There was a deep chasm between the two into which the
animal fell, as he tried to leap from one rock to another. I saw
for a moment only a woman's head and shoulders, a horse's head, a
commotion of foam, a native tugging at the lasso, and then a violent
scramble on to a rock, and a plunging and floundering through deep
water to shore.
Then Deborah said she would go, that her horse was a better and
stronger one; and the same process was repeated with the same slip
into the chasm, only with the variation that for a second she went
out of sight altogether. It was a terribly interesting and exciting
spectacle with sublime accompaniments. Though I had no fear of
absolute danger, yet my mare was tired, and I had made up my mind to
remain on that side till the flood abated; but I could not make the
natives understand that I wished to turn, and while I was screaming
"No, no," and trying to withdraw my stiffened limbs from the
stirrups, the noose was put round the mare's nose, and she went in.
It was horrible to know that into the chasm as the others went I too
must go, and in the mare went with a blind plunge. With violent
plunging and struggling she got her fore feet on the rock, but just
as she was jumping up to it altogether she slipped back snorting
into the hole, and the water went over my eyes.
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