ls and watercourses which helped to fill its
bed, and which had themselves been latest to receive the rainfall, were
charging down with new forces; and thinking of this I almost surrendered
myself to despair. But I had not even yet given way, when the volume of
water fell with an astonishing suddenness, and in little more than five
minutes by my watch I could see a foot of the rock clear.

At ordinary times the ford was about a foot deep, and even then the
rapid incline of the ground sent the shallow water swirling along at
such a pace that it made a horse's foothold on the sliding pebbles
precarious. Now it was four feet deep at least, and to cross at present
was as impossible as it had been half an hour before. But as I watched
it became more and more evident that the stream had received its last
impetus, and the very element of speed which made the passage dangerous
would diminish danger every moment.

The river seemed to grow noisier as it fell, chafing against obstacles
which it had hitherto overflowed, and listen as one might we could make
out nothing but its sullen roar. I told Hinge what I had noticed about
the stream, and with a few words to my companions I rode until the noise
of rushing water was no longer oppressive to the ear, and listened with
all my might. I heard a thousand distant-seeming noises, which had in
them no reality--shoutings and stealthy whispers, the thud and jingle
of cantering troops of horse, lonely far-away footfalls, all manner
of phantom sounds. Suddenly, in the midst of these illusions, my heart
stood still for a mere half-beat at a noise which I knew in an instant
to be real. A troop of cavalry at a gallop crossed the wooden bridge
which spanned the river a couple of miles away. It sounded like a peal
of thunder, but I knew what it meant well enough. The pursuers would be
ahead of us, and every pass and pathway would be threaded, and guards
would be everywhere.

Half an hour passed away without bringing anything further, and I rode
back to the ford. All three of my companions were watching it with an
absorbed and gloomy interest, and the rock by which I marked the fall of
the stream stood a clear three feet above its surface.

"Let us try it now," I counselled, and was heading my horse at the
water, when Hinge interposed.

"What's the depth, sir?" he called out to me.

"About two feet," I answered.

"Then I shall wade," said Hinge. "It 'll give the hoss more confidence,
and I