It was
evident that her equestrian exercise was extempore, and that at that
hour and on that road she had not expected to meet company. But she was
apparently a good horsewoman, for the mischance which might have thrown
a less practical or more timid rider seemed of little moment to her.
With a strong hand and determined gesture she wheeled her frightened
horse back into the track, and rode him directly at the object. But here
she herself slightly recoiled, for it was the body of a man lying in the
road.
As she leaned forward over her horse's shoulder, she could see by the
dim light that he was a miner, and that, though motionless, he was
breathing stertorously. Drunk, no doubt!--an accident of the locality
alarming only to her horse. But although she cantered impatiently
forward, she had not proceeded a hundred yards before she stopped
reflectively, and trotted back again. He had not moved. She could now
see that his head and shoulders were covered with broken clods of earth
and gravel, and smaller fragments lay at his side.
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