Gabriel took it in his hand and returned to his hut.

Here he ensconced himself, and peeped through the loophole in the direction of the rider's approach.
She came up and looked around--then on the other side of the hedge.
Gabriel was about to advance and restore the missing article when an unexpected performance induced him to suspend the action for the present.

The path, after passing the cowshed, bisected the plantation.

It was not a bridle-path--merely a pedestrian's track, and the boughs spread horizontally at a height not greater than seven feet above the ground, which made it impossible to ride erect beneath them.

The girl, who wore no riding-habit, looked around for a moment, as if to assure herself that all humanity was out of view, then dexterously dropped backwards flat upon the pony's back, her head over its tail, her feet against its shoulders, and her eyes to the sky.