_CHAPTER SIXTEEN_
Although David was smiling when he left Abraham, he was serious when heturned from the door of the old man. He went to Connor's room, it wasempty. He summoned Zacharias.
"The men beyond the mountains are weak," said David, "and when I lefthim a little time since Benjamin was sighing and sleepy. But now he isnot in his room. Where is he, Zacharias?"
"Shakra came into the patio and neighed," Zacharias answered, "and atthat Benjamin came out, rubbing his eyes. 'My friend,' said he to me,and his voice was smooth--not like those voices--"
"Peace, Zacharias," said David. "Leave this talk of his voice and tellme where he is gone."
"Away from the house," said the old man sullenly.
The master knitted his brows.
"You old men," he said, "are like yearlings who feel the sap running intheir legs in the spring. You talk as they run--around and around.Continue."
Zacharias sulked as if he were on the verge of not speaking at all. Butpresently his eye lighted with his story.
"Benjamin," he went on, "said to me, 'My friend, that is a noble mare.'
"'She is a good filly,' said I.
"'With a hundred and ten up,' said Benjamin, 'she would make a fasttrack talk.'"
"What?" said David.
"I do not know the meaning of his words," said the old servant, "but Ihave told them as he said them."
"He is full of strange terms," murmured David. "Continue."
"He went first to one side of Shakra and then to the other. He put hishand into his coat and seemed to think. Presently he stretched out hishand and called her. She came to him slowly."
"Wonderful!"
"That was my thought," nodded Zacharias.
"Why do you stop?" cried David.
"Because I am talking around and around, like a running yearling," saidZacharias ironically. "However, he stood back at length and combed theforelock of Shakra with his fingers. 'Tell me, Zacharias,' he said, 'ifthis is not the sister of Glani?'"
"He guessed so much? It is strange!"
"Then he looked in her mouth and said that she was four years old."
"He is wise in horses, indeed."
"When he turned away Shakra followed him; he went to his room and cameout again, carrying the saddle with which he rode Abra. He put this onher back and a rope around her neck. 'Will the master be angry if I rideher?' he asked.
"I told him that she was first ridden only three months before to-day,and that she must not be ridden more than fifty miles now in a day.
"He looked a long time at me, then said he would not ride farther thanthat. Then he went galloping down the road to the south."
"Good!" said the master, and sent a long whistle from the patio; it waspitched as shrill and small as the scream of a hawk when the hawk itselfcannot be seen in the sky.
Zacharias ran into the house, and when he came out again bringing a padGlani was already in the patio.
David took the pad and cinched it on the back of the stallion.
"And when Shakra began to gallop," said Zacharias, "Benjamin cried out."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing."
"Zacharias, men do not cry out without speaking."
"Nevertheless," said Zacharias, "it was like the cry of a wolf when theyhunt along the cliffs in winter and see the young horses and the cattlein the Garden below them. It was a cry, and there was no spoken word init."
The master bit his lip.
"Abraham has been talking folly to you," he said; and, springing on theback of the stallion, he raced out of the patio and on to the south roadwith his long, black hair whipping straight out behind his head.
At length the southern wall rose slowly over the trees, and a deepmurmur which had begun about them as soon as they left the house, lightas the humming of bees, increasing as they went down the valley, nowbecame a great rushing noise. It was like a great wind in sound; oneexpected the push of a gale, coming out from the trees, but there wasonly the river which ran straight at the cliff, split solid rock, andshot out of sunlight into a black cavern. Beside this gaping mouth ofrock stood Connor with Shakra beside him. Twice the master called, butConnor could not hear.
The tumbling river would have drowned a volley of musketry. Only whenDavid touched his shoulder did Connor turn a gloomy face. They tooktheir horses across the bridge which passed over the river a littledistance from the cliff, and rode down the farther side of the valleyuntil the roar sank behind them. A few barriers of trees reduced it tothe humming which on windless days was picked up by echoes and reachedthe house of David with a solemn murmur.
"I thought you would rest," said David, when they were come to a placeof quiet, and the horses cantered lightly over the road with thatpeculiar stride, at once soft and reaching, which Connor was beginningto see as the chief characteristic of the Eden Gray.
"I have rested more in two minutes on the back of Shakra than I couldrest in two hours on my bed."
It was like disarming a father by praise of his son.
"She has a gentle gait," smiled David.
"I tell you, man, she's a knockout!"
"A knockout?"
The gambler added hastily: "Next to Glani the best horse I have seen."
"You are right. Next to Glani the best in the valley."
"In the world," said Connor, and then gave a cry of wonder.
They had come through an avenue of the eucalyptus trees, and now theyreached an open meadow, beyond which aspens trembled and flashed silverunder a shock from the wind. Half the meadow was black, half green; forone of the old men was plowing. He turned a rich furrow behind him, andthe blackbirds followed in chattering swarms in their hunt for worms.The plow team was a span of slender-limbed Eden Grays. They walkedlightly with plow, shaking their heads at the blackbirds, and sometimesthey touched noses in that cheery, dumb conversation of horses. The plowturned down the field with the sod curling swiftly behind. Theblackbirds followed. There were soldier-wings among them making flashesof red, and all the swarm scolded.
"David," said Connor when he could speak, "you might as well harnesslightning to your plow. Why in the name of God, man, don't you get mulesfor this work?"
The master looked to the ground, for he was angered.
"It is not against His will that I work them at the plow," he answered."He has not warned me against it."
"Who hasn't?"
"Our Father whose name you spoke. Look! They are not unhappy, Jurith andRajima, of the blood of Aliriz."
He whistled, whereat the off mare tossed her head and whinnied.
"By Heaven, she knows you at this distance!" gasped Connor.
"Which is only to say that she is not a fool. Did I not sit with herthree days and three nights when she was first foaled? That wastwenty-five years ago; I was a child then."
Connor, staring after the high, proud head of Jurith, sighed. The horsesstarted on at a walk which was the least excellent gait in the EdenGrays. Their high croups and comparatively low withers, their longhindlegs and the shorter forelegs, gave them a waddling motion with thehind quarters apparently huddling the forehand along.
Indeed, they seemed designed in every particular for the gallop alone.But Glani was an exception. Just as in size he appeared a freak amongthe others, so in his gaits all things were perfectly proportioned.Connor, with a deep, quiet delight, watched the big stallion steppingfreely. Shakra had to break into a soft trot now and then to catch up.
"Let us walk," said David. "The run is for when a man feels with thehawk in the sky; the gallop is for idle pleasure; the trot is an uglygait, for distance only; but a walk is the gait when two men speaktogether. In this manner Matthew and I went up and down the valleyroads. Alas, it is five years since I have walked my horse! Is it not,Glani, my king? And now, Benjamin, tell me your trouble."
"There is no trouble," said Connor.
But David smiled, saying: "We are brothers in Glani, Benjamin. To usalone he has given his head. Therefore spe
ak freely."
"Look back," said Connor, feeling that the crisis had come and that hemust now put his fortune to the touch.
David turned on the stallion. "What do you see?"
"I see old Elijah. He drives the two mares, and the furrow followsthem--the blackbirds also."
"Do you see nothing else?"
"I see the green meadow and the sky with a cloud in it; I see the riveryonder and the aspens flash as the wind strikes them."
"And do you hear nothing?"
"I hear the falling of the Jordan and the cry of the birds. Also, Elijahhas just spoken to Rajima. Ah, she is lazy for a daughter of Aliriz!"
"Do you wish to know what I see and hear, David?"
"If it is your pleasure, brother."
"I see a blue sky like this, with the wind and the clouds in it and allthat stuff--"
"All of what?"
"And I see also," continued Connor, resolving to watch his tongue,"thousands of people, acres of men and women."
David was breathless with interest. He had a way of opening his eyes andhis mind like a child.
"We are among them; they jostle us; we can scarcely breathe. There is agreen lawn below us; we cannot see the green, it is so thickly coveredwith men. They have pulled out their wallets and they have money intheir hands."
"What is it?" muttered David. "For my thoughts swim in those waves offaces."
"I see," went on Connor, "a great oval road fenced on each side, withcolored posts at intervals. I see horses in a line, dancing up and down,turning about--"
"Ah, horses!"
"Kicking at each other."
"So? Are there such bad manners among them?"
"But what each man is trembling for, and what each man has risked hismoney upon, is this question: Which of all those is the fastest horse?Think! The horses which fret in that line are the finest money can buy.Their blood lines are longer than the blood lines of kings. They areall fine muscles and hair-trigger nerves. They are poised for the start.And now--"
"Benjamin, is there such love of horses over the mountains? Listen!Fifty thousand men and women breathe with those racers."
"I know." There was a glint in the eyes of David. "When two horses matchtheir speed--"
"Some men have wagered all their money. They have borrowed, they havestolen, to get what they bet. But there are two men only who bet on oneof the horses. You, David, and I!"
"Ha? But money is hard to come by."
"We ask them the odds," continued Connor. "For one dollar we shall takea hundred if our horse wins--odds of a hundred to one! And we wager. Wewager the value of all we have. We wager the value of the Garden of Edenitself!"
"It is madness, Benjamin!"
"Look closer! See them at the post. There's the Admiral. There'sFidgety--that tall chestnut. There's Glorious Polly--the little bay. Thegreatest stake horses in the country. The race of the year. But thehorse we bet on, David, is a horse which none of the rest in that crowdknows. It is a horse whose pedigree is not published. It is a smallhorse, not more than fourteen-three. It stands perfectly still in themidst of that crowd of nervous racers. On its back is an old man."
"But can the horse win? And who is the old man?"
"On the other horses are boys who have starved until they are wisps withonly hands for the reins of a horse and knees to keep on his back. Theyhave stirrups so short that they seem to be floating above the racers.But on the back of the horse on which we are betting there is only anold, old man, sitting heavily."
"His name! His name!" David cried.
"Elijah! And the horse is Jurith!"
"No, no! Withdraw the bets! She is old."
"They are off! The gray mare is not trained for the start. She is leftstanding far behind."
"Ah!" David groaned.
"Fifty thousand people laughing at the old gray mare left at the post!"
"I see it! I hear it!"
"She's too short in front; too high behind. She's a joke horse. And seethe picture horses! Down the back stretch! The fifty thousand haveforgotten the gray, even to laugh at her. The pack drives into the homestretch. There's a straight road to the finish. They straighten out.They get their feet. They're off for the wire!"
The voice of Connor had risen to a shrill cry. "But look! Look! There'sa streak of gray coming around the turn. It's the mare! It's oldJurith!"
"Jurith!"
"No awkwardness now! She spreads herself out and the posts disappearbeside her. She stretches down low and the rest come back to her. Finehorses; they run well. But Jurith is a racing machine. She's on the hipof the pack! Look at the old man all the thousand were laughing at. Hesits easily in the saddle. He has no whip. His reins are loose. And thenhe uses the posts ahead of him. He leans over and speaks one word in theear of the gray mare.
"By the Lord, she was walking before; she was cantering! Now she runs!Now she runs! And the fifty thousand are dumb, white. A solid wall offaces covered with white-wash! D'you see? They're sick! And then all atonce they know they're seeing a miracle. They have been standing upever since the horses entered the home-stretch. Now they climb on oneanother's shoulders. They forget all about thousands--the hundreds ofthousands of dollars which they are going to lose. They only know thatthey are seeing a great horse. And they love that new, great horse. Theyscream as they see her come. Women break into tears as the old manshoots past the grand stand. Men shriek and hug each other. They dance.
"The gray streak shoots on. She is past the others. She is rushing forthe finish wire as no horse ever ran before. She is away. One length,two lengths, six lengths of daylight show between her and the rest. Shegallops past the finish posts with Elijah looking back at the others!
"She has won! You have won, David. I have won. We are rich. Happy. Theworld's before us. David, do you see?"
"Is it possible? But no, Benjamin, not Jurith. Some other, perhaps,Shakra--Glani--"
"No, we would take Jurith--twenty-five years old!"
Connor's last words trailed off into hysterical laughter.