feet, and whirl round and round until from very
giddiness she would stagger and fall. She would lay hold of the straw
with her teeth, and shake it as a dog shakes a struggling woodchuck;
then dashing it from her mouth, she would seize hold of her own sides,
and send herself. Springing up, she would rush against the end of the
car, falling all in a heap from the violence of the concussion. For some
fifteen minutes without intermission the frenzy lasted. I was nearly
exhausted. My efforts to avoid her mad rushes, the terrible tension
of my nervous system produced by the spectacle of such exquisite and
prolonged suffering, were weakening me beyond what I should have thought
it possible an hour before for anything to weaken me. In fact, I felt
my strength leaving me. A terror such as I had never yet felt was taking
possession of my mind. I sickened at the sight before me, and at the
thought of agonies yet to come. 'My God,' I exclaimed, 'must I be killed
by own horse in this miserable car!' Even as I spoke the end came. The
mare raised herself until her shoulders touched the roof, then dashed
her body upon the floor with a violence which threatened the stout frame
beneath her. I leaned, panting and exhausted, against the side of the
car. Gulnare did not stir. She lay motionless, her breath coming and
going in lessening respirations. I tottered toward her, and, as I stood
above her, my ear detected a low gurgling sound. I can not describe the
feeling that followed. Joy and grief contended within me. I knew the
meaning of that sound. Gulnare, in her frenzied violence, had broken a
blood-vessel, and was bleeding internally. Pain and life were passing
away together.

"I knelt down by her side."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Ride With A Mad Horse In A
Freight-Car, by W. H. H. Murray

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE ***

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