Dur­ing one evening at the sta­ble, a trav­el­er’s horse was brought in, lead­ing to a series of events that endan­gered all the hors­es, includ­ing Black Beau­ty. As the night pro­gressed, an unno­ticed dan­ger began to unfold — the sta­ble caught fire. This was prompt­ed by a young man, referred to only as Towler, who neg­li­gent­ly entered the loft with a lit pipe, like­ly caus­ing the fire.

Black Beau­ty was awak­ened by an uncom­fort­able sen­sa­tion, soon real­iz­ing the sta­ble was filled with thick, suf­fo­cat­ing smoke, sig­nal­ing a fire had ignit­ed. Pan­ic ensued among the hors­es, com­pound­ed by the con­fu­sion and fear exhib­it­ed by the hostlers try­ing to lead the hors­es out of the burn­ing sta­ble. The sit­u­a­tion wors­ened as the fire engine hasti­ly arrived, indi­cat­ing the sever­i­ty of the flames engulf­ing the sta­ble’s roof.

James Howard, the sta­ble boy, demon­strat­ed remark­able brav­ery amidst the chaos. He metic­u­lous­ly led the hors­es out one by one, sav­ing them from the encroach­ing flames. Each horse was led to safe­ty with care­ful guid­ance, despite the per­ilous con­di­tions. Black Beau­ty high­light­ed James’s calm demeanor and his effec­tive method of using a scarf to cov­er their eyes, eas­ing their jour­ney out of the sta­ble. Gin­ger, anoth­er horse, acknowl­edged that hear­ing Black Beau­ty’s whin­ny from out­side gave her the courage to fol­low through the smoke.

The after­math of the fire was a blend of relief and sad­ness. While James, Black Beau­ty, and Gin­ger man­aged to escape, the cries of the hors­es left behind haunt­ed those who fled. The own­er’s pride in James’s hero­ism was evi­dent the fol­low­ing morn­ing, though the dev­as­ta­tion of the fire lin­gered in their hearts. The inves­ti­ga­tion into the fire’s cause point­ed towards Towler’s care­less­ness with his pipe, spark­ing dis­cus­sions on safe­ty and neg­li­gence.

This chap­ter not only depicts a grip­ping tale of sur­vival and courage but also high­lights the bond between humans and ani­mals, espe­cial­ly in times of cri­sis. The calm lead­er­ship of humans like James Howard and the trust placed in them by the ani­mals under­score a poignant nar­ra­tive of res­cue and resilience.