xplained that
the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had
slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run
back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the
doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had
turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time
he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all
through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was
ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started
off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have
himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket.

He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset
Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the
inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready
to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being
greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens,
who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due
to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at
once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and
believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and
she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be
with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the
side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance
of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party"
has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at
first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the
party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake
was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in
the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden
inclination to go very slowly.

"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by
and by.

"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam.

"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think
I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say
he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me
I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?"

"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince.
Control and W