ey big
grooms or any one except Hollyhock. But for her he would have given
his life.

The eyes, so flashing black; the coat, black also and of such a silken
sheen; the tail, a little longer than that of most horses; and the
great lovely mane, all gave to the gallant animal a look of
determination and of spirit, which drew the remarks of the neighbours,
who could not imagine why Hollyhock had been presented by her father
with so much finer a horse to ride than the other Flower Girls. But
the fact was that the four other Flower Girls did not so greatly care
for riding, and although they often went out accompanied by their
father on the Saturday and Sunday afternoons, yet they preferred steeds
less spirited in nature than Lightning Speed.

Hollyhock had, therefore, her own way entirely with her precious
treasure, and for his sake she would not, if possible, endanger the
life of Lightning Speed. She knew well that the leap of twelve feet
which she intended to take would be a mere nothing to Lightning Speed
in the ordinary hours of daylight; but with the moon shining
brilliantly and casting strange lights and also queer black shadows,
and with the terrific noise made by the foaming torrent below, the
horse, brave as he was, might refuse the leap at the last moment.

'At any cost he must not do that,' thought Hollyhock.

'You must not disgrace me, my bonnie beastie,' she whispered into his
sensitive ear; and certainly the Arab looked as if he had no intention
of disgracing the girl he loved.

She took him to the gorge on two Saturdays and Sundays in succession,
and gave him imperious orders to leap across, which he did without a
moment's hesitation, leaping back again with equal ease. But this was
daylight. Things looked different at night. Animals were known to see
strange, uncanny things at night; the shadows were not mere shadows to
them. They were monsters beckoning them to destruction. The light,
too, of the full moon--for it would be full moon that night--would add
to the terrors of Lightning Speed. That intense white world would be
as terrifying to him as the blackness of the gorge and the sudden awful
gap over which he was expected to leap.

Now the prizes were to be presented to the girls of the school by the
great Duke himself, and Mrs Macintyre assumed that the three or four
young maids who were to perform their deeds of daring would choose the
daytime for the display of their courage.

As a matte