You
will easily believe, then, that when he was let go he went quickly. In one
moment, for the brute bolted as straight as a die, the tent was left far
behind, and we were flying over the smooth sandy soil at racing speed.
In another we had passed the wretched dog, and I had almost forgotten why it
was that I had taken the horse and hogspear.
The delirium of fever and the excitement of rapid motion through the air must
have taken away the remnant of my senses. I have a faint recollection of
standing upright in my stirrups, and of brandishing my hog-spear at the great
white Moon that looked down so calmly on my mad gallop; and of shouting
challenges to the camel-thorn bushes as they whizzed past. Once or twice I
believe, I swayed forward on Pornic's neck, and literally hung on by my spurs-
-as the marks next morning showed.
The wretched beast went forward like a thing possessed, over what seemed to be
a limitless expanse of moonlit sand. Next, I remember, the ground rose
suddenly in front of us, and as we topped the ascent I saw the waters of the
Sutlej shining like a silver bar below. Then Pornic blundered heavily on his
nose, and we rolled together down some unseen slope.
I must have lost consciousness, for when I recovered I was lying on my stomach
in a heap of soft white sand, and the dawn was beginning to break dimly over
the edge of the slope down which I had fallen.
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