“It’ll be different this summer, won’t it? I’ll stay with him all the time, and I’ll take care of him, too, Henry. We won’t need any grooms.… There’ll be just the two of us again, and it’ll be the way it was.”

Henry’s eyes studied Alec’s tense face. “Maybe I oughta tell you it will be the same for you,” he said, finally. “But I’m not goin’ to.” He ignored the startled look that came to the boy’s eyes. “You’ve been straightforward with me, an’ I aim to be the same with you,” he added.

“What are you driving at, Henry?” Alec’s words came fast.

“Something I been thinking about for a long time now, Alec. Something I got from just watchin’ you the last six months … that, and what you just said. An’ I want you to listen to what I have to say without flyin’ off the handle. I want you to think this out with me and see if maybe I’m not right about what’s botherin’ you most of all.”

Alec started to say something, changed his mind and waited for Henry to continue.

“When you talk about getting it back the way it was,” Henry began, choosing his words carefully, “I don’t really believe it’s Satan you’re thinking about at all. I think it’s the Black.”

He waited for the outburst from Alec he thought would come. But the boy was silent, so Henry went on, “And Satan or no other horse in the world is goin’ to give you what you had with him, Alec. You might as well accept that now, before you go through life waiting for somethin’ to take you back the way it was … somethin’ that’s never goin’ to happen.”

Napoleon nuzzled Henry’s coat sleeve, pulling it. But the man’s eyes never left Alec as he continued, his voice softer now: “I’m not meanin’ to beat you down. I’m only tryin’ to make you realize that what happened between you an’ the Black comes only once in a lifetime, if at all. He was no ordinary horse, Alec.… He was wild and never clear broke. Yet, for some reason that’s buried within that untamed heart of his, he took to you.

“Then let’s take a look at what you had,” Henry added hurriedly. “Here you were, just a kid, with a wild stallion only you could handle. Your love was bein’ returned by an animal who had love for no one else. The Black was yours, Alec … as much yours as anything could possibly be. Anybody in your shoes would have felt the same way you did. It set you on top of the world.”

“And it spoiled me for anything else. Is that what you mean, Henry?” Alec’s lips were drawn in a tight smile. “Even for Satan?”

“Maybe I do mean that,” Henry returned. “It pretty much depends on how you’re goin’ to look at things from now on.” He paused, shifting uneasily on his feet. “I think you oughta take stock of what you got right now an’ the future that’s lined up for you an’ Satan. He’s goin’ places an’ you’re goin’ along with him. But he’s no one-man horse, Alec, an’ you got no right to expect him to be. Satan can be handled by ‘most anybody. He’s been trained to do what’s expected of him. It’s the way it should be … the only way. And he’s a better horse for it … better than the Black, I mean.