" For most other important
things are apt to go by opposites, which is the usual way in which a
man selects his wife. With dogs, for instance--a quiet man is apt to
want an active dog, and a tractable fellow may keep the most vicious
of wolf-dogs.
But when it comes to a horse, a man's heart speaks for itself, and if
he has sufficient knowledge he will choose a sympathetic mount. A
woman loves a neat-stepping saddle-horse; a philosopher likes a
nodding, stumble-footed nag which will jog all day long and care not a
whit whether it goes up dale or down.
To know the six wild riders who galloped over the white reaches of the
mountain-desert this night, certainly their horses should be studied
first and the men secondly, for the one explained the other.
They came in a racing triangle. Even the storm at its height could not
daunt such furious riders. At the point of the triangle thundered a
mighty black stallion, his muzzle and his broad chest flecked with
white foam, for he stretched his head out and champed at the bit with
ears laid flat back, as though even that furious pace gave him no
opportunity to use fully his strength.
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