The groom had taken it into his head to rescue White Star and tie him beside the other horses. But White Star had other ideas. He raced madly past the flames and into the smoke.
“I think I know what he wants!” Gale cried and the next time White Star dashed into sight she followed him.
“The crazy——” Carol began. “Gale, come back!”
Gale bumped into White Star. She was unable to see him clearly, the smoke hurt her eyes, and she was choking for breath. With one hand on his bridle she let him pull her along. The horse trotted forward until he came to his stall. There he stopped.
“W-What now?” Gale coughed. Dimly through the smoke she became aware of a figure lying on the ground. “Phyl!” she screamed. “Phyl!”
A burning rafter crashed to the ground at some little distance. White Star reared and plunged away but a second later he was back, trembling and whinnying. Gale lifted Phyllis and put her across White Star’s back. Necessity and fear had lent her strength and now she pulled White Star’s head down to her shoulder. With a tight grip on his bridle she started forward at a run. The horse plunged after her. How she managed to dash out through the smoke Gale didn’t quite know but thankfully she had come at last to her friend.
Chapter XX
THE END OF THE TERM
“I am personally going to buy White Star a whole box of sugar for his very own,” Carol said positively. “The horse is a hero.”
“And he speaks a language all his own,” added Janet. “Gale understood him but we didn’t.”
“It is lucky for me that Gale did understand him,” Phyllis said lazily.