I’m supposed to be here … no place else.”

Taking a cloth from his pocket, Alec ran it along the stallion’s neck; then he turned away from him, going over the sleek body and down the long, sinewy legs. When he straightened, he found the Black licking his feedbox clean of the last remaining oats. The stallion’s eyes were soft and dark again, and Alec knew that any uncertainty the Black might have had regarding his right to handle him was gone.

To the rear of the stall was a sliding door, and it was to this that Alec now went. His hand was on it when the Black came to him. The stallion’s small ears were pitched forward, his head craned high. Sliding the door open, Alec stepped to one side.

For a few seconds the Black remained rigidly still in the daylight that came through the doorway; his lips shriveled and he snorted through dilated nostrils. Cautiously he stepped outside, his eyes in constant motion, his ears pricked and keyed to pick up the slightest sound.

A narrow runway led behind the barn to the field. The Black turned to the green grass, neighing for joy at sight of it; then he was moving at a slow trot, his long tail streaming behind him.

Leaving the door open, Alec ran back through the barn and outside. He went on to the high rail fence, and his eyes were on the stallion as the Black swept from the runway into the field. He watched him change from a trot into a slow canter.

Alec climbed to the top rail of the fence and sat there, content in the knowledge that nothing in the world could equal what he had again for his very own.

The stallion cantered alongside the stone wall but stopped when he came to the hollow at the far end. He stood still for a moment, then trotted along the rim of the hollow and across the field. Reaching the stone fence on the opposite side, he stopped to look through the trees toward the boulevard. A car went down the street, its engine whining loudly in the early-morning stillness. The Black snorted and came up the field. Reaching the fence at Alec’s end, he turned with it. He stopped a short distance from the boy, his slender neck arched sharply at the crest, his head cocked a little to one side.

One moment he was still, but the next he had broken out into furious action! With a snort he bolted, flinging his hindlegs and quarters high in the air. He ran a few yards, then his hindlegs thrashed the air again. Without stopping, he burst into a fast gallop and quickly reached the end of the field. He stopped there and lowered himself to the ground. Rolling over on his back, he shoved his body into the soft earth, grunting with pleasure as his legs moved above him. He was up quickly, once more bursting into full gallop and slowing only when he came to the stone fence; then he turned with amazing swiftness and came up the field again. This time he ran to Alec and stopped before him.

The boy’s hand reached out to touch the disheveled head, to run down the satin neck. The Black was close to him, so close that it was a simple matter to slip lightly from the fence onto the stallion’s back. He was on him before he knew it.… It had come instinctively, naturally, as though each had known it was the way it should be.

The stallion moved forward, without bolting, and his gait was effortless and easy to ride. How different he was from Satan, Alec thought. For only when the Black’s burly son was in full gallop was he easy to ride; only then did Satan lose the ponderousness that was so much in evidence at any other gait.

The Black broke into a gallop and Alec slid forward, pressing his hands close to the sides of the stallion’s neck. He had forgotten, too, how high the Black carried his head even in full gallop. Satan always pushed his head forward and his ears would lie back, flat and heavy against his head. The two horses were so different in many ways, yet beneath Alec’s knees worked the same giant muscles that helped provide each horse with his tremendous power and speed.

The Black’s strides swallowed the ground and he swerved abruptly to avoid the hollow. Alec moved with him, glorying in the strength of the stallion as he leveled out again and went back up the field.

Half-asleep, Henry heard the rhythmic beat of running hoofs.