It grew very dark too all at once, and, strange sight, they could see lightning flashes among the snow, and hear peals of thunder high over the roaring of the blizzard wind.
The whole air was not only filled with falling snow, but with ice-dust, as it is called,—that is, the snow was caught up from the ground and pulverised, till it became a powder so fine, but so cold, that to breathe it caused a feeling of asphyxia, somewhat akin to that one feels on going first under a shower-bath.
It must be confessed Sandie M‘Crae was taken aback, and hardly knew what to do for the best. Perhaps the best would have been to return to the manse. But his pride forbade, and he determined to push on.
It must be confessed, also, that Lord Raglan did all he could, and proved himself a right good pony indeed. Yet it was soon evident to Sandie that he must depend upon his sagacity entirely to keep to the right path, for he could not tell in which direction he was driving.
Facing fearful odds, they got on about another mile, and the blizzard now seemed to increase rather than abate, while great snow-wreaths were thrown across the road that were all but impassable.
Sandie had shut his eyes for a time, leaving everything to Lord Raglan. Every eyelash was an icicle, and the ice and snow were incrusted on the cheeks of both boys.
And now I have to record an instance of sagacity on the part of this wise old pony, that, if not unparalleled, is at least very strange, and proves that there are more things in heaven and earth than we have dreamt of in our philosophy. In fact, in our human pride, we are all too apt to despise the lower animals, and to forget that they reason and think on the same lines as we do, though not to the same degree. But every now and then occasions or emergencies arise that seem to stimulate their reasoning faculties, and raise them for the time being to a level with those of the biped man.
When Sandie opened his sleepy, half-frozen eyes—indeed he was not sure that he had not been asleep—he found that there was a momentary lull in the blizzard, and that the moon once more shone clearly down on the great snow waste, though away to windward huge clouds, like rocks and towers, were slowly banking up, and would soon again cover all the sky, when once more the storm would rage with additional fury.
But he also noticed, to his alarm and surprise, that Lord Raglan had left the road, bringing the wind more on their backs, and that he was rapidly approaching a high, black, rocky cliff at the head of a field, and close to a dark and brawling burn.
Ten minutes afterwards he drew up right at the foot of these rocks, and close to the opening of a cave.