You don’t have to worry about Steve any longer, he told himself. You’re silly if you do. The stallion won’t harm him. You’ve seen that for yourself. This relationship between Steve and the stallion is something you don’t understand, but you saw for yourself that the stallion came to Steve. He always will be his horse from now on. Maybe he always has been, for all you know. Maybe Steve has always known this red stallion, just as he says. Maybe it is his Flame. Who are you to doubt it? Not after all you’ve seen today. You’ve read of such things happening between man and horse, although Tom once said it never actually happened. “It’s storybook stuff” … those were his exact words. Tom, with his big hands. Tom, with his bull whip and bottle. Tom, who thought there was only one way to conquer a wild horse. “You’ve got to break him with your own hands,” he would say. “You’ve got to show him who’s boss!”

I wonder what Tom would say to all this, Pitch thought. I wonder if he’d believe it even if he witnessed it, as I’m doing.

But Tom never would have Steve’s patience. Never would he have waited for this stallion to come to him, urging him on only by kindness and by his voice.

Pitch listened to the sound of Steve’s voice and thought again: It’s Steve’s voice that’s winning the confidence of this stallion as much as anything. I’m sure Tom couldn’t talk that way even if he wanted to. I don’t think there are many people in the world who could talk that way to a horse. A voice like that has to come from the heart. It’s like a mother talking to her child—that’s the only comparison I know.