I waited until the ruffian beside me turned to speak to the men
behind. The moment he did so, and his eyes were averted, I
slipped out the scrap of satin in which I had placed the pebble,
and balancing it carefully on my right thigh as I rode, I flipped
it forward with all the strength of my thumb and finger. I meant
it to fall a few paces before us in the path, where it could be
seen. But alas for my hopes! At the critical moment my horse
started, my finger struck the scrap aslant, the pebble flew out,
and the bit of stuff fluttered into a whin-bush close to my
stirrup--and was lost!
I was bitterly disappointed, for the same thing might happen
again, and I had now only three scraps left. But fortune
favoured me, by putting it into my neighbour's head to plunge
into a hot debate with the shock-headed man on the nature of some
animals seen on a distant brow; which he said were izards, while
the other maintained that they were common goats. He continued,
on this account, to ride with his face turned from me, and I had
time to fit another pebble into the second piece of stuff.
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