Beyond the field was a ravine full of firs , through which Malley 's Creek ran . To cross it meant a four-mile cut to Ramble Valley . The ice looked black and rotten . To the left was the ragged hole where Jack Carr 's mare had struggled for her life . Bruce headed Lady Jane higher up . If a crossing could be made at all it was only between Malley 's spring-hole and the old ice road . Lady Jane swerved at the bank and whickered . `` On , old girl , '' said Bruce , in a tense voice . Unwillingly she advanced , picking her steps with cat-like sagacity . Once her foot went through , Bruce pulled her up with hands that did not tremble . The next moment she was scrambling up the opposite bank . Glancing back , Bruce saw the ice parting in her footprints and the black water gurgling up . But the race was not yet decided . By crossing the creek he had won no more than an equal chance with Eben King . And the field road before him was much worse than the main road . There was little snow on it and some bad sloughs . But Lady Jane was good for it . For once she should not be spared . Just as the red ball of the sun touched the wooded hills of the valley , Mrs. Theodora , looking from the cowstable door , saw two sleighs approaching , the horses of which were going at a gallop . One was trundling down the main road , headlong through old drifts and slumpy snow , where a false step might send the horse floundering to the bottom .
The other was coming up XXXXX the direction of the creek , full tilt through Tony Mack 's stump land , where not a vestige of snow coated the huge roots over which the runners bumped .
By On as at before from in of than through