The young, mettlesome bays, frenzied by the suddenness and fury of the whole incident, and stung by some small flying boulders, immediately precipitated a dangerous situation. Snorting with fear and rage, they reared upward, pawing the air with their forefeet, and straining on their bits with a force that nearly dragged the reins from Laurie’s grasp. He stood up in the swaying vehicle, holding on with might and main, though with a heart as heavy as lead, for he realized that at any moment the maddened animals might shy to the left, and plunge over the precipitous side that sloped down to certain death in the river far below. But for muscles like steel, developed by years of athletic exercise, he never could have sustained his grip on the lines against the frantic force of the plunging, rearing bays; but with tremendous pluck, he clung and shouted until he brought them down to their feet again, but only to break and run with terrific speed over the up-hill ground, goaded by the shrill screams of Lelia, and the pelting, pouring storm of rain and hail. What a change from barely ten minutes ago, from a summer scene overarched by blue and sunny skies, to the mountain tempest, the air dark with clouds and rain, the eyes dazzled by the zigzag streaks of lightning, the ears stunned by the crash of thunder and the hoarse snorting of the maddened bays, dashing forward to impending destruction. For the mountain road, a mere wagon way around the cliffs, offered no escape. On one side it rose like a sheer wall for hundreds of feet, on the other it descended steeply to the bed of the river. A slight swerving from their headlong course in the middle of the road, and death was sure and speedy; but with terrific strength he was holding them straight now. If only he could hold out to the end! Then Lelia, driven mad with fear and pain, sprang up and clung to his arm, senselessly adding her weight to the strain upon him. “Sit down!” he thundered angrily, in his alarm and anxiety; but in that moment she dropped across his breast, a dead weight--swooning, and the bays tore the reins from his grasp with hoarse whinnies of exultation, and again reared upward, this time so near the verge that the vehicle must surely topple over backward. In that terrible moment, as he was closing his eyes to meet instant destruction, a sweet, high-pitched voice rang out through the wind and rain: “Whoa, Saint and Satan, whoa!” CHAPTER III. LELIA’S INGRATITUDE. Laurie had closed his eyes in despair to meet inevitable death, but at that sound they flashed quickly open again, and he saw something he could never forget to his dying day. Was it a dream, or was that a girl’s slight figure that sprang upward at the horses’ heads, clutching their bits with small, fragile hands, while her clear voice rang out again in stern command: “Whoa, Saint and Satan, whoa!” It was not her strength, it was her voice that instantly quelled their fury of fear and rage.