Preface 
spur and lash, the world of compulsion, the world 
that denies to a horse an end in himself, he came 
to love one person—me, the woman who petted 
instead of saddled him, who gave him sugar in- 
stead of spurring him, who gloried in him because 
he dared assert that he belonged to himself. For 
I, too, was an outlaw. 
“When I wandered joyfully through the ever- 
green labyrinths of the Florence Basin, sniffing like 
a hare or fox the damp spring smell of the earth, 
going far down the narrow, rock-walled canyons 
for the first wild orchids, Coaly-Bay came, too. I 
did not ride or drive him. He trotted beside me 
as might a dog. We were pals, equals, fellow 
rebels. I went with him where he could find the 
first young meadow grass, and he went with me 
where grew the first wild strawberries. As to- 
gether we glimpsed, far below, the green ribbon 
that was the Salmon River, or saw, far off, the snow 
attempting to cover the sinister blackness of the 
Buffalo Hump, we laughed at the stupidity of the 
world of man, who sought to drive things, to com- 
pel things, to master things, breeding hate and 
viciousness thereby; the stupidity of the world of 
men who never dreamed of the marvellous power 
of love! 
“But they came between us, these men; and 
vil 
