"Let him out into the yard or the paddock."
Into the paddock he was let out, by means of a door in his stall worked by
winches from above. In the afternoon sunlight he pranced and curvetted
about, a joy to see.
"Let me show Felix what he is like," one of the younger horse-wranglers
suggested.
"You can," the _Villicus_ agreed. "We all know how agile you are and how
quick at vaulting a fence."
The fellow vaulted into the paddock when Selinus was at its further
corner. The moment the beast saw him he charged at full-run, screaming
like an angry gander, the picture of a man-killer, ears laid back,
nostrils wide and red, mouth open, teeth bared, forehoofs lashing out high
in front, an equine fury. The lad vaulted the fence handily when Selinus
was not three yards from him and the brute pawed angrily at the palings
and bit them viciously.
"Want to try, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me again.
Without a word I vaulted the enclosure within two yards of Selinus. He
stood, ears cocked forward, nostrils quiet, mouth shut, all four hoofs on
the ground, quivering all over.
Inch by inch I neared him till my hand touched him. He trembled like an
aspen-leaf, but did not attack me.
"Hercules be good to us all!" exclaimed one of the men.
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