MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



of the customs official who was checking off 

 the horses as they were taken aboard the lighter 

 at the dock, Said, my boy, had been checked off 

 as coming back, and it had not been noticed 

 that he had gone out to the lighter with an- 

 other bunch of horses. He had crawled in 

 under the bales of hay, and to anyone on 

 shore he might have been taken for a monkey 

 scaling up a rope which hung down the side of 

 the big boat as he scrambled aboard. He was 

 there, but I was not supposed to know it. All 

 I was certain of was that he was on the boat. 

 After supper, with the sea beginning to get 

 rough and choppy, we started for the ship an 

 hour before she was to sail and to our aston- 

 ishment found on board the three Arabs whom 

 we had left on shore. How they got there I 

 do not know and never asked. Said was still 

 missing, but we had an idea he would turn 

 up somewhere and after the steamer was under 

 full headway we started to hunt for him. We 

 searched and called for a long time without 

 answer, but finally, behind the "war mare's" 

 box, crouched down under some sacks, we 

 found him. He was all eyes and the whites 

 of them seemed bigger than all his coal- 

 black face. It was a long time before we could 



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