As quick as thought he whipped out his handkerchief and looped it on to the string.

Then Heathcote whipped out his handkerchief and looped it on to Dick's, and between them the two held on grimly, and tried to fancy their troubles were at an end.
The support of a piece of stray string at the tail of a coach, supplemented by two pocket-handkerchiefs, may be grateful, but for practical purposes it is at best a flimsy stay, and had it not been for occasional hills at which to breathe, our heroes might have found it out at once.
As it was, they were carried three or four miles on their way by the purely moral support of their holdfast until the last of the hills was climbed, and the long steady slope which led down to Templeton opened before the travellers and reminded the horses of corn and stable.

Then a trot began, which put the actual support of the extemporised cable to the test.
Our heroes, worn out already, could not, try all they would, keep it slack.

Every step it became tauter and tauter, until at last you might have played a tune upon it.

They made one gallant effort to relieve the strain, but, alas! it was no good.