Having logically
determined that it was not in the power of horse flesh burdened
with the weight of a rider to come within striking distance of the
stallion, Red Jim Perris passed from action to quiescence. If he could
not outrun Alcatraz he would outwait him.
First he studied the habits of the new king of the Eagle Mountains,
day by day following the trail. It was not hard to distinguish after
he had once measured the mighty stride of Alcatraz in full gallop and
he came to know to a hair's breath the distances which the chestnut
stepped when he walked or trotted or loped or galloped or ran. More
than that, he could tell by the print of the four hoofs, all of
the same size, the same roundness--token so dear to the heart of a
horseman! By such signs he identified old and new trails until he
could guess the future by the past, until he could begin to read the
character of the stallion. He knew, for instance, the insatiable
curiosity with which the chestnut studied his wilderness and its
inhabitants. He had seen the trail looping around the spot where the
rattler's length had been coiled in the sand, or where a tentative
hoof had opened the squirrel's hole.
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