At least he
shouted--"Too late, fools," and with a last laugh turned, ran so
swiftly up the quay that his cloak flew out upon the air behind him, and
vanished into the shadows at its head.
"Row on," I said, and Leo bent himself to the oars.
But the ferry-boat was cumbersome and the current swift, so that we were
swept down a long way before we could cross it. At length we reached
still water near the further shore, and seeing a landing-place, managed
to beach the punt and to drag our horses to the bank. Then leaving the
craft to drift, for we had no time to scuttle her, we looked to our
girths and bridles, and mounted, heading towards the far column of
glowing smoke which showed like a beacon above the summit of the House
of Fire.
At first our progress was very slow, for here there seemed to be no
path, and we were obliged to pick our way across the fields, and to
search for bridges that spanned such of the water-ditches as were too
wide for us to jump. More than an hour was spent in this work, till we
came to a village wherein none were stirring, and here struck a
road which seemed to run towards the mountain, though, as we learned
afterwards, it took us very many miles out of our true path. Now for the
first time we were able to canter, and pushed on at some speed, though
not too fast, for we wished to spare our horses and feared lest they
might fall in the uncertain light.
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