The others stared at him, but he remained cool and calm, as all great natures do in the time of peril. He started undoing the leaders, as the others seemed in doubt whether to take him at his word or not, led them on one side, and handed them to Theron, who seemed the most collected of the others. He got on the cart, spoke firmly but kindly to the horses, took the reins well and strongly in hand, as short as possible, and started down the precipitous road. When he got to the first drop or wash-away in the road, he made the horses climb down first, stopped them, then moved them forward step by step, holding them hard in the mouth, until the cart came on the edge of the drop. When the cart came to the edge, it dropped down, but gently, as the horses at this moment, pulled back firmly by Steve, pressed the wheels firmly against the side of the little precipice, and thus broke the fall, bringing the cart down with only a slight bump, without injuring it in the least. In this way he climbed down all the dangerous drops, until he came to the river itself. Here the danger seemed greatest. How to get across those great, big, round stones? But even across these he got, foot by foot, inch by inch, making the horses pull the wheels out against the round sides of the rocks, and back it down gently on the other side. Thus he went from rock to rock. Sometimes the wheels jumped from rock to rock, when they were near enough; sometimes the cart seemed on the point of tumbling over into the _zee koe gat_ alongside, when one wheel was on top of a rock and the other down between two others. But the worst of all was the feet of the poor tired horses amongst these great, big, round boulders. Sometimes one or the other would slip down on its knees, only to be picked up gently by the firm hand at the reins; sometimes their feet would stick fast between two rocks, but by moving only one step at a time, and keeping his horses quiet, Steve found himself at last in front of the steep wall on the other side. Now he fully saw how steep it was, and, worst of all, it was heavy sand. Will the poor, tired horses ever manage to get out of this hole? Should the horses lose their footing or give in for a second, when half-way, the cart would drag them down, and all would come down in a broken mass--horses kicking, stones obstructing--and, perhaps, the whole would go down into the _zee koe gat_, which would mean almost certain death to the man finding himself entangled in this mass. But there is no time for hesitating now. He is in, and must get out. It is nearly quite dark now. After giving the horses a moment to breathe, he let go the reins, shouted to them to go, and lashed them until they flew forward in terror, right against the steep wall. Now they are half-way up--my God! they are slipping in the sand! For a moment they seemed to go down. No! up they go again. They pant and bend, but up they go; and at last, the cart stands on level ground again.