ffle.'

They made their arrangements to meet in the Cemetery, after allowing
all the Mashobra people time to pass into Simla. That night it
rained heavily, and, next day, when the Tertium Quid came to the
trysting-place, he saw that the new grave had a foot of water in it, the
ground being a tough and sour clay.

'Jove! That looks beastly,' said the Tertium Quid. 'Fancy being boarded
up and dropped into that well!'

They then started off to Fagoo, the mare playing with the snaffle and
picking her way as though she were shod with satin, and the sun shining
divinely. The road below Mashobra to Fagoo is officially styled the
Himalayan-Thibet road; but in spite of its name it is not much more than
six feet wide in most places, and the drop into the valley below may be
anything between one and two thousand feet.

'Now we're going to Thibet,' said the Man's Wife merrily, as the horses
drew near to Fagoo. She was riding on the cliff-side.

'Into Thibet,' said the Tertium Quid, 'ever so far from people who say
horrid things, and hubbies who write stupid letters. With you to the end
of the world!'

A coolie carrying a log of wood came round a corner, and the mare went
wide to avoid him forefeet in and haunches out, as a sensible mare
should go.

'To the world's end,' said the Man's Wife, and looked unspeakable things
over her near shoulder at the Tertium Quid.

He was smiling, but, while she looked, the smile froze stiff as it were
on his face, and changed to a nervous grin the sort of grin men wear
when they are not quite easy in their saddles. The mare seemed to be
sinking by the stern, and her nostrils cracked while she was trying to
realise what was happening. The rain of the night before had rotted the
drop-side of the Himalayan-Thibet Road, and it was giving way under
her. 'What are you doing?' said the Man's Wife. The Tertium Quid gave no
answer. He grinned nervously and set his spurs into the mare, who rapped
with her forefeet on the road, and the struggle began. The Man's Wife
screamed, 'Oh, Frank, get off!'

But the Tertium Quid was glued to the saddle his face blue and white and
he looked into the Man's Wife's eyes. Then the Man's Wife clutched at
the mare's head and caught her by the nose instead of the bridle. The
brute threw up her head and went down with a scream, the Tertium Quid
upon her, and the nervous grin still set on his face.

The Man's Wife heard the tinkle-tinkle of little stones and loose ea