He looked casually around,
as indifferently as he would have looked round the guest-room of the
"Rising Sun," and added, "Follow me, and ride as if the devil were at your
tail."
He turned off into the bare, flat country, and we after him. How we rode!
He was making for a little group of trees, some dozen wind-sown pines,
stuck like a forlorn picket in enemy country a stone's-throw from the
road. We got there in a bunch, for there was no time for Sultan's pace to
count.
"Damn the moon!" he said, and dismounted. "But this is better than
nothing. Take off Margaret's saddle, Oliver."
I got down, and assisted Margaret to dismount. She thanked me, briefly
and smilingly, as unperturbed as the gaunt pine beneath which she stood.
The Colonel and I changed the saddles, and in a few seconds Margaret was
on Sultan. I asked him in vain to take the sorrel and leave the mare to
me, for she was getting restive, and the Colonel was not quite so able as
I was with a strange horse. I insisted, however, in taking off my coat and
wrapping it about the mare's head, and, being thus blanketed, she gave us
no further trouble.
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