Then they went through the gate.

“We’re off,” said Henry.

CHICAGO
17

It was two-thirty by Jim’s watch when they drove into the freight yards. “Just in time,” he said.

Trucks laden with freight for the trains pulled into the yards, their horns blowing. Men’s shouts rang through the afternoon air. Henry brought the van to a stop. “I’ll find out where we’re to go,” Jim said. “Wait here.”

Alec looked back through the window. He could see the heads of the Black and Napoleon. The stallion was pawing at the floor. “Guess the noise and the ride’s made him kinda nervous, Henry,” he said.

“Yeah, we’ll have to watch him. Wouldn’t want him to get too excited just before the race.”

A few minutes later Jim returned. “Our car’s down at the end,” he said. Henry put the truck in gear and moved in and out of the crowded yards. Jim pointed to a car. “That’s the one.”

“I can back right up to the door,” Henry said as he turned the wheel. “He’ll hardly know he’s getting into it.”

When Henry brought the van to a stop, Jim and Alec jumped out. They climbed into the train and Henry followed them. “Say, this is swell!” Alec said as he looked around him. A box stall was at one end and three cots were in front of it.

“Not a bad layout,” agreed Henry. “The Black won’t mind this so much.”

“We haven’t a stall for Napoleon, though,” Jim said.

“We can put him right outside the Black’s,” Henry said, “and move our cots down this way.”

After they’d moved the cots and Henry had bedded down the stallion’s stall with straw, Alec went to get the Black.

He opened the rear of the van and walked in beside him. The Black moved nervously. “Hello, fella.” Alec stroked his neck. Napoleon pushed his face toward him and Alec rubbed his nose too. “You’re both going on a long ride now,” he said. He grasped the Black’s halter and backed him into the stall. The horse stretched his neck high into the air and his leg continued to paw the straw. “There, Boy,” Alec said. “Take it easy, now.”

“Don’t bring Napoleon in yet,” Henry said. “I’ll need more straw if we’re going to bed him down and make him comfortable. I’ll go see if I can’t get some.”

“I’ll go along with you, Henry,” Jim said. “I have to make arrangements to get this van back.”

As soon as they had gone, Alec went inside the van and dragged Henry’s large trunk into the car. He opened it and took out Henry’s blazing green shirt and jockey cap. Saturday he’d be wearing them! The same things even to the faded number 3 that Henry had worn when he and Chang won the Kentucky Derby! Alec’s throat tightened as he laid them carefully back into the trunk.

A short time later, Henry returned with a bale of straw. He spread it in front of the Black’s stall. “Okay to bring Napoleon in now,” he said. Napoleon’s ears pricked forward when he saw the Black. He shoved his nose toward him.