ercoat. He was playing hookey.

Steps hurried by anxiety carried him to the building, where the great
roof was festively draped with bunting and where the smell of tanbark
came up fresh to the nostrils. A stretch of empty galleries and vacant
tiers of boxes gave an impression of roofed vastness, and he searched
the spacious arena, dotted here and there with knots of stable boys and
blanketed horses, until he caught sight of Anne.

The mount to whose saddle she was at the moment being lifted was not
reassuring to his mood. To its bit rings hung a stable boy by both
hands, and the boy's dogged set of countenance bespoke hostile distrust
for his charge, whose nostrils were distended and ember red. Boone
noted, too, as he hurried across the tanbark, that one of the animal's
eyes showed that wicked patch of white which bespeaks, for a horse, a
lawless predilection. As the girl settled herself, the beast flinched
and shivered, and the stable boy seemed about to be lifted clear of the
earth where he hung, anchoring the splendidly shaped but vicious head.

Just then Boone came up and heard a fellow, whom he took to be a
trainer, speaking near his elbow.

"There ain't no jump that will stop him. He can skim six foot like a
swallow and cop every ribbon at the show--if he's a mind to. And if he
_ain't_ got a mind to, he'll just raise merry hell and tear up the
place."

Then the groom cast loose, and the horse launched himself upward,
plunging violently and lashing out with his fore-feet.

Boone halted and caught his breath with a nervous intake. He knew that
Anne rarely and most reluctantly used a whip on a horse, and as he saw
her lash fall twice, three times, with resolute sweeps that brought out
welts upon the satin flanks, he realized that she had been warned upon
what manner of horse she was to mount. It was a brief conflict of wills,
then the red-nostrilled gelding came down to all fours and answered
amenably to rein and bit. Round the arena he swept with the rhythm of
his rapid gallop, breaking to a speedy dash as he neared the obstacles,
rising upon a flawless and seemingly winged arc that skimmed the fences
with swallow-like ease. Anne rode back flushed and triumphant, and as
Boone came up, with breathing that was still quick, he heard the trainer
voicing his commendation:

"You handled him like a professional, Miss Masters, and he takes a bit
of handling, too. There ain't many ladies I'd be willin' to put up on
h