The horse galloped through the tall, yellow grass raising clouds of red dust that mingled with the smell of the trodden weeds. The tired rider kept looking over his shoulder for signs of pursuit as he careened through the vast, flat landscape. The light was failing. The first stars were shining in the domed canopy of the southern sky. He desperately wanted to stop, dismount and camp for the night but what pursued him drove him on relentlessly.
He knew that his horse was near exhaustion. Continuing on foot was unthinkable. He squinted against the twilight and tried to direct his mount towards what seemed to him a depression in the long,swinging grasses far ahead .
“Maybe I can rest the horse and the grass will cover us if we stand still,” he thought, as hope fluttered again in his chest. The hooves devoured the distance. Soon he arrived at the beginning of the depression. He reined in the racing horse but it stumbled against something big and bony on the floor of the pampas. He flew screaming into the air.