immense, dark, moving mass, the nature of which they could not divine, but it threatened to annihilate every thing that opposed it.  While gazing at this additional source of danger, the horses, blinded by the surrounding light, plunged into a deep ditch that the rain had washed in the rich soil.  Neither men nor horses, fortunately, were injured; and, after several ineffectual efforts to extricate themselves, they here resolved to await the coming of the fire.  Ringwood and Jowler whined fearfully on the verge of the ditch for an instant, and then sprang in and crouched trembling at the feet of their master.  The next instant the dark, thundering mass passed overhead, being nothing less than an immense herd of buffaloes driven forward by the flames.  The horses bowed their heads as if a thunderbolt were passing.  The fire and the heavens were hid from view, and the roar above resembled the rush of mighty waters.  When the last animal had sprung over the chasm, Glenn thanked the propitious accident that thus providentially prevented him from being crushed to atoms, and uttered a prayer to Heaven that he might by a like means be rescued from the fiery ordeal that awaited him.  It now occurred to him that the accumulation of weeds and grass in the chasm, which saved them from injury when falling in, would prove fatal when the flames arrived.  And after groping some distance along the trench, he found the depth diminished, but the fire was not three hundred paces distant.  His heart sank within him.  But when on the eve of returning to his former position, with a resolution to remove as much of the combustible matter as possible, a gleam of joy spread over his features, as, casting a glance in a contrary direction from that they had recently pursued, he beheld the identical mound he had ascended before dark, and from which his unsteady and erratic riding in the night had fortunately prevented a distant separation.  They now led their horses forth, and, mounting without delay, whipped forward for life or death.  Could the summit of the mound be attained, they were in safety—­for there the soil was not encumbered with decayed vegetation—­and they spurred their animals to the top of their speed.  It was a noble sight to see the majestic white steed flying toward the mound with the velocity of the wind, while the diminutive pony miraculously followed in the wake like an inseparable shadow.  The careering flames were not far behind, and, when the horses gained the summit and Glenn looked back, the fire had reached the base!

Fortunately, that portion of the plain over which the scathing element had spent its fury, was the direction the party should pursue in retracing their way homeward.