"It was a hard pull," said Roger. "Dave, are you going to get out?" he added, as he hopped to the ground.
"No, I am going to turn them around and drive them down to the road."
"They'll run away with you!" ejaculated the Englishman, in alarm.
"I won't give them a chance," was the quiet but firm reply.
"If you are going to ride, I'll do the same," said Roger, and clambered back to his seat again. Granbury Lapham said he would walk for a while.
"I want to see how they act," he remarked, frankly. "I am not going to risk my neck again until I know what I am doing."
With a firm hand Dave started the horses and turned them partly around. They were inclined to be fretful, but he gave them no chance to gain the mastery. He spoke to them in a voice they could not help but notice, and was ready to turn them up the mountain side again at the first indication of another "break."
"Dave, you certainly know how to manage horses," spoke up Roger, when the road was reached. "It must be born in you."
"I suppose it is, Roger. My Uncle Dunston tells me that my father is a very good horseman and that he and my mother used often to go out horseback riding together."
Seeing how well Dave managed, Granbury Lapham entered the sleigh once more, and away they went along the road and down the decline previously mentioned. To retard the movement of the turnout and thus ease the team, Dave kept partly in the deep snow, and consequently there was no excuse for the horses running away.
Nearly a mile was covered when they saw Hendrik returning with the other team. The Norwegian sleigh driver hailed their approach with joy, which was considerably increased when he learned that the sleigh and the other horses had suffered no damage and that the greater part of the outfit had been saved.
"I was afraid somebody had fallen down the mountain side and been killed," said he to Granbury Lapham. "It is a most dangerous portion of this road. Last winter two men and a woman lost their lives close to this very spot."
"We had all the trouble we wanted," said Dave, when the driver's remarks had been translated by the Englishman.
Hendrik looked over the sleigh and the harness with care, and quarter of an hour later they were moving toward Bojowak as rapidly as the state of the road permitted. They had to pass through two hollows, and here the men and boys walked, for it was all the double team could do to get through.