"Whoever gets there first can fix the stakes." He laughed aloud, and the sound of his laugh made her catch her breath with a sharp, involuntary start.

She ran to her mount feeling as if Guy were behind her, and with an odd perversity she would not look round to disillusion herself.
During the fevered minutes that followed, the illusion possessed her strongly, so strongly that she almost forgot the vital importance of being first.

It was the thudding hoofs of his companion that made her animal gallop rather than any urging of hers.

But once started, with the air swirling past her and the excitement of rapid motion setting her veins on fire, the spirit of the race caught her again, and she went like the wind.
The blasted tree stood on a slope nearly a mile away.

The ground was hard, and the grass seemed to crackle under the galloping hoofs.