The horse was puzzled whether to obey or not. Home to him was not the Palace of the Kings, but his own comfortable loose-box at The Garden. The stable would be locked now; but he might go to the front-door and scrabble with his feet and make a loud and piercing whinny. Then, of a surety, the Lennox man, Hollyhock's father, would come out, and he, Lightning Speed, would lead him to the scene of danger.
Now there was one fact that both girl and horse forgot. In order to get out and in Hollyhock had taken pains early in the day to secure the gate keys of the Palace of the Kings; but both horse and girl forgot that the gates of The Garden, the beloved home of Lightning Speed, would be locked until early in the morning. It would be all in vain for Lightning Speed to try to surmount those high iron gates, in order to secure the services of George Lennox.
But while Hollyhock thus clung desperately to the narrow ledge of rock, which was at least twenty feet down from the top of the famous leap, and forty feet above the roaring torrent of water, Magsie had not been idle. She wasted no time in waking the house. She concluded at once that Miss Hollyhock was away, because Lightning Speed was away. In a flash she guessed why the girl had done no feat that day. She also felt almost certain where she would take Lightning Speed. For horse and rider to leap a chasm of twelve feet in the bright moonlight would be a fine act of courage, a mighty act, just the thing that Miss Hollyhock would attempt, and Magsie now recalled with dismay certain hints about the gorge dropped by that intrepid young horse-woman.
It has been said that the Palace of the Kings lay between The Paddock and The Garden, but if anything it was a trifle nearer to The Paddock than it was to The Garden. Magsie therefore determined to go to The Paddock and get the help of Master Jasper and any others she could find, in the vague and almost forlorn hope of rescuing Hollyhock.
There seemed no hope for her; but Magsie must do her best. How she blamed herself now for allowing Joey Comfort to bring the horse to Ardshiel! But it was too late for praise or for blame. All Magsie could do was to act, and act promptly. Accordingly, flying like a wild creature, she made for the lodge gates, which, as she had feared, she found unlocked. Hollyhock had the keys. She soon reached The Paddock, entered by the smaller gate, and flung gravel at the window of Master Jasper's room.