horse would kill him, he felt assured.

Then the Master Horse decided to stick to his old tactics again, and

suddenly went off at a gallop. He headed down the slope, taking the

steep places at a rush, swerving neither to the right nor to the left,

and, as they rode down, the wide expanse of valley sank out of sight

behind the approaching skirmishers of oak and hawthorn. They skirted a

sudden hollow with the pool of a spring, rank weeds and silver bushes.

The ground grew softer and the grass taller, and on the right-hand side

and the left came scattered bushes of May--still splashed with belated

blossom. Presently the bushes thickened until they lashed the passing

rider, and little flashes and gouts of blood came out on horse and man.

Then the way opened again.

And then came a wonderful adventure. A sudden squeal of unreasonable

anger rose amidst the bushes, the squeal of some creature bitterly

wronged. And crashing after them appeared a big, grey-blue shape. It was

Yaaa the big-horned rhinoceros, in one of those fits of fury of his,

charging full tilt, after the manner of his kind. He had been startled

at his feeding, and someone, it did not matter who, was to be ripped and

trampled therefore. He was bearing down on them from the left, with his

wicked little eye red, his great horn down and his tail like a

jury-mast behind him. For a minute Ugh-lomi was minded to slip off and

dodge, and then behold! the staccato of the hoofs grew swifter, and the

rhinoceros and his stumpy hurrying little legs seemed to slide out at

the back corner of Ugh-lomi's eye. In two minutes they were through the

Tales of Space and Time-1