affectionately on his quarter. âYouâre tall as a giraffe,â and, âThat bench will do,â he said and, as he got up, âStand still, you,â he said to Dark Invader as his fingers reached steadily on; a moment later he was looking with interest, not where Ted and Sadiq had shown him the tenderness, but above it, where the hairs of the mane came to an end and, âJohn,â he said, âlook here.â
John joined him on the bench. âSee anything?â asked the Captain. âLook. Thereâs a scar under those white hairs.â
âBut⦠itâs minuscule.â
âOn the surface. Mullins, hop up. Ever noticed that before?â
âCourse,â said Ted. âThemâs the only other white hairs heâs got. Had them when he come from Ireland. I reckon when he were a baby running loose he maybe caught a bit of barbed wire, or cut hisself â but that was long before, so it couldnât be the trouble⦠or could it?â Ted had seen Captain Mackâs satisfaction. â
Could
it?â
âIt could. In fact, I think thatâs it. Happened when he was a foal, guess youâre right there, but not wire, rolling in the grass more like and met a bit of broken bottle or a sharp stone â anything â and made a small cut that healed on the surface but left damage; maybe a bit of gravel or a chip of glass got in and caused infection deeper down. The muscles lost flexibility â in fact grew fibrous â left a scar in the muscle if you like â nothing to see on the outside but any pressure on that spot would cause pain. When the horse was over-stretched, tired as well â remember how young he was⦠â
âIt must have hurt like hell,â said John, âand I can guess that Streaky Baconâs grip just caught it, which could account for everything. Sandy, you clever old devil.â
âDonât thank me, thank Ted and Sadiq.â Captain Mack got down from the bench. âBut youâre not out of the wood yet. Sadiqâs âhart moleshâ is the best possible treatment, but thereâs more to this than that. Everything to do with the finish of a race, other horses challenging, the noise, the excitement, tells Darkie, âStop before it hurts.â Thatâs it, isnât it, old fellow,â he pulled one of the dark ears.
âSo we still have our problem.â
âYou do indeed. You now have to âminister to a mind diseasedâ,â and the Captain went on:
ââPluck from the memory a rooted sorrow
Raze out the written troubles of the brainâ¦ââ
â
Macbeth
Act Five Scene III,â said John, âso shut up and donât show off.â
âDear me!â said Captain Mack, âand I thinking that cavalry officers were semi-illiterate.â
âGranted, but I acted in
Macbeth
at school. First Murderer.â
âPity you werenât the First Witch. You could do with a little magic just now.â
âMeaning that you think itâs still no go?â
âMeaning just that. John, face it. You know that a spoiled horse never comes back.â
Â
âMullins,â said John when Captain Mack had gone. âWhy didnât you tell Mr Traherne what you thought about the horse?â
Ted hesitated. âThe Invader was never no trouble with me, sir, and there was nothing I could be sure of. I hoped Mr Michael might see for hisself. Then when the hoss was sold, who was I,â asked Ted, âto set meself up against a veterinary like Major Woods? Besides, if Mr Michael had listened, it would have put him in a spot. Donât get me wrong, sir, Mr Michael, or his father or his grandfather, come to that, would never have let a hoss be sold out of his stables if he didnât think it was sound, and Captain Hay⦠â Ted spat, âhe wouldnât have waited. If he had known, it would have been any old
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes