s I had got into the prickly blue serge costume provided by the
"management," I heard the sound of stirring military music, played not
far away by a brass band, and something queer happened at the same
moment. The machine began to rock as if there were an earthquake, to
dart forward, to retreat, and at last to go galloping ahead at a speed
to suggest that in a sudden fit of hallucination it had persuaded itself
it was a motor-car.

"That horse!" I gasped, and swaying first against one wall, then against
the other, scarcely able to keep my feet, I tore the door open and
peeped out.

If I had not been frightened I should have laughed, for it was plain to
see from the expression of that cushiony back, that the animal was
merely pretending to be afraid of the music, in a kittenish wish for a
little early morning fun. But he was also pretending in quite a
life-like manner to run away, and the thought occurred to me that the
consequences might be as awkward for the occupant of the machine as if
the jest were earnest.

"Whoa, whoa," cried a voice in pursuit, and splash! went the beast into
the surf. He was playing that he was a sea-horse, now, and enjoying it
selfishly, without a thought of poor me in the horrid, tottery little
box that would be knocked over by a big wave, maybe, in another instant,
in a welter of sand and salt water, under a merry horse's hoofs.

I clung to the door with one hand, and the frame with the other,
swinging back and forth on the threshold, with abnormally large iron
shoes flying up and down in the wet green foreground, and the whole
North Sea towering over me in the middle distance--oh, but a very near
middle distance!

I wavered in mind as well as body. If I didn't jump out--now, this
minute--I might be caught and pinned like a mouse in a trap, under the
water. If I did jump, the horse would kick me, and the wheels of the
machine would go over me, and I should be battered as well as drowned
before anybody could fish me out. I did feel horribly alone in the
world, and the waves looked as tall as transparent green skyscrapers.

"One, two; at _three_ I'll jump," I was saying resolutely, between
chattering teeth, when a head came toward me in the sea. It came on top
of a wave, and like the dear little cut-off cherubs in old-fashioned
prayer-books, it seemed to have no body, yet I recognized it, and felt
half inclined to bow (salutation, O Caesar, from one about to die!) only
it would have seem