pletely hid its outer edge. Besides, our horse was
wholly unaccustomed to a carriage, and only halftrained,
and every few moments took it into his head
to stop so short that we had to hold on to the carriage
all the time, or at an unexpected moment find
ourselves going over the fender. The road was now
taking us out toward the end of the spur, the ravine
was growing deeper and deeper with an alarming
rapidity, and I lbegan to wish myself out of the carriage,
but the inspector was unwilling to stop the
horse for fear we could not get him started again. A
Malay was guiding our wild steed by the bit, and
away we were dashing at fall gallop, when suddenly,
as we rounded the spur, the road, which was cut in
the rock, was so narrow that the outside wheels of
the carriage were just on its outer edge, and from
that verge the rock descended in such a perpendicular
precipice that I could look from my seat in the
carriage down fully two hundred feet, with a boiling
torrent beneath me. It was evidently too late to
jump then, so I seized hold of the carriage, determined
not to go off before my companion, the inspector,
who, realizing at once our great danger, and
perceiving that the only thing that we could do was
to keep the horse going at the top of his speed,
shouted to the horse, and, in the same breath, threatened
to take oif the Malay’s head if he should let go
of the bridle. Some fragments of rock had fallen
down into the road, and our fore-wheel, on the
inner side, struck these with such violence that I
thought certainly we should be thrown off the narrow
shelf down the precipice. For two minutes we