ther
legs, and we were just about headed for kingdom come when these
fellows pulled us back from the brink. As for Rex himself, I guess
he's gone where he won't run away any more," and leaning over the
jagged edge of the bridge the stableman looked down on the
motionless form of the horse. Rex had, indeed, run his last.

"It is all so--so surprising to me," went on the stranger. "It all
occurred with such unexpected suddenness. One moment we are
driving along as quietly as you please, only perhaps a trifle
accentuated, and then--presto! we begin to go too fast, and the
leather thong breaks. Then indeed there are things doing, as you
say up here."

He smiled, trying, perhaps, to show himself at his ease. He was
rapidly recovering, not only from the fright, but from the effects
of the blow on the head which had caused the cut, and rendered him
unconscious for a moment.

"It sure was a narrow squeak," declared Hank again. "I don't want
any closer call. I couldn't move to save myself, I was so
dumbfounded, and the carriage would have toppled down in another,
second if you boys hadn't come along and hauled it back."

"We saw you pass Mr. Baker's house," explained Blake, "and we came
after you on the motor cycle. Tried to get ahead of you, but the
old machine laid down on us."

"But we got here in time," added Joe.

"You did indeed! I can not thank you enough," put in the Spaniard,
as Joe and Blake both classed him. "You have saved my life, and
some day I hope not only to repay the favor, but to show how
grateful I am in other ways. I am a stranger in this part of your
fine country, but I expect to be better acquainted soon. But where
is our horse?" he asked quickly, not seeming to understand what
had happened. "How are we to continue our journey?" and he looked
at his driver.

"We're at the end of it now, in more ways than one," Hank
answered, with a smile. "You're just where you wanted to go,
though not in the style I calculated on taking you."

"But I do not comprehend, sir," said the Spaniard, in rather
puzzled accents. "I have engaged you to take me to a certain
place. There is an accident. We go through a fence with a
resounding crash--Ah! I can hear that smash yet!" and he put his
hands to his ears in a somewhat dramatic manner.

"Then everything is black. Our horse disappears, and--"

"He's down there, if you want to know _where_ he disappeared to,"
broke in Hank, practically.

"It is no matter--if he