But you could run faster than that, couldn’t you?”

The stallion’s head turned to Napoleon as Tony led the gray gelding toward the gate. Giving the Black a carrot, Alec took him a short distance down the field and held him until Tony had Napoleon in the field.

The old gray didn’t go to the Black but moved past him, going down the field at a slow gallop. For a moment the stallion watched Napoleon; then suddenly he snorted and bolted after the gray.

Alec helped Tony close the gate before turning once again to the horses. The Black was playfully circling Napoleon as the gray continued his slow gallop. But finally Napoleon came to a stop and lowered his head to graze. The Black halted, too, inquisitively watching him. He waited for a short time with only his eyes moving; then he was off again, charging back and forth before the gray. Napoleon went on with his grazing, seemingly unmindful of the Black’s furious action. But when the stallion lowered himself to the ground and rolled over on his back, Napoleon raised his head to watch; then he, too, carefully got down and pushed his back into the soft earth.

“Nappy no fear him,” Tony said proudly as they watched the thrashing legs.

“No reason why he should,” Alec returned. “The Black is his best friend and he knows it.” Pausing, the boy added, “If you want to go home, Tony, I’ll bring in Napoleon when it gets dark.”

“Okay, Aleec,” Tony said, moving away from the fence. “I think I go then. It’s-a been one hard day.”

Long after Tony had gone, Alec remained beside the fence, watching his horse. Until today he had felt confident that no horse in the world could match the Black’s speed. But Satan’s new world record for the mile and a quarter had changed things. Now he wasn’t sure. And he knew he wanted to be sure before he took the Black to the farm.

There was an easy way to find out, and Alec decided to try it … the next morning, at dawn, in the park.

Alec had his clock beneath his pillow, so when the alarm went off at four o’clock the following morning he alone heard its muffled ring. Hurriedly he reached for it and silenced the alarm. He lay there for a moment, listening to the incessant chant of the katydids in the field. But there was no sound of rain, and only this could have postponed his plans. Silently he got out of bed and pulled on his jeans and sweat shirt. He sat down to put on his socks and boots, all the while listening to the snoring of his parents, who slept in the next room. When he rose from the chair, he went quickly across the darkened room to the desk near the window; there he found his baseball cap and pulled it snugly about his head. Opening the top drawer of the desk, he removed a silver-cased stopwatch and wound it before carefully placing it in his pocket.

One minute fifty-eight seconds for the mile and a quarter. The Black was going out to beat Satan’s record!

With the watch ticking inside his pocket, Alec went down the stairs. He moved slowly, quietly, for he didn’t want anyone to know what he was about to do. It would take only a short while. There would be no traffic on the back streets at this hour, and the park would be empty. He knew exactly where he would go. The stretch of bridle path from the seventh tee of the park’s golf course to the towering elm tree opposite the ninth hole green was just a mile and a quarter. He and Henry had measured it accurately over a year ago, when they had jogged Satan there prior to his going to the track.