bleeds for
every gelding that leaves the Garden. See what you have done to him! The
marks of the whip and the spur are on his sides. Woe to you if David
should see them!"

She cried out at that in such a way that David almost felt she had been
struck.

"It was the work of a drunken fool, and not mine."

"Then God have mercy on that man, for if the master should see him,
David would have no mercy. I warn you: David is one with a fierce eye
and a strong hand. Be gone before he comes and sees the scars on the
gray horse."

"Then he is coming?"

"She is quick," thought David, as an embarrassed pause ensued. "Truly,
Benjamin was right, and there is danger in these creatures."

"He has many horses," the girl went on, "and I have only this one.
Besides, I would pay well for another."

"What price?"

"He should not have asked," muttered David.

"Everything that I have," she was answering, and the low thrill of her
voice went through and through the master of the Garden. "I could buy
other horses with this money, but not another like my gray. He is more
than a horse. He is a companion to me. He understands me when I talk,
and I understand him. You see how he stands with his head down? He is
not tired, but hungry. When he neighs in a certain way from the corral I
know that he is lonely. You see that he comes to me now? That is because
he knows I am talking about him, for we are friends. But he is old and
he will die, and what shall I do then? It will be like a death in my
house!"

Another pause followed.

"You love the horse," said the voice of Ephraim, and it was plain that
Jacob was beyond power of speech.

"And I shall pay for another. Hold out your hand."

"I cannot take it."

Nevertheless, it seemed that he obeyed, for presently the girl
continued: "After my father died I sold the house. It was pretty well
blanketed with a mortgage, but I cleared out this hundred from the
wreck. I went to work and saved what I could. Ten dollars every month,
for twenty months--you can count for yourself--makes two hundred, and
here's the two hundred more in your hand. Three hundred altogether. Do
you think it's enough?"

"If there were ten times as much," said Jacob, "it would not be enough.
There--take your money. It is not enough. There is no money price on the
heads of the master's horses."

But a new light had fallen upon David. Women, as he had heard of them,
were idle creatures who lived upon that which men gain