Read Online The Black Stallion Mystery by Walter Farley - Free Book Online Page B

here! Nothing at all!”
    “It is simply a question of waiting now.”
    “For whom?” Henry asked.
    “You will see,” came the nervous reply. “They will meet you.”
    Alec let the Black graze, concentrating on him so as to be able to stand the terrifying stillness that had enveloped them all. He listened to the quick, keen cut of his horse’s teeth as the stallion moved even farther away from the plane in search of better grass. Henry joined them.
    Suddenly the Black raised his head and whistled an alarm. Far beyond the black wastes Alec saw a flickering light along the horizon. Was it the first beginnings of dawn? Long minutes passed but the light grew no brighter. He felt terribly cold and reached for his horse. The Black was shaking, either in eagerness to fight or with fear.
    “Henry,” Alec said, “are you watching that light?”
    “Yes,” the man replied slowly. “The false dawn, that’s all it is. Don’t let it bother you.”
    From behind them came the loud eruption of the aircraft’s engines. They jumped for the plane together, their hands pounding its side. The rushing slipstream from the engines almost spun them around and they pressed their bodies into it. The aircraft moved away, its lights blinking.
    “González!”
Henry screamed at the top of his lungs.
“González!”
    He and Alec ran after the plane, shouting into the wind,
“Why, González, why? Don’t leave us alone here! What are you doing, González? What are you doing? Wait for us! Come back, González! Come back! You can’t leave us here!”
    Nothing but the mounting roar of the plane answered their questions. Faster and faster it went, drawing farther and farther away until it became airborne.
    In numbed silence Alec and Henry watched the plane’s lights disappear in the clouds. A strong wind came up and swept across the land. It moved the grass at their feet and changed the shapes in the night. It struck them in the face and they hunched forward to meet it. It bit at Alec’s hand and flapped the leather lead shank he was holding. He said, almost too quietly to be heard, “Henry, why did he do it to us? What kind of a game is he playing?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “He said someone would meet us.”
    “I heard that too.”
    “You think he was lying?”
    “We’ll soon find out,” Henry answered gravely.
    The wind marked the swift approach of dawn, and soon a distinct line of light appeared on the horizon. At first it was only a faint, luminous glow but then it began climbing ever higher in the sky. The masses of rock round about changed from black to gray.
    Henry and Alec watched the east anxiously. The sun should be up soon. Even before they saw it climb over the horizon the tops of the mountains were ablaze with its rays. Then it came forth, a red, glowing ball.
    They waited in silence, watching the land about them take shape in detail. They were in a long, narrow valley with a pass at one end through which the plane had come and gone. On every other side rose steep hills of rock and dirt split by pointed crags and deep rifts. High above them towered lofty peaks, some snow-covered.
    Alec and Henry kept moving in an attempt to warm their chilled bodies. The Black snorted at the song of a lone bird, then lowered his head to graze again. Alec’s eyes were drawn by what seemed to be a black-rimmed plateau high up on the northern slope of the mountains. All the crags and winding canyons in the area seemed to run up to that great tableland.
    Henry said, “Maybe our wait is going to be longer than we think. González left us some food.” The trainer had picked up a saddlebag from the ground. In it were dried meat and beans. “Want some?”
    The boy shook his head. “Not yet. Do you really think anyone will meet us, Henry?”
    “Sure. Don’t you?”
    “I don’t know,” Alec answered. The sun was inching skyward with agonizing slowness and the wind blew stronger. The sound of it in this high and lonely place bothered him