The Black Stallion Revolts (3 page)

Henry shook his head in disgust. “Alec, if you’re going to bother tellin’ me the whole story of the Black again, you’d better just save your breath an’ I’ll save you some time. I know he was stolen from the Arab sheik, Abu Ishak, and put aboard your ship. I knew it went down off the west coast of Spain and you and the
Black were the only survivors. An’ if he hadn’t pulled you to that reef of an island somewhere out there you wouldn’t be around now to be talkin’ this way.” Henry paused for breath. “I know, too, that if you hadn’t found food for him on the island, he wouldn’t be any more yours than he’s mine or anyone else’s. A hungry animal is a tame animal. I’ve seen it happen before. Sure, I’ll admit he loves you now, but never forget that your finding something for him to eat when he was starving made it all possible.”

“I wasn’t going into all that,” Alec said.

“You brought it up,” Henry insisted, his mouth less tight now. “I’ll finish it. I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten
anything,
” he added sarcastically. “When you came back to the States with him, I met you and him for the first time. I knew what kind of a horse you had better’n you did. We raced him once and there never was or will be another race like it. Then we lost him because his rightful owner, Abu Ishak, came to reclaim him. Later on he sent you Satan as your reward, and then when Abu died he willed you the Black, so we got him back again.”

Henry stopped. “Am I making sense, Alec? Isn’t my memory still good?”

Alec nodded, and tried to interrupt. “All I wanted to say, Henry, was …”

“Let me finish, Alec. So we had the Black and Satan, and we made a world champion of Satan. It enabled us to set up this place.” Henry’s hands went out in a great gesture. “We have one of the country’s finest stock farms and racing stables. Sure, Alec, we’ve arrived in the big time, and we’re more than payin’ our
way along. An’ we owe it all to the Black and Satan. Without them you and I would be back in the suburbs of New York City. You ridin’ subways instead of horses, and me sittin’ in a chair tryin’ to remember the old days when I was a lot younger and had a way with horses. Sure and I’d be grievin’ about it being all over.”

Henry paused for a moment, his yellowing teeth biting into his lower lip. Then he went on. “But what has all that got to do with what happened tonight, Alec? How does all this business of remembering what’s happened before, and appreciating what we have now, got to do with the viciousness, the ruthlessness of what
he
did tonight?”

“It helps us to understand him and the reasons for his attack on Satan.”

“
But I do understand,
” Henry came back, emphasizing every word, every letter. “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

“You do now, but you didn’t. Not a few minutes ago,” Alec said. “You didn’t give yourself a chance.”

“So I blew off steam,” Henry said.

“So you did,” Alec agreed. “And now you’re all quieted down.”

“All quieted down,” Henry repeated. “If we’re goin’ to talk any more let’s go into the office. Let the horses get some quiet, too.”

They left the corridor, turning off the light behind them, and entered the barn’s office. As Henry sat down in the deep cushioned chair behind the desk, Alec straddled a straight chair before it.

“You still haven’t let me say what I wanted to,”
Alec said. “About what happened the time I first saw the Black.”

“He was a terror on the pier,” Henry recalled.

“More than that. He killed a man,” Alec returned quietly.

Henry’s face became taut. “Yes, I remember you told me that.”

“I told you why he did it, too, didn’t I?”

Henry nodded. “Someone used a whip on him.”

“That’s right,” Alec said. “And you used one on him tonight. That’s why he turned on you.”

“But what was I going to do, Alec? He was about to kill Satan!”

“I know, but the point is, you forgot. He would have taken anything else from you but a whip. You’ve never had any trouble with him before.”

“All right, I forgot,” Henry said brusquely. “But where do we go from here? What are we going to do about him?”

“Nothing. There’s nothing we
can
do except always keep his background in mind, and never forget it. I think we’ve both been inclined lately to do just that.”

“He’s given us every reason to forget what he was,” Henry insisted. “He’s been easy to handle, and a good-mannered stallion. At times he’s been just as nice as Satan. He’s taken to stable routine like a park hack.”

“That’s just it,” Alec said. “He’s been good too long. The break had to come sometime, and it came tonight. Unfortunately, neither of us was figuring on such a thing happening. We’re as much to blame.”

Henry left his chair to walk nervously about the
room. His eyes swept over the walls, taking in the numerous championship plaques that had been awarded to Satan during his racing career. “Do you think he’s gotten it out of his system for a while, then?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Henry. Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t think there’s any way of telling for sure.”

“Then the only thing we can do is to isolate him until we find out,” the trainer said. “Put him in one of the far pastures or keep him in the barn most of the time.”

“Isolation might make things worse,” Alec said quietly.

“I know, but we can’t take any chances of him gettin’ to Satan again.”

Alec’s gaze left Henry and shifted to the east window. The horizon was turning a dull gray. Soon the day would begin. There was no sense in going back to bed now. In a little while it would be time to feed the broodmares and their colts, to handle the weanlings and yearlings, to do the many other endless tasks that went with the operation of a stock farm. Routine and schedules. Regular hours for feeding, handling, cleaning and training. But in spite of all this his days were never dull. Every colt and filly, every broodmare and stallion was an individual to be treated in his or her own special way to obtain best results. Yet there were only so many hours in a day, with so many jobs to be done. Keep to a schedule and one finished in time for bed.

Hearing the Black neigh jolted Alec’s mind back to the problem at hand. If the stallion were a person, one would say he was tired of routine, tired of the regularity of his daily schedule.
All right
, Alec thought,
say it.…
He’s bored! Say it and get it over with!
Not so long ago the Black had roamed the Great Desert of Arabia, wild and free. Now he was being treated like the most domesticated of farm animals. Was it any wonder that he had revolted against it all? Wasn’t it, indeed, a wonder that he hadn’t revolted long before tonight? The Black needed freedom, a freedom he couldn’t have here no matter what arrangements were made!

“Henry …”

“Yeah?”

“What do you do when you get pretty fed up with farm routine?” Alec asked.

Henry looked puzzled. He walked around to the front of the desk and then sat down again, hoping to meet Alec’s gaze. But the boy’s eyes were fixed on the desk.

“You can’t say I get fed up,” Henry said. “I like it here. I just need a change every once in a while.”

“So you take one or more of our horses to the track for a season’s campaign.”

“Sure, Alec. That’s part of my job here. Racing helps to pay our bills.” Henry grinned sheepishly. “But what are you driving at?”

“The point I’m trying to make is that you’d be a pretty unruly guy if you couldn’t get back to the track once in a while.”

“Naturally. It’s been an important part of my life for some fifty years. It’s
me
.”

“It’s the Black, too,” Alec said quietly.

“Racing?” Henry asked incredulously. “Are you out of your mind, Alec? He’s not controllable on a track. You know that as well as I do.”

“I didn’t mean racing,” Alec said quickly. “But just as training and racing are important to you, freedom is necessary to the Black.”

Henry laughed. “Sure,” he said, “but what do you want to do? Turn him loose to roam wherever he pleases?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“You’re kidding.” But the smile left Henry’s lips when he met Alec’s gaze. “Can’t you just see him running around the countryside? Maybe he’ll even head down the Parkway to New York City for a look at the race tracks.”

“Now you’re trying to be funny,” Alec said.

“Okay, I was tryin’,” Henry returned gravely. “But you suggested this, so let’s hear you come up with some kind of an explanation.”

“He needs a change from the routine and daily schedule he’s had here at the farm. He’s behaved himself for a long, long while but tonight was the turning point. We won’t have a moment’s peace around here from now on. I’m convinced of that, now that I’ve thought it all over. Give him some freedom, a chance to roam and be on his own again, and it’ll get a lot out of his system. He’ll come back a better horse for it.”

“Come back? Come back from where?”

“How about Bill Gallon’s place in southern California?”

“The Desert Ranch? You mean, Alec, you want to send him way out there? Why?”

“Because Bill Gallon has several thousand fenced acres of desert and irrigated pastureland,” Alec said quietly. “The Black would have something like his
homeland. He’d have freedom to roam. It’s the closest thing I can think of to what he needs right now. Do you think Bill would let us turn him out there for a month, maybe two months?”

“Of course. He’s one of my best friends, isn’t he? But, Alec …” Henry paused. “You really think that’ll do the trick? You just want him turned loose?”

“That’s all,” Alec said. “It’ll be enough.

“You should go with him. He’s your horse.”

Alec’s gaze dropped to the huge desk in front of him. “I’ll take him out there, anyway.”

“And then come back?” Henry asked.

“Yes, just as soon as I know everything is all right.”

“Why don’t you stay with him?”

“You know why, Henry.”

“Your work here?”

Alec nodded.

Henry was quiet for a few minutes, but his eyes never left Alec’s face. Finally he said, “Maybe you need a change, too.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“But you’ll miss him.”

“Sure.”

“And he’ll miss you.”

“He’ll be too happy, too free to miss anybody,” Alec said.

“Having just you around would make his freedom all the more exciting,” Henry said. “Just the two of you, like it was at first.”

Alec smiled. “You’re getting sentimental, Henry.”

“Sure, but I’d like to see you go with him, if you’re serious about all this.”

“I’m serious, all right.”

Henry stood up. “He’s your horse, so you stay with him. I’ll take over your jobs here, and with your dad and Jinx to help I’ll have no trouble. In fact, it’ll do me good to assume some responsibility around here for a change.”

Alec rose from his chair. “No, Henry. I’ll come back.”

“So you think you’re indispensable?”

“No, it isn’t that.”

“Sure it is, and that’s a bad state of mind.” Henry came around the desk, and took Alec by the arm. “If the Black goes, you go, too … and you stay with him until he comes back. That’s decided. Now let’s get out of these pajamas.”

As they left the office Alec asked, “Will you call Bill Gallon today to see if it’s all right with him?”

“Sure. When do you want to leave?”

“As soon as we can charter a plane. The sooner the better, now that we’ve decided to get him out of here.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Henry returned. “No sense puttin’ it off, not after tonight.”

After Henry had left, Alec stood for a few minutes in the darkened corridor. The air was heavy with the smells of oiled leather, and soap, and hay, and grain. All this had become so much a part of him. Wouldn’t he worry about the mares and their foals, and the yearling colts and fillies while he was away? He supposed so, but it was needless. There was competent help here and, as Henry had said, no person was indispensable.

He heard the Black nickering, and his heart pounded while he thought of the two of them being
alone again. Remember the island? Remember his first ride on the Black? Remember Arabia? Remember riding the Black across the desert and the steady beat of the stallion’s hoofs in the sand? Yes, in spite of his love for the farm, it would be good to be alone with his horse again. Like the Black, he wanted to be free for a while.

Without turning on the lights, he walked down the long corridor. He’d tell the great stallion what they were going to do, and somehow the Black would understand. Not from his words, but through some other way, which he himself didn’t understand and could only accept.

Two days later they stood within the close confines of a plane that had been specially equipped for the air transportation of horses. The floor of the horse pullman was lower than in passenger planes, providing additional head space, and the Black stood cross-tied in a boxed stall. He had given Alec no trouble while being loaded, following him up the ramp docilely and hesitating only before the rooftop doorway that had been raised high to give him more headroom upon entering the plane.

Now Alec adjusted the meshed-rope sling before the stall so his horse could more easily get at the hay it held. The Black pulled a mouthful from the sling, but held the hay between his lips without chewing, his large eyes wandering over the interior of the plane. He pawed for a while at the wood shavings beneath his hoofs, found the rubber matting beneath, and then his gaze finally returned to Alec. He began chewing the hay.

Henry said, “Until they find a better way of securing a horse inside a plane, air-shipping isn’t for me.”

Alec watched the stallion shift his weight from one side of his close stall to the other, and then shake his head as much as his tie ropes would allow. “They secure them as well as possible,” Alec said. “Give a horse no room to move at all, and you’ll only have more trouble.”

“I suppose so,” Henry admitted. He paused. “Well, Alec, I guess this is it for a while.” His smile belied the soberness he felt. “You two have a good vacation, and don’t worry about the farm. We’ll do all right. You give my best to Bill. Tell him I’ll be out there one of these days.”