The bank on either side of the highway ran straight down without any break to the water's edge.

There was no sign of a bridge, and a black shadow in the centre of the stream showed where the ferry-boat was returning after conveying some belated travellers across.
The driver never hesitated, but gathering up the reins, he urged the frightened creatures into the river.

They hesitated, however, when they first felt the cold water about their hocks, and even as they did so one of them, with a low moan, fell over upon her side.

Despard's bullet had found its mark.

Like a flash the coachman hurled himself from the box and plunged into the stream; but the pursuing horsemen were all round him before this, and half-a-dozen hands had seized him ere he could reach deep water, and had dragged him to the bank.