A Fable

The runner joins the battalion in 1916, just before the First Battle of the Somme. As he waits for his orders from the brigadier, he watches the officers tell a private that “someone from America” (141) has been trying to locate him. On learning that he is being sought by an African American minister named Reverend Tobe Sutterfield, the private refuses anything to do with him. Later, the runner sees the same private collecting money from the other enlisted men. A motorcade containing important people, as well as Reverend Sutterfield, arrives for a brief meeting with the private and the runner tries to find out more about the man. As the months pass, he investigates the private’s scheme of taking money from the other men as a form of life insurance. He meets Reverend Tobe Sutterfield to learn more about the private.

Sutterfield tells the private’s story, beginning in 1912. The private was a groom who traveled to America with a racehorse owned by an Argentine millionaire. By the time he returned to Britain in 1914 to enlist in the Army, he seemed like “a new man” (151). He was sent to America with the horse because of a sincere affinity between him and the animal. Once the bond formed between the private and the horse, the horse became a record breaker and was soon sold to an American oil baron. At the time, Sutterfield was also a groom in the oil baron’s stables. The horse was injured in a railway accident, so the private, Sutterfield, the injured horse, and the 12-year-old jockey went on the run. They traveled from town to town, competing in and winning races, while the baron, the police, and insurance company representatives tried to find them. The private earned money by stealing and playing dice games. When a news story about a victorious horse “running on three legs” (157) reached the mainstream media, the pursuers renewed their efforts. However, the small group of the horse, the private, Sutterfield, and the young jockey always seemed ahead of them, always moving on to the next town. The owner of the horse refused to give up and offered a large reward to find the missing group. When the pursuers finally tracked the group down, the private shot the horse in the head. The group was arrested and interrogated by the deputy, who speculated that the private stole the horse so that it could “keep on running” (163), rather than being taken back to the stables where it would be put out to stud. The deputy, acting independently, tried to arrange for a lawyer to free the group but the group escaped unexpectedly before the lawyer could act. The body of the horse also vanished.

With the group still supposedly in possession of a vast sum of money (won by betting on the horse), the lawyer and the deputy set about tracking them down again. A description of the group was circulated, and the owner offered a large reward for their capture. The deputy and the lawyer wanted to protect the group, whereas the owner wanted to punish them. Seven days later, the lawyer heard a knock on the door of the jail, where he remained on the deputy’s instructions. Sutterfield was outside. Sutterfield was arrested, and after the public rushed into the jailhouse, the lawyer and the turnkey took Sutterfield into the courtroom. The lawyer told the crowd that Sutterfield had been “illegally arrested” (173). Thinking about the vast sum of money rumored to be in Sutterfield’s possession, the turnkey tried to free Sutterfield. The lawyer told him that, instead, he must put Sutterfield in a cell for the time being.

The turnkey smuggled Sutterfield out of the courthouse while the lawyer distracted the crowd. He insisted that Sutterfield “hasn’t got any money” (178). Sutterfield admits that he only returned to the town to say goodbye to his friend, the private, who was returning to England. The lawyer tried to stall the crowd but they pushed past him. He looked out the window and saw the turnkey crossing the square with Sutterfield, who was reunited with the teenage jockey. The crowd spotted them as well, spilling out of the courthouse and into the square. The turnkey, armed with a pistol, ordered them to stop. The crowd overwhelmed him and demanded that Sutterfield tell them how much money the group won by betting on the three-legged horse. Sutterfield said only that they won “a heap” of money. The crowd told him to take the train and leave town as they do not like wealthy African Americans.

Sutterfield finishes telling the story to the runner. The group reunited and vanished. Sutterfield describes how the private hid in a small mountain community during their time apart. He joined the Masons and ascended through the ranks until news of World War I reached him, when he left without explaining why. By the time Sutterfield and the jockey arrived, the private was gone. Sutterfield and the jockey traveled to France; the young jockey quickly picked up French. For two years, they searched for the private during the war. When they finally found him, the private “barely spoke” to his old friends. Sutterfield explains that the private is not ready to speak yet. He tells the private to contact him “when [the private] needs [him]” (204). The private remembers the first time he saw the mutinous French regiment of 13 men. They were known among the various armies and always moved around the backlines but their discussions of peace and the idea that “we can stop fighting if enough of us want to” (205) was tantamount to mutiny. He followed the regiment closely. Shortly before the mutiny, the private met Sutterfield again. Days later, as the “blank anti-aircraft shells” (207) were carried past him, he was beaten by the sergeant and lost two teeth. Hurt, he laid on a dirt ledge in an empty dugout. He made excuses to go to the latrine and left the trench, watching events unfold from a distance. He saw the aircraft above, seeing the German plane landing on the British base. After half-heartedly trying to gain entry to the base, he departed for Paris.