José — page 161: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

154 JOSE. ting the nimble-footed pony on the neck, and was soon again in the saddle, speeding swiftly along the soft, level path. As soon as she felt physically re- vived, she endeavored to take the bearing of the sun. She knew that she left the fort about an hour before dinner, but she had not been able to measure the time that had meanwhile elapsed. The sun was no longer visible. The fog seemed to have con- centrated into a dense, jumbled mass of clouds, converting the sky into a dark and awful blue- gray. With a feeling of alarm, Mary looked up- ward, while involuntarily she thought of the over- seer’s prediction concerning the approach of a storm. Crying cheerily to her animal that was doing his utmost to please his mistress, but would ever and anon, with a peculiar shake of the head, lag into an indolent jog, she urged him to faster speed; and yet it appeared to Mary, whenever she would look upward, that daylight was steadily _ waning, and the gathering clouds were looking more gloomy and menacing. A half-hour, possibly, had passed away, during which Mary was obliged incessantly to urge her horse onward, when suddenly a blinding flash rent the air, quickly followed by a deafening crash of thunder, that was reverberated among the craggy hills in a hundred echoes, and finally died away in a long, sullen rumble. The horse sprang aside in terror. Mary, however, was prepared for such a contingency and soon had the animal again under control, speaking to him in gentle accents. With his head raised and ears pointed, his eyes distended and nervously watching the sides of the road, he finally sped onward, and Mary now had to divide her attention between the weather, the path, and Eomicbooks.co m