“Yes, sir,” they say, subdued. They are as quiet as mice.
Mr. Elber goes in and shuts the door behind him. There is not a sound. They wait a long time, crowded into the tackroom, whispering.
Finally Mr. Elber steps out, closing the door, then stands looking into the stall. “It’s all right,” whispers Karen, watching him, “but he’s waiting to make sure.”
After an eternity Dan Elber turns and comes across the stable yard to the tackroom. “That’s a good mare,” he says quietly. “Took that little colt just as if it were her own. Not many mares would do that, not many at all. Good little mare, my Tolly.”
Tom stares at him. “What did you say?”
Karen sits quite still, one hand raised.
“I said, why, I said that’s a good mare, there-she …”
Karen interrupts him, breathless. “Her name. What is her name?” She is standing now, her hand on Tom’s arm.
“Tolly,” he says, looking perplexed.
Tom has taken off like a streak for the barn, slowing down only as he gets close. Karen is behind him. Mr. Tillman has reached to stop them, but is held back by Dan Elber.
Karen stands silently beside Tom, looking into the stall. Tolly, nosing the new colt, looks up to nicker softly. Quietly, Tom lifts the latch and goes in.
Karen turns back to the tackroom, half afraid. Mr. Elber has stepped out to meet her. He takes her hand and leads her around the barn to the corral in back. She stops still, then breaks away from him, running. Then she is through the fence and standing in the middle of the corral. Tears are running down her cheeks, she can hardly see for tears.
Kippy looks at her, ears up, then comes slowly forward. He pauses, looks puzzled, takes another step, and Karen’s arms are around him.
CHAPTER 19
The sun is bright. A young girl sits astride a little buckskin horse, watching the pasture grass blow and the waves break silently far below them. Is this a dream? I am awake, Karen thinks, this time I am awake! Kippy tosses his head and wants to run. She smiles and pulls him up, scolding him.
She picks a path threading toward the sea, and down the summer hills they go, Kippy switching his tail and snorting. The air is bright and fresh, the birds call around them.
Overhead, breaking through the bird song, through the hum of crickets, comes a raucous cry. What is this in his field? The crow screams, circling, screams again, then goes on to see what else is out in his land this morning.
But only Karen is there, and Kippy, and the wild things which belong.
There are plans to make, questions to he answered, things to be decided. But not this morning. These things can wait; this morning is hers and Kippy’s.
“Well,” says Mary McCamley, pouring herself another cup of coffee, “what now, Sarah? What will Mr. Elber do? He won’t take the children’s horses home with him?”
“Not likely,” says Sarah. “Didn’t you see him, the way he looked?”
“Yes, but things have happened so fast! Sarah, I think it’s all impossible, those horses coming all that way, and the children finding them. We’re dreaming, Sarah. Must be!”
“Maybe it’s the Sand Ponies,” Sarah says. “Maybe they’ve bewitched us.”
“I think they have. I do believe we’ll wake up quite suddenly to find that none of this is real, perhaps not even ourselves.”
“I feel real enough,” says Sarah. “More likely just common magic, Sand Pony magic, made those horses and kids get together.” Sarah grins. “Twins were right all along. Fairy ponies!”
“Hmmm, Sarah?”
“Yes?”
“What’s to be done about Karen and Tom? School starts soon, and if they’re not with their uncle …”
“Guess we’ll have to help that wish a little,” says Sarah Paddyfoot.
“I can send for their records, legally, but what am I to say they are doing here? Could Mr. Tillman be another uncle?”
“They’d check, likely.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Need adopting, those two. Make someone a real nice family, they would.”
“Mr. Tillman? But a man without a, well, a …”
“What are you stammering for?”
“What I mean is, the court wouldn’t allow it, Sarah.” She is blushing.
“Well,” says Sarah Paddyfoot. “Yes, I see. It must be a proper married couple to adopt a child, not just a single man, I see.”
“We can’t let them be sent back, Sarah,” Mary says. “Maybe we could lie about another uncle! And if we could fix it, then we must get Mr. Elber to sell them the horses. Do you think he will?”
“Kids have no money,” says Sarah. “Maybe they could work it out, but …”
“Might do that,” says a voice, and around the corner of the barn comes Dan Elber. “Way I look at it,” he says, sitting down and glancing at the coffee pot-Sarah jumps up to pour, spilling Abbey to the ground, where she complains loudly and goes to Mary for comfort—“way I look at it,” he continues, sipping appreciatively, “been in the mountains long enough.
Gets cold up there. Going to look around here for a little land, raise me some colts. Guess someone else has a prior claim to my best mare, hut maybe we can work out a deal. Need some help, when I find a place.
“Way I see it, a boy can work for a horse he wants. So can a girl. Might even get me a wife one of these days, adopt those two kids.”
“No need,” says Roland, joining them from nowhere. “No need at all to do that. Taken quite a shine to those two—thinking just this morning of adopting them myself.”
“You got a wife?” asks Dan. “Takes a wife, you know. Courts won’t …”
“Thinking just this morning,” says Roland, “of getting me a wife. Got just the one in mind; make a good mother for those two. Feed ‘em lily bulbs.”
Sarah’s face is getting very pink. Mary McCamley turns away to hide her smile.
Sarah scurries toward the house, nearly running into Mr. Tillman and J.L., coming around the corner followed by the sheriff.
“Where is Tom?” says Jack Tillman. “Where’s he gotten to?”
“Down the beach,” says Mary, trying to look serious. “Down the beach with John.”
The twins go running off, shouting.
Soon Tom is back, with John, twins dragging them.
“Sit down,” says Mr. Tillman. “Get your breath. Remember the deserted ranch, Tom? Remember Charley?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, it was Charley in that truck last night. Got him in the jailhouse. Got his friends, too. And some of the packages they were dividing up.”
“What were they?”
“Money.”
Tom looks perplexed. “Stolen money?”
“Counterfeit. You’ve earned yourself a reward, Son. Tell him, Roland.”
“Well, that’s about it,” says Roland, settling himself at the table. “Been looking all over the country for that bunch. Thought a tramp might be able to move around without causing any concern. But by the time I found the place and had some evidence, you had reported it, Tom, and the sheriff had talked to my office and already had a man watching the Black Turtle when I got to town to see him. Reward’s yours, Son. Talked to my boss two days ago. Drew a draft right away.” He leans over and hands Tom an envelope. “Guess you could say the Sand Ponies caught Charley. One of them did, poor thing.”
Tom looks at the check, then hands it back. “I can’t take a reward. I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes, you did. You knew something was wrong. Didn’t know what, but saw to it the sheriff knew, too. It’s yours, Tom. You’re to keep it.”
“Well I, well I don’t know what to say. It doesn’t seem right.”
“It’s right, all right,” says Mr. Tillman. “You can settle up with Mr. Elber if you like and bring Kippy on down here. We’ll fix a shed for him, and Tolly, when the colts are weaned, or before, maybe. You can decide about Ginger and Rex. Got a good home with Mr. Elber, if they’ll stay put!”
“And now,” says Roland, getting up, “if you’ll excuse me… .”