If we were forced to abandon our horses, we, their riders, might possibly escape, could we find any place to hide in on that great plain.

If not, we should be seen as well as scented, and then----No, the odds were all against us, but so they had often been before; meanwhile we had three miles start, and perhaps help would come to us from the Mountain, some help unforeseen.

So we set our teeth and sped away like arrows while the light lasted.
Very soon it failed, and whilst the moon was hidden behind the mountains the night grew dark.
Now the hounds gained on us, for in the gloom, which to them was nothing, we did not dare to ride full speed, fearing lest our horses should stumble and lame themselves, or fall.

Then it was for the second time since we had dwelt in this land of Kaloon that of a sudden the fire flamed upon the Peak.

When we had seen it before, it had appeared to flash across the heavens in one great lighthouse ray, concentrated through the loop above the pillar, and there this night also the ray ran far above us like a lance of fire.