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was tautbetween them. Shaking his head, the colt bared his teeth and struck the air with thrashing forefeet. Then he screamed again, and as the sound of it resounded throughout the pier shed, stevedores and truck drivers stopped their work to watch.
    Then Alec was on the plank and moving quickly toward the frightened man. A slight grin flickered on Henry’s face as he saw Alec take the lead rope from the man. This was Alec’s show, all right, he thought. The kid could do it, too. No doubt about that. Henry’s gaze shifted quickly up the pier shed to where Mr. Ramsay was standing. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe Mr. Ramsay had forgotten that if there was anything in this world Alec was meant to be around, it was horses.
    Turning back to Alec, Henry saw him standing there, just holding the rope and looking at his horse. To a lot of people, Henry knew, it might have looked as if Alec wasn’t going to do much about bringing the colt down the plank, either. But Henry, who was watching the boy, knew better. Alec’s lips were moving, and he was talking to the colt in that low voice which Henry had heard him use so many times before when the Black had become panicky.
    And it went on that way for all of five minutes, until most of the people who had been watching went back to work. Then Henry saw Alec move forward slowly, still keeping the lead rope taut and his lips moving.
    The colt shook his small head savagely, and his ears lay back as Alec approached. And all eyes on the dock turned again to the two of them.
    The tight ball in Alec’s stomach had gone. Heknew what he had to do. And he knew, too, that this was the way he’d wanted his colt to be. Still looking at the blazing eyes, he said softly, “You’re fire, boy. You’re full of it, just like
him
. You’re mine, boy. We’re going places together … you and I. We’re going to use that fire to burn the tracks. We’re going to make
him
proud of you. He’ll hear about you, boy. Hear the pounding of your hoofs, even though he’s way back in the desert. It’s going to be the way
he
wants it, boy.”
    There was a shrill scream from the colt as he rose on his slim hind legs. Alec, his face suddenly tense, let him rear, the rope sliding between his fingers as the colt went up. Balanced lightly on the balls of his feet and ready, Alec waited until the colt started downward, his hoofs pawing the air. And just before the colt’s forelegs struck the wooden gangplank again, Alec sprang forward and came in close to the colt’s head until the white lather from the black neck was flung upon him. Quickly, he grabbed the halter and closed in hard upon the small head.
    Henry chuckled. And when the pier official who stood next to him looked his way, he said, “It’s just as easy as that, mister. Just as easy as that.”
    “He hasn’t got him down yet,” the man replied.
    “Nothin’ to it,” Henry said, his eyes still on Alec and the colt. No, he could tell Alec wasn’t going to have trouble now. Look at him. Just holding that wild baby’s head and talking a mile a minute. It didn’t matter what Alec was saying, just so long as he kept talking in that smooth, soothing way of his. There! He had the colt’s hind legs on the plank and had him moving, too. Henry could see that Alec was holding him well. Thecolt had to come down; there was no other place to go. “See,” Henry said to the pier official as Alec and the colt came down the plank. “See. What’d I tell you?”
    “Yep,” the man returned, glancing down at the folded paper in his hand. “Well it’s his horse, ain’t it? So I guess he oughta know how to handle him. Alec Ramsay’s his name, huh?”
    Nodding, Henry kept his eyes upon the colt and Alec as they came toward him. The colt was kicking his hind legs back and making as big a fuss as he could. Occasionally he would throw his forelegs out, but Henry knew that they were no danger to Alec so long as he stuck close to the side of the colt’s