Reivers, The - William Faulkner [96]
"Hidy, son," Lycurgus said. "Looking for two. We thought maybe the other one might be here too."
"You mean Mr van Torch aint even come yet?"
"He aint coming a-tall," Lycurgus said. "Some other folks running Coppermine this time. Whitefolks named Mr Boon Hogganbeck. This white boy gonter ride him. This is McWillie," he told me. McWillie looked at me a minute. Then he went back to the office door and opened it and said something inside and stood back while a white man ("Trainer," Lycurgus murmured. "Name Mr Walter") came out and said,
"Morning, Lycurgus. Where you folks keeping that horse hid, anyway? You aint ringing in a sleeper on us, are you?"
"No sir," Lycurgus said. "I reckon he aint come out from town yet. We thought they might have sent him out here. So we come to look."
"You walked all the way here from Possum's?"
"No sir," Lycurgus said. "We rid the mules."
"Where'd you tie them? I cant even see them. Maybe you painted them with some of that invisible paint you put on that horse when you took him out of that boxcar yesterday morning."
"No sir," Lycurgus said. "We just rid as far as the pasture and turned them loose. We walked the balance of the way."
"Well, anyway, vou come to see a horse, so we wont disappoint you. Bring him out, McWillie, where you can look at him."
"Look at his face for a change," McWillie said. "Folks on that Coppermine been looking at Akron's hind end all winter, but aint none of them seen his face yet."
"Then at least this boy can start out knowing what he looks like in front. What's your name, son?" I told him. "You aint from around here."
"No sir. Jefferson, Mississippi."
"He travelling with Mr Hogganbeck that's running Coppermine now," Lycurgus said.
"Oh," Mr Walter said. "Mr Hogganbeck buy him?"
"I dont know, sir," Lycurgus said. "Mr Hogganbeck's running him." McWillie brought the horse out; he and Mr Walter stripped off the blanket. He was black, bigger than Lightning but very nervous; he came out showing eye-white; every time anybody moved or spoke near him his ears went back and he stood on the point of one hind foot as though ready to lash out with it, Mr Walter and McWillie both talking, murmuring at him but both of them always watching him.
"All right," Mr. Walter said. "Give him a drink and put him back up." We followed him toward the front. "Dont let him discourage you," he said. "After all, it's just a horse race."
"Yes sir," Lycurgus said. "That's what they says. Much oblige for letting us look at him."
"Thank you, sir," I said.
"Good-bye," Mr. Walter said. "Don't keep them mules waiting. See you at post time this afternoon."
"No sir," Lycurgus said.
"Yes, sir," I said. We went on, past the stables and the track once more.
"Mind what Mr McCaslin told us," Lycurgus said.
"Mr McCaslin?" I said. "Oh yes," I said. I didn't ask What? this time either. I think I knew now. Or maybe I didn't want to believe I knew; didn't want to believe even yet that at a mere eleven you could progress that fast in weary unillusion; maybe if I had asked What? it would have been an admission that I had. "That horse is bad," I said.
"He's scared," Lycurgus said. "That's what Mr McCaslin said last night."
"Last night?" I said. "I thought you all came to look at the track."
"What do we want to look at that track for?" Lycurgus said. "That track dont move. He come to see that horse."
"In the dark?" I said. "Didn't they have a watchman or wasn't the stable locked or anything?"
"When Mr McCaslin make up his mind to do something, he do it," Lycurgus said. "Aint you found out that about him yet?" So we—I—didn't look back. We went on to our sanctuary, where Lightning—I mean Coppermine —and the two mules stamped and swished in the