Blanco Diablo was the only horse in the field that was not free to roam and graze where he listed.  A stake and a halter held him to one corner, where he was severely let alone by the other horses.  He did not like this isolation.  Blanco Diablo was not happy unless he was running, or fighting a rival.  Of the two he would rather fight.  If anything white could resemble a devil, this horse surely did.  He had nothing beautiful about him, yet he drew the gaze and held it.  The look of him suggested discontent, anger, revolt, viciousness.  When he was not grazing or prancing, he held his long, lean head level, pointing his nose and showing his teeth.  Belding’s favorite was almost all the world to him, and he swore Diablo could stand more heat and thirst and cactus than any other horse he owned, and could run down and kill any horse in the Southwest.  The fact that Ladd did not agree with Belding on these salient points was a great disappointment, and also a perpetual source for argument.  Ladd and Lash both hated Diablo; and Dick Gale, after one or two narrow escapes from being brained, had inclined to the cowboys’ side of the question.

El Gran Toro Blanco upheld his name.  He was a huge, massive, thick-flanked stallion, a kingly mate for his full-bodied, glossy consort, Blanca Reina.  The other mare, Blanca Mujer, was dazzling white, without a spot, perfectly pointed, racy, graceful, elegant, yet carrying weight and brawn and range that suggested her relation to her forebears.

The cowboys admitted some of Belding’s claims for Diablo, but they gave loyal and unshakable allegiance to Blanco Sol.  As for Dick, he had to fight himself to keep out of arguments, for he sometimes imagined he was unreasonable about the horse.  Though he could not understand himself, he knew he loved Sol as a man loved a friend, a brother.  Free of heavy saddle and the clumsy leg shields, Blanco Sol was somehow all-satisfying to the eyes of the rangers.  As long and big as Diablo was, Sol was longer and bigger.  Also, he was higher, more powerful.  He looked more a thing for action—­speedier.  At a distance the honorable scars and lumps that marred his muscular legs were not visible.  He grazed aloof from the others, and did not cavort nor prance; but when he lifted his head to whistle, how wild he appeared, and proud and splendid!  The dazzling whiteness of the desert sun shone from his coat; he had the fire and spirit of the desert in his noble head, its strength and power in his gigantic frame.

“Belding swears Sol never beat Diablo,” Dick was saying.

“He believes it,” replied Nell.  “Dad is queer about that horse.”

“But Laddy rode Sol once—­made him beat Diablo.  Jim saw the race.”

Nell laughed.  “I saw it, too.  For that matter, even I have made Sol put his nose before Dad’s favorite.”

“I’d like to have seen that.  Nell, aren’t you ever going to ride with me?”