Chapter XXIV: Prince and Emperor

"I AM going to take you two or three miles round, instead of straight home," Harvey said, as they started. Julia was turning back to wave a farewell. "So you like Mrs. Ogilvie?"

"Very much. Oh, very much, indeed. She is charming!"

"Mrs. Ogilvie says the same of my wife."

"Does she? I am glad if she likes me. But when did she say it?"

"When you ran back into the house for your shawl."

"She had not much time then. Harvey, isn't it odd that she should be an old friend of Hermione's mother, and that Hermione should never have spoken her name?"

"I don't pretend to understand Hermione's ways. Hermione's mother must have been considerably Mrs. Ogilvie's senior."

One of the horses shied, and both were off at a pace which required Harvey's best handling. For a while neither spoke. He glanced round presently to say, "Not frightened?"

"O no; not with you here."

"Some women think it necessary to scream on these little occasions. Of course, if you wished to ensure the horses running away, that is as good a mode as any."

"But I don't wish it," Julia answered, laughing. "And they never do run away."

"Well, not seriously," Harvey answered, with one or two recollections in his mind which were not known to Julia. "I am taking you this way, that you may see a pretty view from the common."

"Not the common near us?"

"Seven miles or more off. You have not been to it yet. There is a steep hill to climb, and then a flat tableland extending any distance. John will have an opportunity to stretch his legs again."

"Yes, sir!" responded John smartly from behind.

The hill was reached in no long time, being about a mile distant from the captain's little house, as Harvey informed Julia. Steep it was unquestionably, but the horses went up in brisk style, apparently no whit fatigued. John, who had dropped down for a walk as a matter of course, was left in the rear.

"After all, he might as well have kept his seat. We have to wait for him now," Harvey said, when they gained the top.

"One minute won't matter."

"Not unless the horses object."

The horses plainly did object. A vision of food and stable no doubt lured them onward, and they had at all times a marked dislike to standing still in harness. They grew exceedingly restless, and Harvey's strong grasp could barely hold them in.

A broad common stretched far ahead, and the road led straight across it, while on either side lay short grass dotted by occasional clumps of furze.

"Make haste!" cried Harvey.

John obeyed, coming at a run. They had not to wait many seconds, and he was already within six yards when a pig rushed grunting from behind the nearest clump.

That settled the matter. Almost before Julia caught sight of the intruder the horses were off, and John could be seen as a diminishing object in the distance.

Julia uttered no sound, for she knew her husband's dislike to interjections at critical moments. Not that she counted the moment critical. She merely said to herself, "How tiresome!" and expected that Harvey would at once pull up.

But he did not. A feeling of surprise dawned upon her first, and then a consciousness of the tremendous pace at which they were going, and then—she looked up into Harvey's face, and knew from the set lips that something was wrong.

"John is so far behind. Must we not go back?" she asked.

"Presently. Keep your seat, Julia. Hold on firmly."

"Can't you stop them?"

"Presently," came again.

"Is there any danger?"

"Plenty of room ahead, fortunately. I shall let them have their swing. Don't be shaken out, that's all."

Julia obeyed his orders, and sat perfectly still. On and on they flew in a mad rush. The road was very straight, and so long as this lasted the danger might be counted small; but there was nothing to check the horses; no human being was in sight, and in time the common must end.

It seemed to Julia that their speed increased rather than diminished. She had never known anything like it. It was evident that Harvey had at present no choice about allowing the horses to go, for go they would, and the utmost he could do was to use some measure of guidance, keeping a sharp look-out for obstacles.

Grass and furze-bushes flashed past in dizzying style. Julia felt bewildered, hardly able to think. Fear existed, but was kept under. Her one distinct wish at the time was not to embarrass her husband. She sat by his side like a statue, only swayed by the swaying of the vehicle.

"We are coming to something different," she said at length quietly. For the road in advance rose a little and disappeared among trees.

Harvey knew that the common ended there, and that a long descent followed; not so steep, happily, as the ascent by which they had reached the common, yet steep enough to be a very serious matter if they were to go down at this rate.

"Can't you stop them?" Julia asked once more.

"No."

The monosyllable, the absence of comfort or encouragement, said much. So also said Harvey's bent brows. Julia grew paler, and shrank an inch closer to him. The thought came to her that she ought to pray, and she tried, but her mind was a blank, every faculty being concentrated into one fearful expectant gaze ahead.

Up and up the slope they thundered, till in a moment burst upon Julia the long vista of that straight descent which had been in Harvey's mind as a vivid picture of peril near.

A strong rutted road, with a wall on one side, a hedge and a ditch on the other, scarcely curving at all until far below, where a sharp bend shut off what lay beyond.

"Harvey!" did at last leave Julia's lips in faint cry. No answer came from him, only a strange pallor had come into his face, and his eyes seemed to be looking blankly far on.

Both knew that this might well be a rush to death. But no time for thought remained before they were whirled downwards.

Pebbles were dashed aside by the horses' hoofs, and the wheels jolted with bounds over the larger stones. It was as much as Julia could do to keep her seat. She held on firmly, noting with a singular keenness of perception her husband's blanched look. Could it mean fear? He was a brave man ordinarily, not given to showing fear.

Suddenly he spoke, not turning his head—

"If we get round that corner it may be all right, but if not—"

A pause; and as if the words were forced from him, drops standing on his brow, he said—

"If I am killed, and you get through, take care that Hermione has her rights!"

She had no space in which to answer him. A glance alone was possible. Then the bend was reached, and with a great swerve they went round, safely so far, but not to safety. Before one breath of relief could be drawn, they saw the road ahead lying level, and in the very middle of it an old ramshackle cart, with no room on either side for them to pass. The owner of the cart was out of sight, and the unharnessed rough pony, browsing in the hedge, lifted his head with a look of mild interest at the thunder of horses' hoofs.

A gasp; a moment's despair; a crash; a sense of everything collapsing; and a brief darkness. Julia came to herself slowly. She sat up, bewildered and faint, but conscious of no injury. At first she could not make out where she was, could not recall exactly what had happened. Only there was an impression of wild rattle and rush; and now all was so still; not a sound to be heard, except leaves rustling near.

It dawned upon her stunned senses that she had been tossed clean out of the dog-cart and over the hedge, falling on a great heap of weeds gathered together for burning, soft almost as a feather-bed. And she felt herself unhurt!

But Harvey!

Julia struggled to her feet. All around seemed to sway and surge, yet she could not attend to such sensations, could not yield to weakness. The other side of the hedge had to be gained, and she hastened along it, seeking vainly for a gate. A gap at length appeared, and Julia fought her way through, heedless of scratches and torn clothes.

Once more upon the road she saw a heap of something not far-off, which her dazzled eyes could with difficulty make out to be the prostrate horses and the shattered remains of cart and carriage, all in one piled-up mass, except that two wheels and much lesser debris were flung loosely around. And Harvey—Harvey—her one agony was for him. As she hurried nearer, trembling and sick with terror, she saw him to be part of the mass, lying half underneath it, while two hoofs of the nearer horse were almost touching his chest. His face was ghastly pale, the eyes wide-open in helpless appeal.

"O Harvey! what can I do? What shall I do?" was Julia's cry.

"Hush don't call out. If Prince begins to struggle, it is all up with me."

"Is it the cart keeping you down? Are you hurt? Oh, let me help you away!" she gasped. "You will be killed there."

"I can't move; don't touch me. Julia, listen. You must sit down on Prince's head at once. If he tries to get up, I am done for!"

Julia understood, though she was so dazed as to be hardly able to distinguish one horse from the other. But those iron hoofs were guide sufficient. The poor creature's visible panting showed him to be alive, while Emperor lay to all appearance dead. Julia stumbled forward among the debris, and sat down upon the huge glossy head, rumpled and foam-speckled. She would have been afraid of the position generally, for horses were a source of timidity always, unless she felt herself under Harvey's protection; but fear could have no place now, except for another.

"Are you hurt much?" she then asked tremulously.

"I don't know. Yes."

"Where? Please tell me."

"I don't know."

"If I could only do something! What can I do?" she implored. "If I might help you to get away."

"No, you must not stir. Mind, Julia, if you value my life, don't let anything make you get up till help comes—till I am away. It is the only hope for me."

He spoke distinctly, but in a faint far-away voice, as if the words came with effort, his eyes closing.

"I will not!" Julia said firmly.