went back and showed
them how simple it was if they really wanted to escape and come out with
him into the wind and under the free stars of the mountains. Such a
fence was nothing to that powerful jumper. He walked calmly to it,
reared, and sailed over. That sent the mares scampering wildly, here and
there about the corral, and though they came back again after a time,
they seemed to have learned nothing. When he jumped out again not one of
them followed.

Alcatraz stood off and eyed them in disgust. When he was a yearling, he
felt, he had known more than those big, stupid, beautiful creatures. But
plainly they wanted to get out with him. A wild horse is to the tame
what the adventurous traveller is to the quiet man who builds a home,
and from the grey mare and Alcatraz the six were learning many things.
The scent of the open desert was on them, the sweat of hard running had
dried on their hides, their heads were recklessly proud; and this tall
stallion jumped the fence as though there had never been men who made
laws which well-trained horses must not transgress. Plainly he wanted
them to come out. They were very willing to go for a romp but they knew
nothing about jumping, as yet, and all they could do was to show their
eagerness to be out for a run by milling up and down the fence.

If that were the case, there were other ways of opening corrals and
Alcatraz knew them all. He tried the fence with his shoulder, leaning
all his weight. More than once he had smashed time-rotted fences in
this manner, but he found that these posts were new and well tamped and
the boards were strongly nailed. He gave up that effort and went about
looking for a gate. Gates were not hard to find. A gate is that part of
a fence under which many tracks and many scents go; it is also a section
which swings a little and rattles annoyingly in a wind. Upon the top
board of that section there is sure to be thick scent of man where his
hands have fallen. Alcatraz found the gate. Under the weight of his
shoulder it creaked but did not give. He took the top rail in his teeth,
while the mares stood back, wondering, in a high-headed semi-circle and
the grey kept nudging at his flank, saying very plainly: "Enough of this
nonsense. These gangling creatures, all legs and foolishness, are not
of our kind, O my master. Let us be gone!" But Alcatraz heeded her not.
He shook the gate back and forth.

There are three kinds of fastenings for corral gates. One