I at
once tried to get him back to the ground we had just left, but in his
frantic efforts to get his feet out of the sticky mud, he got farther
to one side and slipped down into an alkali hole of nasty black water
and slime. That I knew to be exceedingly dangerous, and I urged the
horse by voice and whip to get him out before he sank down too deep,
but with all his efforts he could do nothing, and was going down very
fast and groaning in his terror.
Seeing that I must have assistance without delay, I called to Faye to
come at once, and sat very still until he got to us, fearing that if I
changed my position the horse might fall over. Faye came running, and
finding a tuft of grass and solid ground to stand upon, pulled Pete by
the bridle and encouraged him until the poor beast finally struggled
out, his legs and stomach covered with the black slime up to the flaps
of my saddle, so one can see what danger we were in. There was no way
of relieving the horse of my weight, as it was impossible for me to
jump and not get stuck in the mud myself. This is the only alkali hole
we have discovered here. It is screened by bunches of tall grass, and
I expect that many a time I have ridden within a few feet of it when
alone, and if my horse had happened to slip down on any one of these
times, we probably would have been sucked from the face of the earth,
and not one person to come to our assistance or to know what had
happened to us.
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