The dog-cart began to careen to one side as the
animal continued to back and rear, deterred from flight by the figure
standing still directly in the road. Suddenly she sought to turn in the
restricted narrow space, and instantly the wheels were over the verge of
the precipice.
All useless were the convulsive efforts of the creature to maintain her
footing on the rocky brink, the clutching hoofs, the elastic bounds. With
the weight of the vehicle, the dead man leaning heavily on the dashboard,
it was but a moment of suspense--then like a thunderbolt the whole went
crashing down into the valley, the depth to be conjectured by the
considerable interval of time before the sound of rending boughs and
surging foliage in the air gave token that the wreck was hurtling through
the trees on the levels a thousand feet below.
Two other men, armed with rifles, had sprung from among the firs and
stood aghast and listening on the verge of the crag. There was no longer
a sound. The tragedy was complete, irrevocable, before a word was
uttered.
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