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As I stood waiting for Nobs' return, I could not but speculate upon my chances

should I be attacked by some formidable beast. I was some distance from the

forest and armed with weapons in the use of which I was quite untrained, though

I had practiced some with the spear since leaving the Kro-lu country. I must

admit that my thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almost upon cowardice,

until I chanced to think of little Ajor alone in this same land and armed only with

a knife! I was immediately filled with shame; but in thinking the matter over

since, I have come to the conclusion that my state of mind was influenced largely

by my approximate nakedness. If you have never wandered about in broad

daylight garbed in a bit of red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have no

conception of the sensation of futility that overwhelms one. Clothes, to a man

accustomed to wearing clothes, impart a certain self-confidence; lack of them

induces panic.

But no beast attacked me, though I saw several menacing forms passing through

the dark aisles of the forest. At last I commenced to worry over Nobs' protracted

absence and to fear that something had befallen him. I was coiling my rope to

start out in search of him, when I saw the stallion leap into view at almost the

same spot behind which he had disappeared, and at his heels ran Nobs. Neither

was running so fast or furiously as when last I had seen them.

The horse, as he approached me, I could see was laboring hard; yet he kept

gamely to his task, and Nobs, too. The splendid fellow was driving the quarry

straight toward me. I crouched behind my bush and laid my noose in readiness

to throw. As the two approached my hiding-place, Nobs reduced his speed, and

the stallion, evidently only too glad of the respite, dropped into a trot. It was at

this gait that he passed me; my rope-hand flew forward; the honda, well down,

held the noose open, and the beautiful bay fairly ran his head into it.

Instantly he wheeled to dash off at right angles. I braced myself with the rope

around my hip and brought him to a sudden stand. Rearing and struggling, he

fought for his liberty while Nobs, panting and with lolling tongue, came and threw

himself down near me. He seemed to know that his work was done and that he

had earned his rest. The stallion was pretty well spent, and after a few minutes

of struggling he stood with feet far spread, nostrils dilated and eyes wide,

watching me as I edged toward him, taking in the slack of the rope as I advanced.

A dozen times he reared and tried to break away; but always I spoke soothingly to

him and after an hour of effort I succeeded in reaching his head and stroking his

muzzle. Then I gathered a handful of grass and offered it to him, and always I

talked to him in a quiet and reassuring voice.

I had expected a battle royal; but on the contrary I found his taming a matter of

comparative ease. Though wild, he was gentle to a degree, and of such

The People that Time Forgot