Immediately the hunchback pursued, his one thought being to overtake the girl and save her from danger, for he was now confident that something was the matter with the horse.
If the creature was really locoed, Abe knew it might do the most astonishing and crazy things. To a horse thus afflicted a little gully a foot wide sometimes seems a chasm a mile across, or a great ravine, yawning a hundred feet deep and as many in width, sometimes appears no more than a crack in the surface of the earth. Deluded by this distorted view of things, horses and cattle frequently plunge to their death in gorges and ravines, or do other things equally crazy and unaccountable.
Felicia’s horse fled madly, as if in fear of a thousand pursuing demons. The girl was a good rider, and she stuck to the animal’s back with comparative ease, although unable to check its wild career.
Doing everything in his power to overtake the runaway, the hunchback boy continued the pursuit, regardless of the direction in which it took them. The flying horse turned hither and thither and kept on and on until it was in a lather of perspiration and was almost exhausted to the point of dropping. Mile after mile was left behind them in this manner, Abe finding it barely possible to keep the runaway in sight. At length they came from the hills into a broad plain, and there, in the very midst of the waste, the runaway halted with such suddenness that Felicia barely saved herself from a serious fall. What had caused this sudden stopping of the horse was impossible to imagine, but the beast stood still with its fore feet braced, as if fearing to advance another inch. It quivered in every limb and shook all over.
Felicia heard the clatter of horses’ hoofs and turned to see little Abe coming with the greatest haste. The boy cried out to her, and she answered him.
“Oh, Felicia!” he panted, as he came up on his winded horse; “I’m so glad you’re safe! Get down, quick—get down! He might run again!”
She slipped from the saddle to the ground, and little Abe also dismounted, but now neither of the horses showed the slightest inclination to run. Both were in such an exhausted condition that they stood with hanging heads, their sides heaving.
“I was afraid you’d be killed, Felicia!” gasped the boy.
Then he saw her suddenly sink to the ground and cover her pale face with her hands. Quickly he knelt beside her, seeking to soothe and reassure her.
“It’s all right—it’s all right,” he said. “Don’t you cry, Felicia.”