was a terrible accident averted. Grace heard the men shout, and there
was a wilder burst of the opened muffler. Then she felt a shock, and
she knew that the machine had struck and grazed Prince.

She glanced down and saw a red streak on his off fore shoulder. He had
been cut by some part of the car.

The next moment, as the racing auto swung out of sight around a bend
in the road, Prince took the bit in his teeth and bolted. With all her
strength Grace reined him in, but he was wildly frightened. She felt
herself slipping from the saddle.

"Prince! Prince!" she cried, bracing herself in the stirrups, and
gripping the reins with all her might. "Prince! Quiet, old fellow!"

But Prince was now beyond the reasoning power of any human voice. The
thunder rumbled and crashed overhead. Grace, above it, could hear the
whining decrease of the exhaust of the big car that had caused her
steed to run away.

"Prince! Prince!" she pleaded.

He did not heed. Farther and farther she slipped from the saddle as
his wild plunges threw her out of it. Then there came a crash that
seemed to mark the height of the storm. A great light shone in front
of Grace. Myriads of stars danced before her eyes.

She flashed towards a house. From it ran two little tots, and, even in
that terror she recognized them as Dodo and Paul, the two Billette
twins. They were visiting a relative who lived on this road, she dimly