would dash out into the road, stop to listen, and dart into the
opposite hedge, all hind legs and white scut. But except for these he
was alone in the world.

And gradually there began to be borne in upon him the conviction that
he had lost his way.

It is difficult to judge distance when one is walking, but it
certainly seemed to Jimmy that he must have covered five miles by this
time. He must have mistaken the way. He had certainly come straight.
He could not have come straighter. On the other hand, it would be
quite in keeping with the cheap substitute which served Spennie Blunt
in place of a mind that he should have forgotten to mention some
important turning. Jimmy sat down by the roadside.

As he sat, there came to him from down the road the sound of a horse's
feet, trotting. He got up. Here was somebody at last who would direct
him.

The sound came nearer. The horse turned the corner; and Jimmy saw with
surprise that it bore no rider.

"Hullo!" he said. "Accident? And, by Jove, a side saddle!"

The curious part of it was that the horse appeared in no way a wild
horse. It did not seem to be running away. It gave the impression of
being out for a little trot on its own account, a sort of equine
constitutional.

Jimmy stopped the horse, and led it back the way it had come. As he