It seemed to her that Lightning Speed knew her very thoughts. He sniffed gratefully. She sprang lightly on his back, having first secured the door of the stable.
A minute later they were off and away. She thought of young Lochinvar; she thought of the splendid ballads of her native land; she felt thrilled with the excitement of the moment; but how ghastly white was the moon, and how tremendously big and black the shadows where the moon did not fall! Both girl and horse felt these brightnesses and these shadows.
'Well,' thought Hollyhock, 'it will be soon over, my bonnie Lightning Speed;' and the horse, disturbed a little at first by the unearthly glamour over everything, soon calmed down and made straight for the gorge up which rider and steed were to mount, in order to accomplish that awful leap from rock to rock, which they must take twice in order that Hollyhock might really feel that she had done a deed worthy of the prize.
The horse evidently did not like the intense whiteness of the moon; but when he got into the comparative darkness of the gorge, he calmed down and became his usual self. Hollyhock did not attempt to urge him in any way; she simply let him go his own gait, patting him several times on his glossy coat. She knew well that the crucial moment would arrive when they left the shadow of the gorge and stood forth, girl and horse, prepared to take the leap, which, if by any chance Lightning Speed rebelled, must be fatal to them both.
How terribly her head ached; how giddy, how almost silly, she felt! But at any cost she must carry through her task, that task of hers to which she had given her whole mind.
The ascent into the intensely bright moonlight was certainly not good for the nerves of Lightning Speed, and when Hollyhock headed him for the leap which he must take, just for a brief, very brief, moment he hesitated. But he loved his mistress. Ah, how _much_ he loved her! Would _he_ disobey when _she_ ordered him to do a certain deed? He had never disobeyed her yet, never from the time she first mounted his back and held his reins.
Her own eyes felt slightly dazzled by the pain in her head and the intense whiteness of the scene. The roaring torrent below had never sounded so ferociously loud. Holly leant forward and looked into Lightning Speed's jet-black eyes, those eyes as soft as they were black, as wonderfully full of feeling as were Holly's own bright, loving eyes. The black eyes of the girl looked into the black eyes of the horse.