“If we try it at all, we shall do it,” said Roy, spiritedly, and then he and Dudley rode back to put their steeds to a gallop.

Old Ben watched them breathlessly.  Dudley seemed to be hesitating.

“I say, old fellow, don’t let us do it to-night.”

Roy’s look was one of astonishment mingled with a little contempt.

“Not do it!  Are you afraid?”

Dudley’s color rose.  “I’m not afraid of our courage,” he said, boldly, “but of our ponies:  they have never been accustomed to it.”

“Then they can learn to-night.  Now then, there’s plenty of room for us both abreast.  One—­two—­three—­off!  Hurrah for the Bertrams!”

The ponies were fresh, the hedge was cleared; but as old Ben was in the act of waving his cap aloft to give a cheer—­there was a crash—­a sharp cry—­and a sickening thud the other side of the hedge.  And when the old groom with beating heart and trembling limbs, reached the farther bank, Roy and his horse were prostrate on the ground.  Dudley had cleared it safely, and now having flung himself from his horse was leaning over Roy in agony of terror.

“He’s dead, Ben—­he’s dead—­his pony rolled over him—­oh, fetch a doctor, quick!”

Ben took the unconscious little figure in his arms, with a heavy groan; and Dudley tore on to the house almost frantic with fright.

Every one was in confusion at once, but it was Rob who tore off for the doctor, and brought him in an incredibly short time, considering that he lived three miles away.

To Dudley, listening outside the bedroom door, it seemed years before the doctor came out, and when he did, he was too overcome to speak to him.  But seeing the white unnerved face of the boy, Doctor Grant put his hand kindly on his shoulder.

“Cheer up, my boy, it might have been worse—­he is only stunned, and leg broken.  I hope he will pull round again.”

And then Dudley burst into a passionate fit of tears, with relief at the doctor’s words.

IX

MAKING HIS WILL

It was long before the cousins met; Roy’s delicate constitution had received such a shock that his condition for some time was a cause of grave anxiety.  His leg did not heal, and then the terrible word was whispered through the house “amputation”!

It was a lovely evening in September when after a long talk with the doctor in the library Miss Bertram came out, her usually determined face quivering with emotion.

“I will tell him to-night, Doctor Grant, and we shall be ready for you to-morrow afternoon at three.”

She went upstairs, and Dudley with scared eyes having heard her speech now crept out of the house after the doctor.

“Look here, Doctor Grant,” he said, confronting him with an almost defiant air:  “you’re not going to make Roy a cripple!”

“I’m going to save his life, if I can,” said the doctor, half sadly, as he looked down upon the sturdy boy in front of him.