The road at the point where the animal had passed Custer was cut

from the hillside. At the left an embankment rose steeply to a

height of ten or fifteen feet. On the right there was a drop of a

hundred feet or more into a wooded ravine. Ahead, the road

apparently ran quite straight and smooth for a considerable

distance.

Barney Custer knew that so long as the road ran straight the girl

might be safe enough, for she was evidently an excellent horsewoman;

but he also knew that if there should be a sharp turn to the left

ahead, the horse in his blind fright would in all probability dash

headlong into the ravine below him.

There was but a single thing that the man might attempt if he were

to save the girl from the almost certain death which seemed in store

for her, since he knew that sooner or later the road would turn, as

all mountain roads do. The chances that he must take, if he failed,

could only hasten the girl's end. There was no alternative except to

sit supinely by and see the fear-crazed horse carry its rider into

eternity, and Barney Custer was not the sort for that role.

Scarcely had the beast come abreast of him than his foot leaped to

the accelerator. Like a frightened deer the gray roadster sprang

forward in pursuit. The road was narrow. Two machines could not have

passed upon it. Barney took the outside that he might hold the horse

away from the dangerous ravine.

At the sound of the whirring thing behind him the animal cast an

affrighted glance in its direction, and with a little squeal of

terror redoubled its frantic efforts to escape. The girl, too,

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