Its plunging disconcerted the whole party for a minute.
We did not wait to see the rest.

Taking advantage of this momentary diversion in our favour, we rode on at full speed to the top of the slope--I never knew before how hard I could pedal--and began to descend at a dash into the opposite hollow.
The sun had set by this time.

There is no twilight in those latitudes.
It grew dark at once.

We could see now, in the plain all round, where black clouds of smoke had rolled before, one lurid red glare of burning houses, mixed with a sullen haze of tawny light from the columns of prairie fire kindled by the insurgents.
We made our way still onward across the open plain without one word towards Salisbury.

The mare was giving out.