shoulder and sent him reeling. He gave a shriek and dodged back, and a
cartwheel shaved him narrowly.
Way! cried the men all about him. Make way!
So soon as the cab had passed, he flung himself, with both hands open,
upon the heap of coins, and began thrusting handfuls in his pocket. A
horse rose close upon him, and in another moment, half rising, he had
been borne down under the horse s hoofs.
Stop! screamed my brother, and pushing a woman out of his way, tried
to clutch the bit of the horse.
Before he could get to it, he heard a scream under the wheels, and saw
through the dust the rim passing over the poor wretch s back. The
driver of the cart slashed his whip at my brother, who ran round behind
the cart. The multitudinous shouting confused his ears. The man was
writhing in the dust among his scattered money, unable to rise, for the
wheel had broken his back, and his lower limbs lay limp and dead. My
brother stood up and yelled at the next driver, and a man on a black
horse came to his assistance.
Get him out of the road, said he; and, clutching the man s collar
with his free hand, my brother lugged him sideways. But he still
clutched after his money, and regarded my brother fiercely, hammering
at his arm with a handful of gold. Go on! Go on! shouted angry voices
behind. Way! Way!
There was a smash as the pole of a carriage crashed into the cart that
the man on horseback stopped. My brother looked up, and the man with
the gold twisted his head round and bit the wrist that held his collar.
There was a concussion, and the black horse came staggering sideways,
and the carthorse pushed beside it. A hoof missed my brother s foot by
a hair s breadth. He released his grip on the fallen man and jumped
back. He saw anger change to terror on the face of the poor wretch on
the ground, and in a moment he was hidden and my brother was borne
backward and carried past the entrance of the lane, and had to fight
hard in the torrent to recover it.
He saw Miss Elphinstone covering her eyes, and a little child, with all
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