A smile of victorious malice was the Lieutenant's only reply, but it faded from his face the next moment to give place to an expression of sheer amazement. Without the aid of the stirrups the despised Candidate had swung himself into the saddle, and caught up in a firm hand the bridle which old Wenzel dropped. Soliman reared, but his rider kept his seat as quietly as if he were upon the meekest of horses, smiling down at Lieschen, who was pale with terror.
"Have no fear, Fräulein Lieschen," he called down to her. "Soliman will know in a few minutes that he has found his master."
"Wait until he tries some of his tricks," the Lieutenant muttered between his teeth.
And Soliman proceeded to do so; he was not yet conquered. He tried the same tricks that had twice unseated the Lieutenant and thrown him in the dirt,--the same tricks that had forced his former possessor to sell the magnificent creature for a mere song. He reared again and again, then, standing on his hind legs, turned round and round quickly, and finished by leaping and plunging wildly.
Twice when this last point was reached the Lieutenant had been thrown over Soliman's head; the two following times he had mounted the horse, however, he had succeeded in keeping his seat, although gasping and exhausted, since when Soliman had not attempted his tricks when ridden by the Lieutenant. He now tried them again with his new rider, but without any result. Egon sat as quietly firm in the saddle as if he were part of the animal, holding the bridle in a hand of iron, and so compressing the horse's flanks with his knees that, after a few more unsuccessful plunges, the creature stood still, with dilated nostrils and foaming at the bit. His rider, however, showed no signs of physical exertion; he nodded with a smile to the Lieutenant, whose last muttered words he had heard and understood. "You are right, Herr Lieutenant," he said, "Soliman is rather too fiery for a tyro in horsemanship, but only a tyro would ever be unseated by his tricks. He will not try them again; he knows his master now, and will soon know him better. He certainly is a magnificent animal."
He stroked the panting creature's neck caressingly, and then, after giving him a moment's rest, shortened his bridle, and with a degree of ease and skill which seemed to the Lieutenant little short of miraculous in a Candidate, put the horse through all his paces, guiding him in a wide circle around the court-yard. Soliman attempted no further rebellion, and when Egon halted at the side-entrance again he could confidently assure Lieschen that their ride would have no disturbance from Soliman's tricks.
Lieschen had followed the rider's movements with genuine admiration. When the horse first tried his 'tricks' she grew ashy pale, but the next instant her anxiety vanished, there was no danger. Her cousin Albrecht was a bold and skilful horseman, the best she had known hitherto, but his glory faded when she compared him with this rider. How could she ever have thought that proud, graceful man ugly? How easy was his bearing! The control of his spirited steed seemed to cost him no exertion. He could smile whilst all who were watching him were trembling with dread.
Upon his return Lieschen received him with a beaming face, Fritz clapped his hands and shouted, and old Wenzel grinned as he said, "He knows how to ride, Herr Lieutenant. He'll teach Soliman to have done with his capers."
The Lieutenant made no reply. He looked darkly at the daring horseman, whom he could not but admire, but whom he hated all the more bitterly. He had been outdone, outdone in the very art upon which he most prided himself. He had exulted in being the best rider in the country, and here was this wretched Candidate disputing his honours with him.
Lieschen invited him to join them in their ride to the Oster meadows, but he crossly declined to accept her invitation, and when the detested stranger sprang from the saddle, throwing the bridle to old Wenzel, in order to put Lieschen on her mare, he muttered a curse, turned his horse, and rode out of the court-yard in a direction opposite to that in which lay the Oster meadows. Lieschen, however, rode out into the fields between Egon and Fritz, laughing and talking, and throwing kisses to her father, who was standing at his window. She was gayer and happier than words could tell.