So he came, just after noonday, down-wind from the scent of horses.
His own kind, yet he was worried, for he connected horses inevitably with the thought of man.

Nevertheless, he decided to explore, and coming warily over a rise of ground he saw, in the hollow beyond, a whole troop of horses without a man in sight.

He was too wise to jump to conclusions but slipped back from his watch-post and ran in a long semi-circle about the herd, but having made out that there was no cowpuncher nearby, he came back to his original place of vantage and resumed his observations.
A beautiful black stallion wandered up-wind from the rest and another, younger horse, was on the other side of the herd.

Between was a raggedly assembled group of mares old and young, with leggy yearlings, deer-footed colts, and more than one time-worn stallion.

It was a motley assembly.