The law changes from epoch to epoch. We’ve canvassed that thoroughly during trailside convo.

The trouble with Ella is she’s injured and sentimental and she’s married to Saul who is neither. He has a long fuse but when it blows it blows.

The trouble with Saul is his wife.

The trouble with Ginny? I don’t have any issues with her. She and I are a lot alike. I’d like to get her in a tack room too.

And as to the Rodeo Kid—if the Theory of Second Tracks is indeed correct—the trouble with him is he’s living a fairy tale. He will either die young or live very well at others’ expense. Not worth thinking about.

Dan had explained it once and it was still irrelevant.

He said, “The Horse appears first in the fossil record in this very region of North America.”

“I thought the Spanish brought them.”

“That’s a hideous and unvarnished falsehood!”

“Relax.”

“Why are facts ignored?”

“I don’t know.”

“The horse was not from Europe or so-called Asia, not at all, as once thought by kings in their old self-centered world across the sea.”

“Amazing.” She’d yawned then, but here in the cave she remembered every word.

“The horse is a New World creature,” Dan said, “born and bred, on this very ridge maybe, though this ridge was not a ridge at that time, just a meadow really, though a meadow is just a ridge that hasn’t been lifted yet.”

“Get to the good part so we can fool around.”

That almost stopped him, but not quite. He was pure in his flaws.

“There’s no animal like a horse,” he said. “A most successful species. Why not learn from him right now in this cave.”

“I wasn’t in the cave when we had this conversation.”

“Then let’s continue the conversation in the here and now.”

“I’m all alone in the here and now.”

“I told you then on the bed, the couch, the rock floor, the pickup beds or tents, and just now I told you in the cave.”

“Tell me a third time.”

“The horse is a miraculous species.”

“A sacred animal.”

“Yes,” he said.

“I don’t believe in sacred,” she said.

“Maybe reconsider.”

“I might someday.”

“A nearly invincible species.” Dan was so enthusiastic. “The horse can survive anything.”

“What’s their secret?”

“They keep eating,” he said.

“There’s nothing to eat in the here and now.”

“Keep chewing grass.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”