The sky was all blue ; the jolly wind blew loud and steady ; the windmill-sails were spinning ; and the willows over all the fen rippling and whitening like a field of corn . He had been all night in the saddle , but his heart was good and his body sound , and he rode right merrily . The path went down and down into the marsh , till he lost sight of all the neighbouring landmarks but Kettley windmill on the knoll behind him , and the extreme top of Tunstall Forest far before . On either hand there were great fields of blowing reeds and willows , pools of water shaking in the wind , and treacherous bogs , as green as emerald , to tempt and to betray the traveller . The path lay almost straight through the morass . It was already very ancient ; its foundation had been laid by Roman soldiery ; in the lapse of ages much of it had sunk , and every here and there , for a few hundred yards , it lay submerged below the stagnant waters of the fen . About a mile from Kettley , Dick came to one such break in the plain line of causeway , where the reeds and willows grew dispersedly like little islands and confused the eye . The gap , besides , was more than usually long ; it was a place where any stranger might come readily to mischief ; and Dick bethought him , with something like a pang , of the lad whom he had so imperfectly directed . As for himself , one look backward to where the windmill sails were turning black against the blue of heaven -- one look forward to the high ground of Tunstall Forest , and he was sufficiently directed and held straight on , the water washing to his horse 's knees , as safe as on a highway . Half-way across , and when he had already sighted the path rising high and dry upon the farther side , he was aware of a great splashing on his right , and saw a grey horse , sunk to its belly in the mud , and still spasmodically struggling . Instantly , as though it had divined the neighbourhood of help , the poor beast began to neigh most piercingly . It rolled , meanwhile , a blood-shot eye , insane with terror ; and as it sprawled wallowing in the quag , clouds of stinging insects rose and buzzed about it in the air . `` Alack ! '' thought Dick , `` can the poor lad have perished ? There is his horse , for certain -- a brave grey ! Nay , comrade , if thou criest to me so piteously , I will do all man can to help thee . Shalt not lie there to drown by inches ! '' And he made ready his crossbow , and put a quarrel through the creature 's head . Dick rode on after this act of rugged mercy , somewhat sobered in spirit , and looking closely about him for any sign of his less happy predecessor in the way . `` I would I had dared to tell him further , '' he thought ; `` for I fear he has miscarried in the slough . ''
And just as he was so thinking , a voice cried upon his name from the XXXXX side , and , looking over his shoulder , he saw the lad 's face peering from a clump of reeds .
Dick Kettley Shalt bogs causeway crossbow fen quag reeds right