gallop, and headed straight for that craggy thirty-foot wall. He
would break in red ruin at the base of it if he could but dash
forever the life of this man, who claimed mastery over that which
had never found its master yet.

The great haunches gathered under it, the eager hoofs drummed the
grass, as faster and still more fast the frantic horse bore
himself and his rider toward the wall. Would Nigel spring off?
To do so would be to bend his will to that of the beast beneath
him. There was a better way than that. Cool, quick and decided,
the man swiftly passed both whip and bridle into the left hand
which still held the mane. Then with the right he slipped his
short mantle from his shoulders and lying forward along the
creature's strenuous, rippling back he cast the flapping cloth
over the horse's eyes.

The result was but too successful, for it nearly brought about the
downfall of the rider. When those red eyes straining for death
were suddenly shrouded in unexpected darkness the amazed horse
propped on its forefeet and came to so dead a stop that Nigel was
shot forward on to its neck and hardly held himself by his
hair-entwined hand. Ere he had slid back into position the moment
of danger had passed, for the horse, its purpose all blurred in
its mind by this strange thing which had befallen, wheeled round
once more, trembling in every fiber, and tossing its petulant head
until at last the mantle had been slipped from its eyes and the
chilling darkness had melted into the homely circle of sunlit
grass once more.

But what was this new outrage which had been inflicted upon it?