In the back bedroom he could hear trains passing. Lying beside his sleeping brother, he’d listen to the broad, low sound: faint, then rising, faint again, then a high, beckoning whistle, then gone. The sound of it brought goose bumps. Lost in longing, Louie imagined himself on a train, rolling into country he couldn’t see, growing smaller and more distant until he disappeared.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by Laura Hillenbrand
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2001 by Laura Hillenbrand and The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpts from
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine is a registered trademark and the Ballantine colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. Random House Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002090323
eISBN: 978-0-345-46739-3
Title page photo by AP/Wide World Photos
v3.0
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART I
Chapter 1 THE DAY OF THE HORSE IS PAST
Chapter 2 THE LONE PLAINSMAN
Chapter 3 MEAN, RESTIVE, AND RAGGED
Chapter 4 THE COUGAR AND THE ICEMAN
Chapter 5 A BOOT ON ONE FOOT, A TOE TAG ON THE OTHER
Chapter 6 LIGHT AND SHADOW
PART II
Chapter 7 LEARN YOUR HORSE
Chapter 8 FIFTEEN STRIDES
Chapter 9 GRAVITY
Chapter 10 WAR ADMIRAL
Chapter 11 NO POLLARD, NO SEABISCUIT
Chapter 12 ALL I NEED IS LUCK
Chapter 13 HARDBALL
Chapter 14 THE WISE WE BOYS
Chapter 15 FORTUNE’S FOOL
Chapter 16 I KNOW MY HORSE
Chapter 17 THE DINGBUSTINGEST CONTEST YOU EVER CLAPPED AN EYE ON
Chapter 18 DEAL
Chapter 19 THE SECOND CIVIL WAR
PART III
Chapter 20 “ALL FOUR OF HIS LEGS ARE BROKEN”
Chapter 21 A LONG, HARD PULL
Chapter 22 FOUR GOOD LEGS BETWEEN US
Chapter 23 ONE HUNDRED GRAND
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
