Bart chuckled. One would think he had been telling some amusing boyhood experience. His voice was easy, almost careless--Bob Leadley all over again--not a sign for the listener that a deep misery of life was being discussed. Suddenly Elbert realized that it was not only with horses, but with men like Bob Leadley and his son--one had to trust his feelings, or else miss a lot. And with women-- ‘But your father knew better afterward,’ Elbert finally said. ‘How’s that?’ ‘He knew you had something on the rat-tail, he didn’t have--’ ‘How’s that?’ ‘He told me. Everybody in Bismo kept warning him that the gray would kill you. He got afraid _for you_, but he knew better afterward. Your father came to understand what you meant about not wanting a ‘broke’ horse. He told me he thought about that one thing for years. It was from him and some things from Mort Cotton--that I got any idea about handling Mamie--’ Deep relief, Elbert knew as he halted a moment, the same that he had known that night, as they rode away from el cuartel in Arecibo. He was making it all clear at last. He got a queer feeling, as if Bob Leadley were resting easier, too. ‘One of the squarest men anywhere, your father,’ he went on. ‘He knew you had something on Rat-tail that he didn’t. He knew that “breaking” a horse is old stuff. He said he had belonged to the old school that thinks a horse is ruined if it ever gets its own way. One of the things he liked to say best was that there are a whole lot of good riders, but only once in a long while a good horseman--’ ‘But he didn’t understand about Palto.’ ‘Oh, yes, Bart. Even Mort Cotton did.’ ‘They didn’t think I did right, did they?’ ‘Yes,’ said Elbert. ‘Foolin’, aren’t you, amigo mio?’ ‘Not on your life! He and Mort Cotton were crazy-tired, all shot to pieces--that night in Red Ante. Of course, Letchie Welton only had his idea of law. Why, your father thought it out for years, never got over it--his part--or rather, what he didn’t do. Kept saying at the last that a man can’t “wash his hands.”’ ‘Took it hard?’ ‘Rather, but he understood it all at the last. Mort Cotton did, too. It was Mort who said at the hearing back in Bismo--that the most merciful shot he ever heard fired was yours that night before you rode out of Red Ante.’ ‘I’m sorry Dad took it so hard.... You see--you see, I couldn’t get Palto loose. He might have lived for days--until they got him to a place where they could string him up--’ The next day alone in the mountains, Elbert found that the old story of Red Ante was slipping out from him--that it didn’t hurt any more, that it would be difficult, and likely unnecessary, ever to talk about it again. XXVIII ‘LIKE THE VIRGIN SPEAKING--’ FINALLY came the night when Bart said he would be ready to ride within a week, but just then they heard a light step in the next room, and Elbert’s voice became very hushed.