The horses, however, kept their feet, and the wheels held fast.

Once, when a jolt nearly pitched him from his seat, Stirling laughed.
"After the city it's a relief to let them out," he said.

"I did this kind of thing for a living once.

The mine was way back in the bush, leagues from anywhere, and I hired out as special store and despatch carrier.

There was red-hot trouble unless I got through on time when the mail came in." He drove the team furiously at an unguarded log bridge which was barely wide enough to let the wheels pass.
"It's quite a way to the lake yet, and we want to make the camp before it's dark," he explained.