The Black Stallion Revolts by Farley Walter & Rowe John Alfred

Author:Farley, Walter & Rowe, John Alfred [Farley, Walter & Rowe, John Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Childrens, Young Adult, Classics, Adventure
ISBN: 9780307804822
Amazon: 0307804828
Goodreads: 12495160
Publisher: Yearling
Published: 1953-08-12T08:00:00+00:00

LONE RIDER

12

Once this horse had been his. That much he knew. No wild outlaw would have come and stood before him, nuzzling his hand, nickering, listening. The boy accepted this without question, and asked himself only, “When was he mine? Where? How long ago?”

The great stallion was familiar to him. His eyes had looked upon the wedge-shaped head with the small ears before. They knew the long, thin nostrils and the wondrous gaze that was fixed on him. They knew the slender neck with its high, mounting crest … the muscled withers, the great strength of back, the chest and shoulders and legs. All these his eyes had looked upon before. Just as his hands had known such touches, soft and gentle. Only his brain was the stranger.

The shadows from the lofty walls had met an hour before, and night had come to the canyon. Yet McGregor continued standing beside the stallion, his hands on the shaggy unkempt coat as if afraid to let go lest he lose him again. He thought how much he would like to brush him and make his coat glisten. Once before it had shone beneath his hands. He knew this, too.

The air became cold. A wind stirred, and then mounted in intensity until it was whipping the stallion’s heavy mane and forelock. Short neighs came from the far end of the canyon, and the stallion turned to look at the mares. But he did not leave the boy.

A low whistle and stomping of hoofs broke the stillness of the upper canyons, and McGregor remembered the horse he had tied to the scrub tree.

The black stallion turned, too, his head held high, his eyes afire. Every line of his gigantic body trembled. He was ready to go up the canyon, when the boy spoke to him in the language they alone understood. Sounds and words flowed effortlessly and without question from McGregor’s lips.

The stallion screamed his shrill clarion call of challenge but did not move. He stood still for several minutes, his body trembling in his eagerness to fight. As the boy continued to talk to him, and no answering challenge came from beyond, the stallion quieted. Finally he turned again to the mares, and a few moments later he left to join them.

McGregor stood alone in the darkness, pondering the things he had to do. There was feed in the saddlebags for his horse, and biscuits left over from noontime for himself. It would do him until tomorrow.

Tomorrow? What about tomorrow? He must return to the ranch. He must tell Allen that he had found no sign of the stallion and his band. Somehow he would return to the canyon, for here was his past. From the black stallion he would learn all he wanted to know. But he needed time.

He went up the canyon to unsaddle his horse and to feed and water him. Later he returned to where he had left the stallion and started a fire. Sitting beside it, he ate the hard biscuits and waited impatiently for the hours to pass.

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