Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/295

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LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS.
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sharp stones, and on going down to him I found his hind shoes torn off, and he lamed and much injured. I managed to get him up again to the path; but, alas! he was now worse than no horse at all. Seven long miles of that narrow and dangerous road lay between me and the dak Bungalow, and he could not walk a step only as I dragged him along. The night soon fled, and he failed fast. Never in all my life have I felt any thing so lonely as was that weary walk through those dark woods and over those high mountains. The keen remembrance of it will go with me to the grave. The poor animal had some of the stumps of the nails in his hoofs, which every step seemed to drive higher as he trod on the stony path, until at last it was real misery to look at him as he slowly and painfully limped along. What to do I could not tell; he was getting worse every step. To abandon him seemed cruel, and yet to stay with him, without even the means of lighting a fire, was to expose myself to equal danger. I had no alternative but to bring him along as well as I could; so I pulled him on over the rocks and streams, and up the hills, till I became utterly spent. The solitude around was something dreadful—no sound save the occasional yells of the wild animals—and I was obliged to keep a sharp lookout lest we should be pounced upon by a tiger. I had my gun on my shoulder, but the only charge I had with me was in it, so that one shot was my whole dependence in that line. Another element of anxiety was the fact that at the cross paths there were no signboards, and painful indeed was the suspense sometimes felt as to which road to take, or whether I was on the right path at all. Many an earnest prayer I put up to God at some of these doubtful points that He would in mercy guide me aright. The heat in the woods and valleys was great, and this, added to my exertions, caused so much perspiration that it fast exhausted my remaining strength, till at last I had to sit down and calculate what was to be done. I was also faint from hunger, having only had a light and very early breakfast, and neither dinner nor supper. My tongue swelled, and seemed to fill my mouth. As I sat there and thought of all I had given up for India, perhaps it was pardonable that, for