The Black Stallion Revolts (26 page)

Alec’s face had frozen. He looked at the sheriff, remembering suddenly why he was there. “But I didn’t …” He stopped, knowing that whatever he said now wouldn’t convince them that he’d had no part in the Salt Lake City robbery. Besides, it didn’t matter. All this could be straightened out later. “Can I use the phone when we get to wherever it is you’re taking me?” he asked.

“Of course you can,” the sheriff said. “As Irv says, we’re going to do all we can to help you, Mac.”

Alec rode the Black toward the track gate. A bugle sounded, calling the horses in the next race to the post. The Black tossed his head, and sidestepped with marvelous ease and swiftness. He seemed eager to race again.

Allen said, “We’ll put Range Boss in the van, and leave Hank here to watch him, Mac. You and I will go into town with Tom. Don’t you worry none. Everything’s goin’ to turn out all right.”

Alec nodded. To Allen he always would be McGregor and the Black would be Range Boss. It would have been funny under any other circumstances.

An hour later Alec Ramsay sat in the Preston courthouse. His fingerprints had been taken and sent to
the Salt Lake City police. He had been booked on suspicion of robbery and murder. Finally he was given permission by the Preston police captain to use the telephone.

His voice trembled while he placed the long-distance call. Now the phone was ringing at home. His heart pumped harder.

“Hello.” His mother had answered.

“Mom. Mom! It’s me!” There was silence at the other end. “Mom, can you hear me? It’s Alec!” Now came only terrible, racking sobs from his mother, and he suddenly realized the shock his call must be to her. “Mom. Mom. Don’t try to talk. Just listen. I’m alive, and in Preston, Arizona. Preston, Arizona. Can you hear me, Mom?”

The wire at the other end was dead … no more sobs, nothing at all. Then, suddenly, a man’s voice came on. “Hello … hello.”

“Jinx! Jinx, is that you?” Alec thought it might be the hired man who took care of the farm’s broodmares.

“Yes, this is Jinx. Is this really
you
, Alec?”

“Jinx, listen to me. I’m alive and in Preston, Arizona. Did you get that, Jinx?”

The voice at the other end descended to barely more than a whisper. “Yes, I heard you, Alec. I’ll tell Henry and your father at once. They’re in town. I was just passing by the house when your mother …” Jinx’s voice trailed off.

“Ask Henry to come out here,” Alec said. “He’ll take this better than Dad.”

“Yes, Alec.”

When Alec hung up the phone, the door opened
and two men rushed into the room. One said, “We’re from the
Journal
. We had a call from the track from someone named Gordon who said
this kid is Alec Ramsay!
”

Allen and the Leesburg sheriff nodded their heads. “That might be his name, all right,” Allen said. “At least he said so before. But what difference …”

The Preston police captain turned quickly to Allen and the Leesburg sheriff. “But you booked him as McGregor! If he should be
Alec Ramsay
 …” He swept a startled look at the boy. “
Is
that your name?”

“Yes, that’s my name. I’ve had amnesia.”

For a moment the police captain just stared at Alec, and then his face turned red in anger. His eyes raked Allen. “Why didn’t you tell me that when you brought him in here!”

Allen said sheepishly, “It’s hard for me to think of him as anyone but McGregor.”

“And the name Alec Ramsay meant nothing to you when he told you who he was?”

“No,” Allen said. “Should it have?” He glanced worriedly toward the newspaper men, who were already taking pictures and making notes.

The police captain turned to the Leesburg sheriff. “And you, Tom? It meant nothing to
you?
”

“Now that you mention it, I think I might have heard something a couple of months ago about an Alec Ramsay …”

The police captain threw up his hands in disgust. “He’s only been the subject of one of the biggest searches ever conducted in Wyoming,” he shouted furiously.

One of the reporters spoke to Alec. “That horse you rode today. Was he really
the Black
, as we’ve been told by this man Gordon?”

“Yes,” Alec said. “Somehow he got here, too. I didn’t know it was he until the race, when my memory came back.”

“You mean,” the reporter said, “that you didn’t know who you were or what horse you were riding until the actual running of the race?”

Alec nodded. “Not until almost the end of it,” he said.

The reporter grabbed the phone. “I got to get this to my editor,” he told the police captain. “This news is going to ‘make’ Preston like nothing ever did before. Once it goes out on the wires, we’ll have a representative from every big paper in the country coming here!”

The police captain nodded. He turned to Allen and the Leesburg sheriff. “And you two never even heard of Alec Ramsay and the Black,” he said, shaking his head. Finally he turned to Alec. “I guess you’d better stay here for the night. We can make you comfortable and afford you some protection from all the newsmen who’ll be arriving before long. And, since we’ve already sent out your fingerprints to the Salt Lake City police, we’d better wait for an answer from them. That’ll clear that incident up, and satisfy
him.
” He nodded his head toward the Leesburg sheriff.

Alec turned to Allen. “You didn’t know, boss,” he said. “Believe me, I sure appreciate all you did for me. There are a lot of others who wouldn’t have known, either. It isn’t as bad as you’re being led to believe.” He
paused, waiting for Allen to lift his gaze. “I wish you’d do me a favor. Go to the track and have Hank take the Black—or Range Boss, if you want to call him that—back to the ranch. It’ll be better if he’s kept away from all this.”

“Sure, Mac. I’ll do it right now.” Allen hurried to the door, glad of an opportunity to escape the scathing remarks of the police captain.

The reporter had finished the telephone call to his editor, and was now bombarding Alec with questions. The boy answered quickly. He realized this was just the beginning, and that his call home hadn’t been necessary at all in order for his parents and Henry to learn of his whereabouts. Within a few short hours the news of his being in Preston would be in every newspaper in the country. He hoped Henry would get here soon.

By late afternoon, newspaper correspondents from nearby cities had arrived. And by evening the number had grown considerably. They descended upon Preston’s small courthouse, jamming the room. Alec sat in a chair answering all questions put to him, cooperating in every way he could by telling the reporters the complete story. The newsmen listened attentively to him, to Allen, to anyone who would give them something they could telephone to their papers. They learned of the match race, and soon the story of Night Wind’s crushing defeat by the Black was released to the world.

All that night, the reporters and photographers stayed in Preston, knowing that before many hours Henry Dailey would arrive by plane. Alec slept on a cot, waiting, too, for Henry’s arrival.

By morning, word was received from Salt Lake City that Alec Ramsay’s fingerprints were not those of the boy wanted by the police there. This information the police captain turned over to the Leesburg sheriff. “They must think we’re fools down here,” he said gruffly.

A plane from the East was due in Preston at seven o’clock, and the reporters, having learned that Henry was on it, went to the airport. A short while later they returned, and Henry strode belligerently into the courtroom. Yet when Alec ran to meet him, Henry’s stocky body slumped, and he wept unashamedly with his arms around the boy.

Finally he said, “Y-you’re all right, Alec?”

“Sure, Henry. Mom and Dad? Are they …”

“They’re okay now … they’re waiting. You’re certain you’re all right? The reporters in New York said …”

“I’ve had amnesia, but I’m fine now. I’ve felt pretty good all along, except that I couldn’t remember anything.”

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“No, it’s not necessary. I’m all right, I tell you.”

“You’re going to see one. Here and in New York, too.”

The photographers were taking pictures of them, and the reporters pushed close. Henry answered their questions for a while, and then decided he’d had enough. “That’s all,” he said. “We’re going now, and we don’t want anyone following. Alec needs a rest, and you’ve got everything there is for your stories.”

Outside, Henry had a taxi waiting. Alec glanced
back and saw Allen standing silently among all the newsmen, “Come on, boss,” he called to him.

When they were in the taxi he said, “This is Mr. Allen, Henry. I’ve been working for him. He raises quarter racehorses.”

Henry turned quickly to Allen. “You call yourself a horseman an’ you didn’t even recognize
him
all this time,” he said angrily.

Allen’s slight figure slumped in the corner of the seat. “I—I only follow q-quarter-horse racing,” he said.

Alec said, “Please, Henry. You’re expecting too much from him. Of course he wouldn’t know. He didn’t have any way of knowing.” Alec paused. “And without him, the Black and I might not have gotten together. I owe him an awful lot, Henry.”

The trainer said softly, “I know, Alec. I’m sorry, Allen, and I apologize. It’s just that it’s been so long … and we’d given up all hope.” He turned to look out the window of the moving taxi before adding, “And now I want to have a doctor see you, Alec. Maybe you know a good one here in town, Allen.”

“Yes, I do,” the rancher said, eager to be of help.

“After that,” Henry added, “we’ll go to Leesburg. I want to see the Black, and then we’ll have to make arrangements to take him back with us.”

“I wish you’d spend a few days as my guest,” Allen said quickly.

“Thanks, but I know Alec is eager to get home, and his folks are just as eager to see him.”

Alec thought of his mother and father waiting, and his eyes blurred.
I can phone them when we get to the ranch
, he thought.
This time it’ll be all right, I know
.

Henry said, “We’ll take the Black home by train.”

“We sure will,” Alec said. “No planes for us, not for a while, anyway.”

Toward evening of the same day, they arrived at the ranch. Alec and Henry went directly to the big corral. The Black saw them coming and, snorting, moved over to the bars. Alec put his hand on him. He noticed that the stallion’s eyes were on Henry, never leaving him for a moment.

“I’m getting old,” Henry said. “I don’t trust my sight anymore.”

“It’s the Black, all right, Henry,” Alec said. He couldn’t smile, couldn’t make light of Henry’s finding it so difficult to believe they were all together again.

“He’s been cut up pretty bad.”

“Yes, some scars, but he’s fit, Henry.”

“I know,” the trainer agreed. “He never looked better. His good physical condition carried him through these last two months, the same as the doctor said about you. I guess you were both ready for the punishment you had to take.”

Alec said nothing. The Black turned away from Henry to nuzzle the boy’s hand. Alec stroked him for a few minutes, and then said, “He got more freedom than either of us bargained for, all right.”

“Yeah, a lot more. Alec …”

“Yes, Henry?”

“It must have been a race to see, his whipping Night Wind like they say he did.”

“It was a race to ride, I know that,” Alec answered.

“He didn’t have any trouble at all with Night Wind?”

“No, not once I stopped fighting him and gave him his head.”

“He didn’t make any attempt to attack Night Wind during the race?”

“No, Henry, not at all. Perhaps he got all the fighting out of his system while he was running wild. I don’t know.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Henry agreed. He watched the Black move away from Alec to go to the other side of the corral; there the stallion neighed to the group of mares in the adjacent corral. “Are those mares from his band?”

“Yes.”

Henry said, “I suppose he’ll miss ’em but we got plenty of mares back at the farm to interest him.”

“Then you think it’s absolutely safe to take him back home?”

“Sure. Don’t you?” Henry asked.

“Yes, I guess so. It hasn’t been the kind of a vacation we had planned for him, but he probably had a far better time of it.”

“Yes, since he was lucky enough to stay alive,” Henry returned quietly. He was thinking that it wasn’t the vacation they had planned for Alec, either, but said nothing more.

Hank Larom came out of the ranch house, and joined them beside the fence. Alec introduced them, and then Larom said, “Allen tells me you’ll be leaving soon. I wish you could stay, Alec.”

Henry put his arm around Alec. “We got his mother and father waiting for him, Hank,” he said, “… and lots of other people.”

Larom nodded. “I’ll bet they’re all anxious to see the Black again, too.” He didn’t take his eyes off the stallion. “There’ll never be another horse like him out here.”

“There just might be,” Alec said quietly.

Larom turned, smiling. “You goin’ to bring him back some day, Alec?”

“I don’t know about that, Hank. But didn’t I hear Allen tell you, just before we left for Preston, that those mares from the Black’s band were yours for the asking?”

“Yeah, he said that. I’ll probably take them and sell ’em.”

“I’d take them and
keep
them, if I were you, Hank,” Alec said. “Chances are that some of them are in foal, and he’s a pretty good sire.”

For a moment Larom was silent. Finally he said, “I never gave that a thought, Alec. You sure could be right.” He flicked a glance at the ranch house. “When I left Allen a few minutes ago, he’d succeeded in getting hold of Herbert over at Preston. He wanted to make certain Herbert wasn’t going to get out of giving him those quarter mares. Maybe this is a good time to remind Allen of the offer he made me.”

After Larom had left them, Alec called the Black, and the stallion came quickly to him.

Henry said, “From what you’ve told me, Alec, I guess we could even race him on the big tracks without his gettin’ into trouble. That is,” he added hastily, “if
you wanted to race him.” Henry looked hopefully at Alec.