The figure entered here and vanished.
"It must be a shadow," said Leo doubtfully.
"Nonsense," I answered, "shadows don't strike one.

Go on." So he led the horse up the cleft, to find that at the end it turned sharply to the right and that the form was standing there awaiting us.
Forward it went again and we after it down a little gorge that grew ever gloomier till it terminated in what might have been a cave, or a gallery cut in the rock.
Here our guide came back to us apparently with the intention of taking the horse by the bridle, but at this nearer sight of it the brute snorted and reared up, so that it almost fell backwards upon me.

As it found its feet again the figure struck it on the head in the same passionless, inhuman way that it had struck Leo, whereon the horse trembled and burst into a sweat as though with fear, making no further attempt to escape or to disobey.

Then it took one side of the bridle in its swathed hand and, Leo clinging to the other, we plunged into the tunnel.
Our position was not pleasant, for we knew not whither we were being led by this horrible conductor, and suspected that it might be to meet our deaths in the darkness.

Moreover, I guessed that the path was narrow and bordered by some gulf, for as we went I heard stones fall, apparently to a considerable depth, while the poor horse lifted its feet gingerly and snorted in abject fear.