Back on the rope, yielding as
much as his judgment allowed - enough to ease the shocks, but not an inch
by compulsion.
Twice the rearing, terrified creature circled round him and then the rope
began to shorten to a more workable length. There was no haste, no
flurry. Surely and steadily the rope shortened (but the horse went to the
man not the man to the horse; that was to come later). With the
shortening of the rope the compelling power of the man's will forced
itself into the brute mind, and, bending to that will, the wild leaps and
plungings took on a vague suggestion of obedience - a going WITH the rope,
not against it; that was all. An erratic going, perhaps, but enough to
tell that the horse had acknowledged a master. That was all Jack asked
for at first, and, satisfied, he relaxed his muscles, and as the rope
slackened the horse turned and faced him; and the marvel was how quickly
it was all over.
But something was to follow, that once seen could never be forgotten the
advance of the man to the horse.
With barely perceptible movement, the man's hands stole along the rope at
a snail's pace. Never hurrying never stopping, they did on, the colt
watching them as though mesmerised. When within reach of the dilated
nostrils, they paused and waited, and slowly the sensitive head came
forward snuffing, more in bewilderment than fear at this new wonder, and
as the dark twitching muzzle brushed the hands, the head drew sharply
back, only to return again in a moment with greater confidence.
Three or four times the quivering nostrils came back to the hands before
they stirred, then one lifted slowly and lay on the muzzle, warm and
strong and comforting, while the other, creeping up the rope, slipped on
to the glossy neck, and the catching was over.
For a little while there was some gentle patting and fondling, to a
murmuring accompaniment of words the horse standing still with twitching
ears the while. Then came the test of the victory - the test of the
man's power and the creature's intelligence. The horse was to go to the
man, at the man's bidding alone, without force or coercion. "The better
they are the sooner you learn 'em that," was one of Jack's pet theories,
while his proudest boast - his only boast - perhaps was that he'd "never
been beaten on that yet."
"They have to come sooner or later if you stick at 'em," he had said,
when I marvelled at first to see the great creatures come obediently to
the click of his tongue or fingers. So far in all his wide experience
the latest had been the third day. That, however, was rare; more
frequently it was a matter of hours, sometimes barely an hour, while now
and then - incredulous as it may seem to the layman - only minutes.
