looked at her mother in a scared
and helpless fashion. It seemed that Juri understood a great crisis was
at hand; for now she advanced resolutely and with her dainty muzzle she
followed with sniffs the hand of David as it moved over the little colt.
He seemed to be seeing with his finger-tips alone, kneading under the
skin in search of vital information. Along the muscles those dexterous
fingers ran, and down about the heavy bones of the joints, where they
lingered long, seeming to read a story in every crevice.

Never once did he speak, but Ruth felt that she could read words in the
brightening, calm, and sudden shadows across his face.

Elijah accompanied the examination with a running-fire of comment.

"There is quality in those hoofs, for you! None of your gray-blue stuff
like the hoofs of Tabari, say, but black as night and dense as rock.
Aye, David, you may well let your hand linger down that neck. She will
step freely, this Timeh of mine, and stride as far as a mountain-lion
can leap! Withers high enough. That gives a place for the ligaments to
take hold. A good long back, but not too long to carry a weight. She
will not be one of your gaunt-bellied horses, either; she will have wind
and a bottom for running. She will gallop on the third day of the
journey as freely as on the first. And she will carry her tail well out,
always, with that big, strong dock."

He paused a moment, for David was moving his hands over the hindlegs and
lingering long at the hocks. And the face of Elijah grew convulsed with
anxiety.

"Is there anything wrong with those legs?" murmured Ruth to Connor.

"Not a thing that I see. Maybe the stifles are too straight. I think
they might angle out a bit more. But that's nothing serious. Besides, it
may be the way Timeh is standing. What's the matter?"

She was clinging to his arm, white-faced.

"If that colt has to die I--I'll want to kill David Eden!"

"Hush, Ruth! And don't let him see your face!"

David moved back from Timeh and again folded his arms.

"The body of the horse is one thing," ran on Elijah uneasily, "and the
spirit is another. Have you not told us, David, that a curious colt
makes a wise horse? That is Timeh! Where will you guess that I found her
when I went to bring her to you even now? She had climbed up the face of
the cliff, far up a crevice where a man would not dare to go. I dared
not even cry out to her for fear she would fall if she turned her head.
To have c