For many minutes he watched the colt’s attempts to un-limber the long forelegs that would not do what he asked of them. It wouldn’t take long before this fellow would be the master of his gangling body.
“I hate to tell you this,” Alec said, picking up the colt once more, “but you don’t have a very smart mother. At first she doesn’t know you and won’t have you. In fact, she’d like to do away with you. But after a while, not so very long from now, she’ll come over to us very slowly and we won’t have to run away. She’ll put her old head down and sniff, and then she’ll start licking you, just as though none of this had happened at all.”
He opened the stall door, still talking to the colt. “My job will be done then and she’ll be as loving as she is mean now. But as I said she’s not very smart at the beginning. We have to keep reminding her that you’re hers and there’s no getting out of it.”
Miz Liz had moved to the corner of her stall. She stood quietly, showing no interest in them, her disheveled head hung low. Alec shifted the heavy, awkward bundle in his arms so he might watch her better. He did not move far from the door while letting the colt support some of his own weight.
“Old mare,” he called, “this is your son, and the sooner you get to know him the sooner I can clean you up and get this business over with. But I’ll not come a step closer. I know you too well.”
Without raising her head, Miz Liz suddenly plunged toward them, her nostrils flared and ears back. Alec pulled the colt outside and slammed the stall door in the mare’s face. She made no attempt to reach over it but turned and went back to the corner of her stall again.
Breathing heavily, Alec put down the colt. “Anyway, she’s getting to know you,” he said. “It shouldn’t take too much longer.”
Far down the corridor the door banged open and his father’s running figure emerged from the darkness. “Dad, what are you doing here?” Alec called.
His father didn’t need to answer. He opened the door leading upstairs and smoke billowed into the corridor! Only then did Alec remember with horror that Snappy had been frying bacon on Henry’s stove—and that he had forgotten to turn it off!
No longer was the night still. When Alec ran toward the stairs to help his father he heard the crackling of flames beyond the smoke. The onslaught of destruction had come and he had helped to create it.
DON’T MISS ANY OF WALTER FARLEY’S
CLASSIC HORSE STORIES ABOUT ALEC RAMSAY!
THE ORIGINAL STORY ABOUT
ALEC AND THE BLACK
Alec Ramsay first saw the Black Stallion when his ship docked at a small Arabian port on the Red Sea. Little did he dream then that the magnificent wild horse was destined to play an important part in his young life; that the strange understanding that grew between them would lead through untold dangers to high adventure in America.
THE SECOND GREAT ADVENTURE
ABOUT ALEC AND THE BLACK
What was the motive of the night prowler in attempting to destroy the Black, one of the world’s most famous horses? The prowler left behind him a gold medallion on which was embossed the figure of a large white bird, its wings outstretched in flight. Was it the Phoenix, the fabulous bird of mythology that symbolizes the resurrection of the dead?
THE STORY OF THE BLACK
BEFORE HE MET ALEC
Born in the mountain stronghold of an Arabian sheikh, the Black Stallion is a horse like no other. Big, beautiful, and savage, this magnificent creature is destined for greatness. But the Black’s bright future is eclipsed when a fierce band of raiders attempts to kidnap him—and he escapes into the wilderness, hunted by man and beast.
The Black Stallion Mystery Page 17
