about seven miles short of our night's destination, where,
in any case, the party was to have called in passing. So we wound on
through the narrow wood-paths in single file--sinking occasionally
pastern-deep, where the thin ice over mud-holes supplanted the safe
crackling snow-crests--traversing frequent fords, where rills had
swollen into brooks and turbid streams; some of those gullies must have
been dark even at noon-day, with overhanging cypress and pine; they were
so bitterly black now that you were fain to follow close on the splash
in your front, for no mortal ken could have pierced half a horse's
length ahead. At length, we left the path altogether, and pulling down a
snake fence, passed through the gap into open fields. It was all plain
sailing here, and a great relief after groping through the dim woodland;
we encountered no obstacle but an occasional "zigzag," easily
demolished, till we came to a deep hollow, where the guide
dismounted--evidently rather vague as to his bearings--and proceeded to
feel his way. Somewhere about here there was a "branch" (or rivulet) to
be crossed, and danger of bog and marsh if you went astray. At last he
professed to have discovered the right point; but neither force nor
persuasion could induce the stubborn brute he rode to face it. There was
nothing for it but trying what "giving him a lead" would do. The place
was evidently a small one, but the landing absolutely uncertain; so I
put Falcon at it steadily, letting him have his head. Then first the
poor horse displayed his remarkable talent for getting over difficulties
in the dark, a talent that I have never seen equaled in any other
animal, and which alone made him invaluable. He took off--almost at a
stand--out of clay up to his hocks, exactly at the right time, and
landed me on firm ground without a scramble. A minute afterward there
came a rush, a splutter, and a crash, and a struggling mass rolled at my
feet, gradually resolving itself into a man, a roan horse, and two
saddle-bags. So sped Alabama's maiden leap. It was soft falling,
however, and no harm beyond the breaking of a strap was done; but it was
fully three-quarters of an hour before our united efforts got Symonds'
refugee across. We accomplished it at last by hurling the brute
backwards into the branch by main strength, and then wading ourselves
through mud that just touched the upper edge of my thigh-boots. Once
over, the track was easily found, and a barking cho