THE SUPERB MOMENT
sires spoke there, and in the small head, and fine thin mane. But there was another inheritance in the creature that manifested itself strangely. Bound, held immovable, strained into humiliating contortions, there was still a look of aloofness in him.
While the ropes cut into his flesh, they had to believe they handled him; but once the ropes were off all sense of controlling him or ever having controlled him, was gone. With his foreleg doubled back and fastened sharply up beneath his belly, lunging at every step, the illusion of liberty still hung about him. Something that was big in his narrow brain, something that did not understand what bondage was, seemed even in the narrow inclosure to take him away from them. It seemed almost as if the famous heritage the Indians claimed for him was truth. Carron, with a hot heart of triumph, with cool, calculating eyes, surveyed the creature, and decided that he would take a deal of letting alone. Let him alone for the first twelve hours; let him get used to himself in his new conditions. To-morrow they could put the halter on him, and perhaps be able, the next day, to lead him out. Meanwhile the horse-breaker made tentative experiments in driving him, and had plentiful examples of how obstinate, fierce and quick an animal with only three legs to use might be.
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