Look where he would, peering long and
deep into the blackness of a night without moon or stars, without
cloud or sky, with only a blank density around and about, Ralph seemed
to see in fitful flashes that came and went--now on the right and now
on the left of him, now in front and now behind, now on the earth at
his feet and now in the dumb vapor floating above him--the spectre of
that riderless horse. Sometimes he would stop and listen, thinking he
heard a horse canter close past him; but no, it was the noise of a
hidden river as its waters leapt over the stones. Sometimes he thought
he heard the neigh of a horse in the distance; but no, it was only the
whinny of the wind. His dog had followed close behind him when he fled
from the pass, and it was still at his heels. Sometimes Laddie would
dart away and be lost for a few minutes in the darkness. Then the
dog's muffled bark would be heard, and Ralph's blood would seem to
stand still with a dread apprehension that dared not to take the name
of hope. No; it was only a sheep that had strayed from its fold, and
had taken shelter from wind and rain beneath a stone in a narrow
cleft, and was now sending up into the night the pitiful cry of a lost
and desolate creature.
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