e no
nearer than when she first started. It seemed much like riding on a
rocking-horse, one never got anywhere, only no rocking-horse flew at
such a speed.

Yet she realized now that the pace was much modified from what it had
been at first, and the pony's motion was not hard. If she had not been
so stiff and sore in every joint and muscle with the terrible tension
she had kept up the riding would not have been at all bad. But she was
conscious of most terrible weariness, a longing to drop down on the sand
of the desert and rest, not caring whether she ever went on again or
not. She had never felt such terrible weariness in her life.

She could hold on now with one hand, and relax the muscles of the other
a little. She tried with one hand presently to do something with that
sweeping pennant of hair that lashed her in the face so unexpectedly now
and then, but could only succeed in twisting it about her neck and
tucking the ends into the neck of her riding habit; and from this frail
binding it soon slipped free again.

She was conscious of the heat of the sun on her bare head, the smarting
of her eyes. The pain in her chest was subsiding, and she could breathe
freely again, but her heart felt tired, so tired, and she wanted to lie
down and cry. Would she never get anywhere and be helped?

How soon would her father and brother miss her and come after her? When
she dared she looked timidly behind, and then again more lingeringly,
but there was nothing to be seen but the same awful stretch of distance
with mountains of bright colour in the boundaries everywhere; not a
living thing but herself and the pony to be seen. It was awful.
Somewhere between herself and the mountains behind was the place she had
started from, but the bright sun shone steadily, hotly down and
shimmered back again from the bright earth, and nothing broke the awful
repose of the lonely space. It was as if she had suddenly been caught up
and flung out into a world where was no other living being.

Why did they not come after her? Surely, surely, pretty soon she would
see them coming. They would spur their horses on when they found she had
been run away with. Her father and brother would not leave her long in
this horrible plight.

Then it occurred to her that her father and brother had been for some
time out of sight ahead before she began her race. They would not know
she was gone, at once; but of course Mr. Hamar would do something. He
would not