CHAPTER XVIII
A LIFE FOR A LIFE
Meanwhile Joe was having a thrilling experience.
While his father and mother stood gazing after him with prayers on their lips the boy was leaning forward over Kit's neck, urging her forward with voice and knees.
A great fear filled him. A terrible and undefined horror chilled his blood and knocked heavily at his heart.
"They've got Nina! They've got Nina!" he said over and over to himself until the words formed themselves into a kind of a chant that beat itself out in time to the thudding hoofs.
He had no consciousness of time or place or distance. His one frantic impulse was for speed, speed! It was not until he felt the mare heave and stumble under him that he came to himself and realized that she was nearly done.
"Poor Kit!" he murmured, checking her up and stroking the heaving sides and panting neck. "I mustn't kill you whatever happens."
He slipped down from her back, rubbed her down with grass, then cooled her mouth and sponged her nose with water from the precious flask he carried.
When she had ceased to heave and began to breathe more naturally he mounted again and tried to curb his urging spirit to her strength.