Horses

Horses are the means by which David Henniger joins a ride near Tafnet, and their vulnerability turns the outing into a confrontation. A stone makes David’s horse jump; further stones strike the horses as the riders retreat. The animals’ presence also sharpens the scene’s social contrast: local boys taunt David as a mounted outsider, while he later treats the ride as a harmless way to recover from trauma.

The Ride near Tafnet

David explains that he joined because the others were going riding while Jo Henniger was asleep. He rides across open country with two French girls slightly behind him, in a party that travels three or four miles along a trail past Tafnet. The route climbs toward a stream running between high, gold-colored rocks. David has recently slept for a long time and believes he is recovered; the ride seems to him a pleasant diversion from the surrounding hassle and horror.

His account also reveals a personal element he does not tell Jo: he finds the girls attractive and is in a flirtatious mood. The ride is therefore not simply a practical journey. It is a chosen leisure outing, taken while Jo is absent and against the background of an unsettled situation.

The Attack and Retreat

As the path curves uphill toward the next peak, a wooden shack provides cover for the boys lying in wait. David does not see them at first. He hears a stone ricochet against the ground, and the sound makes his horse jump. When he turns the animal around, another stone hits him in the face. The sequence makes the horse’s startle part of the sudden reversal from an ordinary ride to an attack.

David dismounts and runs toward the shack, but the girls call him back. Five or six boys run away up another slope, laughing and taunting the mounted gaouri. More stones follow, hitting the horses and making the girls wheel about. The account does not say that any horse is injured; it shows instead how the barrage drives the animals and riders into retreat. David’s own wound is superficial, though it bleeds heavily.

Aftermath and Significance

Back at the house, David remains shaken. He clutches a towel and repeatedly dabs at a cut that is already dry, using the movement to calm himself. When Jo asks why he rode and calls the decision folly, he insists that the attackers were lying in wait and that the riders could not have known. He also argues that he was entitled to unwind after a traumatic event, while Jo regards the outing as inconsiderate given how the locals might respond.

The horses thus belong to both the physical action and the dispute over David’s judgment. During the ride they carry him into an exposed position, and when the stones begin they become vulnerable alongside the people riding them. Afterward, David’s emphasis on the unexpected attack helps defend his decision to go; Jo’s objection keeps attention on the choice he made before the danger became visible. The contrast gives the ride its significance: what David presents as recovery and recreation is inseparable from the hostile setting in which he chooses to take it.