straight to the
corral and put his head over the top bar.

Snorting softly, curious and frightened at once, six beautiful animals
came towards him. He was one of their kind, so they came close; the
scent of the wilderness was already on him, and they shrank away. Surely
some sinister genius had directed Alcatraz to the one most valuable
point of attack on all the ranch, for these were the six brood mares for
whose purchase Marianne Jordan had cleaned out her bank account. The
stallion did not know, of course. He did not even recognize them as his
competitors in the race. All he felt was that there was something
charmingly remembered, something half familiar about them. The boldest
came near and he touched noses, whereat she whirled with a little squeal
and lashed out at him; but her heels were carefully aimed wide of the
mark and Alcatraz merely tossed his nose; plainly she was a flirt. He
pressed a little closer to the fence and urged friendliness with a
conversational whinny. They were not averse, coming towards him with
eyes that glimmered in the darkness, retreating often and coming on
again, until he had touched noses with them all. It was extremely
pleasant to Alcatraz and hardly less so because the grey mare came and
shouldered him rudely.

Then a voice spoke from the barn which opened off the corral: "What's
all that damned nonsense with the mares yonder?"

Alcatraz crouched for flight. Another voice answered: "They'll mill
around every night for a while till they get used to the new place.
That's the way with them crazy hot-bloods. No hoss-sense."

The voices departed. The shrinking of the stallion had made the mares
wince away in turn, but they came back now and resumed the conversation
where it had been broken off. He was careful to introduce himself to
each one. He was greatly tempted to jump the fence and talk to them at
closer hand but he knew that it was great folly to risk his neck in a
group of mares before he had made out whether or not they were amiable.
If they were cross-tempered he might be kicked to death before he could
escape.

The investigations brought entirely favorable returns. They were very
young, these Coles horses, and hence their curiosity was far stronger
than their timidity. Before long every one of the six necks was
stretched across the top-rail and when Alcatraz turned his back on them
they whinnied uneasily to call him back.

If that were the case, why did they not jump? He