“I s’pose so. I want that money.”
“You know, you could be lookin’ for a broken neck.”
“You sounding like my daddy now.”
Mitchell almost smiled. “Well, don’t want that. Thing is, though, Paul, this here’s a dangerous-looking animal.”
“Dangerous enough for me to reconsider?”
“Well, that’s up to you. You the one hafta ride him.”
I walked up to the grey and looked into his eyes. “I’ll ride him,” I decided right then for a fact. “I’ve got only my neck to lose and four times a rider’s pay to gain.”
“And a whippin’ from your daddy, don’t forget that.”
I looked at Mitchell. “I win this race and get my money, then I’ll be on my own. My daddy won’t be whipping me again.”
Ray Sutcliffe joined us. “You, boy,” he said to me, “you ready to give my grey a try?”
“I’m ready to start getting to know him,” I answered. “Not ready to mount him yet.”
“Now, what you mean by that? Get on that horse.”
“No, sir, I can’t. You need to give me some time with him first.”
“Well, I don’t have none of that.”
“It’s important. Now, I said I’d ride your horse, Mister Sutcliffe, but I’ve got my own way of dealing with horses. You want me to win, then I’ve got to deal with this grey my way.”
Ray Sutcliffe looked me up and down, and I knew he hadn’t liked what he’d heard from me. But he gave me the leeway. “You just make sure you win. We’ve got less than two hours before that start.”
He left me then with the grey, and I slipped a rope around the grey’s neck, took a saddle, a bridle, and a brush, and led the horse off to a shady spot in a nearby pasture, away from the commotion of the stables, away from all the people milling about, away even from Mitchell. I needed to be alone with the stallion.
“You know,” I said quietly when we were to ourselves, “maybe this race isn’t important to you, but it is to me, so I figure we best get to knowing each other quick. I’m Paul Logan, out of Georgia, and you need to know I’ve ridden a lot of fine horses, maybe some not as fine as you, maybe some better. Now, I know we don’t know each other, but I understand from your rider, Eddie Hawks, you’ve got a real mind of your own. You like to win if you do it in your own way. Well, that’s all right with me, long as you let me ride you and help you out a little bit. See, I figure to prove my daddy and Robert wrong. I figure to ride you, even though I don’t know you, and Ole Grey, I figure to win.”
I talked on that way to the grey for some while, and after a bit I began to stroke him as I talked. I pulled some apple wedges from my pocket and gave them to him, kept on with my talk, then began to brush him down. When I put the brush aside, I leaned my head against his forehead and I told that ole grey: “I’m going to mount you soon, you hear? Let’s see how we work together.”
At first I just walked the grey, letting him get used to me. Then I bridled and saddled him and finally I mounted. I let him get accustomed to my weight on his back as he walked around the pasture, then knowing our time was short, I put him through paces, first a trot followed by a gallop before slowing him down and taking him back to the cool of a shade tree. I gave him more apple wedges. I let him drink from a stream nearby before I brushed him again. All the while I never stopped talking to him. “Well, ole thing, I don’t know if we’re ready or not, but I see that Ray Sutcliffe over there, waving his arms to come on, so I guess we better go. One thing I want you to remember, though. Like I said, I figure to win this race.” With that I led the grey over to Ray Sutcliffe and then headed for the starting line.
Now, these few minutes I’d put in with the grey weren’t enough for me to truly know him or for him to know me, but it was all the time I had. It wasn’t much, and I recognized that and I was nervous, not knowing how this old horse-mule was going to go down the stretch with me on his back. Still, I had done what I could, and I was as ready as I could be in this short time. I figured to prove my daddy wrong and myself a man. All I hoped now, besides winning this race, was that Robert hadn’t been successful in finding our daddy. Last thing I needed was for my daddy to show up.
The race course was a country road stretching from the railroad spur line on the east to a stagecoach stop on the west and back again. I was familiar with it. It was the same course I had run the first day on my daddy’s mare and had ridden a number of times since, exercising my daddy’s horses. The race was to begin and end at the spur line. Two trains were on the spur, and goods were stacked high for loading on the platform. Throngs of people lined the road. Six horses were entered in the race. I was already mounted on the grey when I reached the spur. Now I waited.