Ignorant of the impracticability of their attempt, our adventurers entered upon it with a spirit worthy of success,--worthy of the country from which they had come.
For some time the maherry was led in hand, old Bill being its conductor. All four had been well rested during the day, and none of them cared to ride.
As the tide, however, was now beginning to creep up into the sundry inlets, to avoid walking in water, they were compelled to keep well high up on the beach; and this forced them to make their way through the soft yielding sand, a course that required considerable exertion.
Ore after another now began to feel fatigue, and talk about it as well; and then the proposal was made, that the maherry--who stepped over the unsure surface with as much apparent lightness as a cat would have done--should be made to carry at least one of the party. They could ride in turns, which would give each of them an opportunity of resting.
No sooner was the proposition made than it was carried into execution. Terence, who had been the one to advance it, being hoisted in the hump of the camel.
But though the young O'Connor had been accustomed to the saddle from childhood, and had ridden "across country" on many an occasion, it was not long before he became satisfied with the saddle of a maherry. The rocking, and jolting, and "pitching," as our adventurers termed it, from larboard to starboard, fore and aft, and alow and aloft, soon caused Terence to sing out "enough"; and he descended into the soft sand with a much greater desire for walking than the moment before he had had for riding.
Harry Blount took his place, but although the young Englishman had been equally accustomed to a hunting-saddle, he found that his experience went but a little way towards making him easy on the hump of a maherry; and he was soon in the mood for dismounting.
The son of Scotia next climbed upon the back of the camel. Whether it was that natural pride of prowess which oft impels his countrymen to perseverance and daring deeds,--whether it was that, or whether it arose from a sterner power of endurance,--certain it is that Colin kept his seat longer than either of his predecessors.
But even Scotch sinews could not hold out against such a tension,--such a bursting and wrenching and tossing,--and it ended by Colin declaring that upon the whole he would prefer making the journey upon "Shank's mare."