Free The Island Stallion Races by Walter Farley Page A

chair and was standing over Flick.
    “But I didn’t know of any great change,” Flick insisted nervously.
    Jay waved a long, bony finger in Flick’s face. “Do you mean to tell me that during your last trip here younever noticed jockeys crouched forward in their saddles, their knees pulled up?”
    “Of course not,” Flick said defiantly. “You know I never go to the races.”
    “But you
heard
of this new racing seat, didn’t you?” Jay insisted. “After all, you’re supposed to be the scholar, the well-informed person who knows what’s going on, even in the most remote of planets!”
    Flick looked at Steve helplessly, and then threw up his hands. “One can’t possibly remember
everything
, Jay! Perhaps I did hear of this new riding style, now that you’ve mentioned it. But I didn’t think it was important. There are so many other things that …”
    “Not important!”
Jay shouted, and then he put his head in his hands, rocking it. After a moment he turned abruptly, went back to his chair and sat down. “To think,” he said softly, “that they had to assign an old man like you as my companion on this trip … one who no longer can appreciate the drama of a horse race, and in addition cannot retain a single important fact!”
    Flick rose from his chair, the red band in his eyes also. He spluttered, finding it difficult to speak as he turned and looked at Steve.
    This man old? Steve studied Flick’s soft, lineless face and the hair that just now seemed to be more red than gray. “He’s not old at all,” Steve thought.
    Suddenly the little man beamed and the angry red left his eyes. “Oh, I’m old, all right,” he said appreciatively. “Still, it’s nice to be told I’m not.” Glancing over his shoulder, he added fiercely, “And you’re just as old, Jay. Don’t forget that.”
    “Not in
heart
,” the other answered.
    Flick ignored Jay. “What’s bothering him,” he explained to Steve, “is that two of us always have to stay with the ship while the others go off touring. It worked out that our turn for ship duty came here on Earth.”
    “We could have traded with Julian and Victor,” Jay said. “Julian wanted to visit Mao again, but you insisted upon
our
going instead.”
    “Julian might have traded, but not Victor,” Flick said thoughtfully. “Victor really wanted to visit Earth. He’d never been here, remember.”
    “I wish Victor and I had been assigned together,” Jay said wistfully.
    “It wouldn’t have worked,” Flick answered. “Everybody knew that.” He turned back to Steve. “You see, we use the ‘buddy system,’ as you do in your Boy and Girl Scout organizations. And it’s for the same purpose … to keep track of each other, and to … ah, avoid trouble. One is supposed to have a restraining influence over the other. That’s why Jay was assigned to me.”
    Jay snickered. “It was the other way around,” he said.
    “Look at it any way you like,” Flick said, shrugging his shoulders. “But now we must get back to the ship.”
    “Why must we go?” Jay asked furiously. “You know the others won’t be back for …” He glanced at Steve, “… a week, I guess it is in your time.”
    “We’re not certain of that,” Flick said quietly in the face of Jay’s angry outburst. “Some of them might just change their minds and return sooner. Anyway, it’s our job to be on the ship and keep everything in order. You’re well aware that we mustn’t shirk our duties.”
    “We can clean everything up just before they getback. No sense working now when we can enjoy ourselves. After all, it’s very unusual to have someone like Steve around.”
    “Very,”
Flick admitted in the same soft, patient tone. “But they expect no less of us than we did of Julian and Victor while we were visiting Mao, even though …” He paused, his small eyes traveling over Steve, “… we are more fortunate.”
    “Nonsense,” Jay muttered. “They’d be glad we had