“‘He’s a good one,’ says the old man to the young fellow. ‘I admit it takes a man to handle him.’
“‘That don’t worry me any,’ says the young fellow. And then I knew he was no horseman at all, at all, and that it would be plain murder to sell him the horse. For, by the same token, any man who could tell one end of a horse from the other, could see that it was all I could do to put him over the jump the second time, and that he intended to run blind into the corner of the wing and not take off at all. I had him in the stable and was just turning him over to his groom, when the old man tells me to fetch him out again. I was afraid that the young fellow was going to try him, but it was not that. And, just as I came out, leading the gelding, the bookkeeper called the old man to the telephone. ‘Begging your pardon for asking,’ says I to the young fellow, ‘but was you thinking of buying this horse?’
“‘And suppose I was?’ says he, and he might just as well have gone on and said: ‘What business is it of yours?’ It was in his eye.
“‘He’s dangerous. I wouldn’t buy him,’ says I. And maybe I looked at the young fellow’s riding breeches and new boots a bit longer than was called for.
“‘Are you afraid of him?’ says he, smiling.
“‘I am,’ says I. ‘He’d kill a man if he got half a chance.’
“The young fellow laughed in me face. I haven’t much use for the opinion of a man who would knock his employer’s business,’ says he. It was a queer way of thanking me for trying to save his neck. And, what with handling the horse and the young fellow’s talk, and how the old man was willing to chance having me break my neck, showing a devil to a buyer, I got hot in the collar. I had it in mind to say more to the young fellow, but the old man came from the office and walked up, swinging his cane. The young fellow takes out a cigarette and lights it. ‘I’ll buy him,’ says he, ‘if your man will put him over that jump again.’
“‘All right,’ says the old man. ‘Take him over, Maurice.’
“’I was thinking of the show coming on, and the other jumpers,’ says I.
“‘That’s my business,’ says the old man. ‘If you haven’t nerve enough to put a real jumper over that jump, you can’t show any of my horses.’