Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/43

Rh approaching foe. There was no time for consideration, and with the courage of despair he urged his trembling steed along the latter. The poor beast now became unmanageable through fright, till his master tearing off the sleeve of his shirt bound it over his eyes. On again, till within a few hundred yards of the long line. And now the nearest machines seem to have detected the flying figure; for with renewed shrieks and redoubled speed they bear down upon him as he turns the bend of the road which leads down to the ford. A few moments bring him to the bank, but those moments, during which he seems to feel the hot breath scorching his back, seem like hours. Horse and man plunge into the cold water. For some distance the foothold is indeed rough, but the water shallow, but suddenly the horse loses his feet, and has to swim, while the swift current bears them drifting down and threatens to land them on the side they have quitted, where the machines are now ranged up to welcome them in a terrible embrace. Happily at the moment when the current had borne them within a few yards of the bank, and the rider had given up all hope, a sand bank or bar caused its direction to