarence Strunk's Horse—Clarence Strunk's buggy—Clarence