She loved the rich, green stretches of alfalfa, and the farms, and the grove, and the old stone house, and the beautiful, ever-faithful amber spring, and every one of a myriad of horses and colts and burros and fowls down to the smallest rabbit that nipped her vegetables; but she loved best her noble Arabian steeds.

In common with all riders of the upland sage Jane cherished two material things--the cold, sweet, brown water that made life possible in the wilderness and the horses which were a part of that life.

When Lassiter asked her what Lassiter would be without his guns he was assuming that his horse was part of himself.

So Jane loved Black Star and Night because it was her nature to love all beautiful creatures--perhaps all living things; and then she loved them because she herself was of the sage and in her had been born and bred the rider's instinct to rely on his four-footed brother.

And when Jane gave Jerd the order to keep her favorites trained down to the day it was a half-conscious admission that presaged a time when she would need her fleet horses.
Jane had now, however, no leisure to brood over the coils that were closing round her.