Guy lay for fully an hour in a sort of stupor, from which he was aroused at last by the pangs of hunger. There was no need that he should stay there and starve, he told himself, while Zeke had been considerate enough to leave him a horse. Perhaps the animal could carry him to some human habitation. The experiment was at least worth a trial.
The horse proved to be very uneasy, and Guy, being unaccustomed to such business, was nearly half an hour in putting the saddle and bridle on him. But at last he got everything fixed to his satisfaction, and climbing upon the animal’s back, he started—he knew not whither.
After trying in vain to find a road or trail leading from the glade, he plunged blindly into the woods, and during the next two days lived in a state of agony, both of body and mind, that I cannot describe. He rode while daylight lasted without a mouthful to eat, and slept at night on the hard ground.
Sometimes he would allow his horse to have his own way, believing that the animal’s instinct would lead him out of the wilderness, and then again he would resume control of him, and try to find his own way out.
How often during those two days did Guy tell himself that if he lived to get out of that scrape he would lose not an hour in starting for the States; and if he once reached them he would never again be tempted to leave them.
He had seen enough of the woods, and of the ocean, too. Other boys might think as they pleased, and story-tellers might write as they pleased about the joys, the ease and romance of a hunter’s and a sailor’s life, but as for him, give him a quiet home on shore and among civilized people.
At last, when Guy was so weak with fasting that he could scarcely keep his seat in the saddle, and so disheartened that he was more than once on the point of throwing himself under the nearest tree and resigning himself to his fate, his deliverance came, and so suddenly that it almost took his breath away. His horse, which during the last few hours had been allowed to go where he pleased, plunged through an almost impassable thicket of bushes, carrying his rider into a broad, well-beaten road that led down the mountains.
The animal seemed as delighted at this evidence of civilization as Guy did. No sooner was he fairly in the road than he broke into a gallop, and in less than five minutes brought his rider to a little tumble-down shanty, where half a dozen miners were lounging on the porch. They all started up and looked at Guy in amazement, seemingly unable to make up their minds whether he was a live boy or a ghost.
“Halloo!” exclaimed one of the men, “who on earth are you, and where did you come from?”
“I have been lost in the mountains for the last two days, and am almost starved to death,” answered Guy, in a faint voice.