"You are right. Next to Glani the best in the valley."
"In the world," said Connor, and then gave a cry of wonder.
They had come through an avenue of the eucalyptus trees, and now they
reached an open meadow, beyond which aspens trembled and flashed silver
under a shock from the wind. Half the meadow was black, half green; for
one of the old men was plowing. He turned a rich furrow behind him, and
the blackbirds followed in chattering swarms in their hunt for worms.
The plow team was a span of slender-limbed Eden Grays. They walked
lightly with plow, shaking their heads at the blackbirds, and sometimes
they touched noses in that cheery, dumb conversation of horses. The plow
turned down the field with the sod curling swiftly behind. The
blackbirds followed. There were soldier-wings among them making flashes
of red, and all the swarm scolded.
"David," said Connor when he could speak, "you might as well harness
lightning to your plow. Why in the name of God, man, don't you get mules
for this work?"
The master looked to the ground, for he was angered.
"It is not against His will that I work them at the plow," he answered.
"He has not warned me against it."
"Who hasn't?"
"Our Father whose name you spoke. Look! They are not unhappy, Jurith and
Rajima, of the blood of Aliriz."
He whistled, whereat the off mare tossed her head and whinnied.
"By Heaven, she knows you at this distance!" gasped Connor.
"Which is only to say that she is not a fool. Did I not sit with her
three days and three nights when she was first foaled? That was
twenty-five years ago; I was a child then."
Connor, staring after the high, proud head of Jurith, sighed. The horses
started on at a walk which was the least excellent gait in the Eden
Grays. Their high croups and comparatively low withers, their long
hindlegs and the shorter forelegs, gave them a waddling motion with the
hind quarters apparently huddling the forehand along.
Indeed, they seemed designed in every particular for the gallop alone.
But Glani was an exception. Just as in size he appeared a freak among
the others, so in his gaits all things were perfectly proportioned.
Connor, with a deep, quiet delight, watched the big stallion stepping
freely. Shakra had to break into a soft trot now and then to catch up.
"Let us walk," said David. "The run is for when a man feels with the
hawk in the sky; the gallop is for idle pleasure; the trot is an ugly
gait, for distance only; but a walk is the gait when two men speak
together. In this manner Matthew and I went up and down the valley
roads. Alas, it is five years since I have walked my horse! Is it not,
Glani, my king? And now, Benjamin, tell me your trouble."
"There is no trouble," said Connor.
But David smiled, saying: "We are brothers in Glani, Benjamin. To us
alone he has given his head. Therefore speak freely."
"Look back," said Connor, feeling that the crisis had come and that he
must now put his fortune to the touch.