midday before
I believe my horse is lamed . '' Lamed it was , indeed , where the bull had struck the foreleg , though , as it chanced , not badly . Having tied a handkerchief to the horn of the buck in order to scare away the vultures , and thrown some tufts of dry grass upon its body , which he proposed , if possible , to fetch or send for , Mr. Clifford mounted his lame horse and headed for the waggon . But they had galloped farther than they thought , and it was midday before they came to what they took to be the road . As there was no spoor upon it , they followed this track backwards , expecting to find the waggon outspanned , but although they rode for mile upon mile , no waggon could they see . Then , realizing their mistake , they retraced their steps , and leaving this path at the spot where they had found it , struck off again to the right . Meanwhile , the sky was darkening , and at about three o'clock in the afternoon a thunderstorm broke over them accompanied by torrents of icy rain , the first fall of the spring , and a bitter wind which chilled them through .