"Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?" The horseman's excited cry was echoed by a startled neigh from his beast, which wheeled about so suddenly that he nearly precipitated both himself and rider into the gulch below. "Oh! I'm sorry--Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please. Quick! It's so narrow just beyond and I can't--" The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animal having now headed up the slope, continued on his course at breakneck speed, pursued at equal pace by the unknown creature that had terrified him.