Ben buckled down to a tremendous sprint of speed. He foresaw that the gig would turn the corner. Making a diagonal cut, he reached the middle of the cross road just as the gig swept past. With a spring he caught the back of the high seat, pulled himself over, and seized the little girl, swaying from side to side, and just about to topple to the stone paving blocks.
To his dismay Ben saw that the lines were dragging under the feet of the flying horse. He clung with one hand to the bar at the side of the seat. With the other he seized the shrinking child by the arm. Slowly, cautiously he lowered her over the back of the gig. Not a foot from the ground he released her.
She dropped so gently that she was not even shaken, and simply swayed to one side with a slight shock. Ben was gratified to see a woman run out into the street and pick up the uninjured child.
Then he turned around to decide on his own best course—to get out of the gig or spring upon the back of the flying horse and attempt to halt the furious runaway.
Before he could make a move the horse made a sharp veer down a side street. The gig was half overturned and Ben was given a frightful fling.
The boy aviator flew through space, struck a section of fence palings, went through them snapping them into fragments, and landed senseless on a garden plot beyond.
CHAPTER XXV
CONCLUSION
Ben opened his eyes and looked about him. He was lying in bed in a bright and cheerful room that made him think instantly of home. He had a quick mind, however, and at once knew that this was not home. He tried to rise up, could not stir a limb, and glanced over a trim dressed lady arranging some medicine at a little stand.
“This is a hospital?” he observed.