“Very well, as I’m a stranger in this forest, I shall be rather curious to see how you find a pony in that thick wood.”
So they stepped in, and Mat went back to the spot where the animal had effected an entrance over a broken part of the fence, saying,—
“This ’ere colt’s been lost for the best part of three days, and I’m a bit upset about him, as he’s about as good a one as I’ve ever handled.”
“Oh! then you’re a horse-breaker?” remarked the stranger.
“Yes, and employed finding lost cattle too, as I know t’vorest; I was born not far from where we are now.”
Thus speaking, Mat took up the animal’s tracks, and strode swiftly through the underwood, carrying a small axe in his hand. This tracking was all new to the stranger, who could only admire the dexterity with which his companion kept the trail, taking no heed of numerous other tracks, which led off in various directions; these, as Mat explained subsequently, belonging to ponies whose feet were shod.
The colt had pursued a very zigzag course in his efforts to find food amongst the dry “sedge.”
In an hour’s time the searchers came to a deep dyke overgrown with heather.
“I was afeard so,” muttered Mat, as he pointed to a spot where the animal had fallen into the ditch, and a few hundred yards further on they found the poor colt standing benumbed, with his coat all staring, at the bottom of the drain.
By great efforts they induced him to walk along till the banks became less steep, and here, with his axe, Mat levelled a bit of the edge of the drain, cut down some saplings and furze, and so built a temporary roadway, up which they managed at length to push and drag the exhausted beast.