It enabled us to set up this place.” Henry’s hands went out in a great gesture. “We have one of the country’s finest stock farms and racing stables. Sure, Alec, we’ve arrived in the big time, and we’re more than payin’ our way along. An’ we owe it all to the Black and Satan. Without them you and I would be back in the suburbs of New York City. You ridin’ subways instead of horses, and me sittin’ in a chair tryin’ to remember the old days when I was a lot younger and had a way with horses. Sure and I’d be grievin’ about it being all over.”

Henry paused for a moment, his yellowing teeth biting into his lower lip. Then he went on. “But what has all that got to do with what happened tonight, Alec? How does all this business of remembering what’s happened before, and appreciating what we have now, got to do with the viciousness, the ruthlessness of what he did tonight?”

“It helps us to understand him and the reasons for his attack on Satan.”

“But I do understand,” Henry came back, emphasizing every word, every letter. “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

“You do now, but you didn’t. Not a few minutes ago,” Alec said. “You didn’t give yourself a chance.”

“So I blew off steam,” Henry said.

“So you did,” Alec agreed. “And now you’re all quieted down.”

“All quieted down,” Henry repeated. “If we’re goin’ to talk any more let’s go into the office. Let the horses get some quiet, too.”

They left the corridor, turning off the light behind them, and entered the barn’s office. As Henry sat down in the deep cushioned chair behind the desk, Alec straddled a straight chair before it.

“You still haven’t let me say what I wanted to,” Alec said. “About what happened the time I first saw the Black.”

“He was a terror on the pier,” Henry recalled.

“More than that. He killed a man,” Alec returned quietly.

Henry’s face became taut. “Yes, I remember you told me that.”

“I told you why he did it, too, didn’t I?”

Henry nodded. “Someone used a whip on him.”

“That’s right,” Alec said. “And you used one on him tonight. That’s why he turned on you.”

“But what was I going to do, Alec? He was about to kill Satan!”

“I know, but the point is, you forgot. He would have taken anything else from you but a whip. You’ve never had any trouble with him before.”

“All right, I forgot,” Henry said brusquely. “But where do we go from here? What are we going to do about him?”

“Nothing. There’s nothing we can do except always keep his background in mind, and never forget it. I think we’ve both been inclined lately to do just that.”

“He’s given us every reason to forget what he was,” Henry insisted. “He’s been easy to handle, and a good-mannered stallion. At times he’s been just as nice as Satan. He’s taken to stable routine like a park hack.”

“That’s just it,” Alec said.