On a Saturday afternoon in early July Dorian and a neighbor were coming home from a week's absence up in the hills.

They were on horseback, and therefore they cut across by way of the new road in course of construction between Greenstreet and the city.
The river was high.

The new bridge was not yet open for traffic, but horses could safely cross.

As the two riders passed to the Greenstreet side, they saw near the bridge down on the rocks by the rushing river, an automobile, overturned and pretty well demolished.

Evidently, someone had been trying to reach the bridge, had missed the road, and had gone over the bank, which at this point was quite steep.
The two men stopped, dismounted, and surveyed the wreck.