Half-an-hour later they went out again into the blazing sunshine.
"What do you think of my hack?" Archie asked, as they drove away
westwards. "I got him at Tattersall's the other day. I haven't driven
him before to-day. He's a bit jumpy. But I like an animal that can jump,
don't you know."
"I know you do," laughed Nina. "I believe that is purely why you haven't
started a motor yet. They can do everything that is vicious and
extraordinary except jump. But do you really like a horse to shy at
everything he passes? Look at him now! He doesn't like that hand-cart
with red paint."
"He's an artist," grinned Archie. "It offends his eye; and no wonder.
Don't be alarmed, though! He won't do anything outrageous. My man knows
how to manage him."
Nina leant back. She was not, as a rule, nervous, but, as Archie's new
purchase was forced protesting past the object of his fright, she was
conscious of a very decided feeling of uneasiness. The animal looked to
her vicious as well as alarmed.
They got safely past the hand-cart, and a brief interval of tranquillity
followed as they trotted briskly down Ludgate Hill.
"He won't have time to look at anything now," said Archie cheerfully.
The words had scarcely left his lips when the tire of a stationary car
they were passing exploded with a report like a rifle shot. In a second
Archie's animal leapt into the air, struck the ground with all four
hoofs together--and bolted.
"My man's got him," said Archie. "Sit still! Nothing's going to happen."
He put his arm in front of Nina and gripped the farther side of the
hansom.
But Nina had not the smallest intention of losing her head. During the
first few moments her sensations were more of breathless interest than
fear. Certainly she was very far from panic.
She saw the roadway before them clear as if by magic before their
galloping advance. She heard shouts, warning cries, yells of excitement.
She also heard, very close to her, Archie's voice, swearing so evenly
and deliberately that she was possessed by an insane desire to laugh at
him. Above everything else, she heard the furious, frantic rhythm of the
flying hoofs before them. And yet somehow inexplicably she did not at
first feel afraid.
They tore with a speed that seemed to increase momentarily straight down
the thoroughfare that a few seconds before had seemed choked with
traffic. They shaved by vans, omnibuses, hand-barrows. Houses and shops
seemed to whirl past them, like a revolving nightmare--ever the same,
yet somehow ever different. A train was thundering over the bridge as
they galloped beneath it. The maddened horse heard and stretched himself
to his utmost speed.
And then came tragedy--- the tragedy that Nina always felt that she had
known from the beginning of that wild gallop must come.
As they raced on to Ludgate Circus she had a momentary glimpse of a boy
on a bicycle traversing the street before them at right angles. Archie
ceased suddenly to swear. The reins that till then had been taut sagged
down abruptly. He made a clutch at them and failed to catch them. They
slipped away sideways and dragged on the ground.
There came a shock, a piercing cry. Nina started forward for the first
time, but Archie flung his arms round her, holding her fast. Then they
were free of the obstacle and dashing on again.
"Let me see!" she gasped. "Let me see!"
They bumped against a curb and nearly overturned. Then one of their
wheels caught another vehicle. The hansom was whizzed half round, but
the pitiless hoofs still tore on and almost miraculously the worst was
still averted.
Archie's hold was close and nearly suffocated her; but over his shoulder
Nina still managed to look ahead.
And thus looking she saw the most wonderful, and the most terrifying,
episode of the whole adventure.
She saw a man in faultless City attire leap suddenly from the footway to
the road in front of them. For a breathless instant she saw him poised
to spring, and in her heart there ran a sudden, choking sense of
anguished recognition. She shut her eyes and cowered in Archie's arms.
Deliverance was coming. She felt it in every nerve. But how? And by
whom?
There came a jerk and a plunge, a furious, straining effort. The fierce
galloping ceased, yet they made still for a few yards a halting,
difficult progress.
Then they stopped altogether, and she felt the shock of hoofs upon the
splashboard.
Another moment and that, too, ceased. They stood still, and Archie's
arms relaxed.
Nina lifted her head and saw her husband hatless in the road, his face
set and grim, his hands gripping the reins with a strength that
evidently impressed upon the runaway the futility of opposition. In his
eyes was a look that made her tremble.