‘I don’t know how long this lasted. The stars came out and went in again—it must have been hours and hours. For dawn was breaking when at last he pulled up, beckoning me forward—I found myself on the edge of a little ravine, there down below, not twenty yards from where I stood, were the horses feeding quietly, all—except the bahio—and he too was still within sight, now, with his silent rider, a few yards off to my right.
‘Half mechanically, as if obeying the mysterious influence that had brought me so far, I ran down the ravine, caught the horse which had still my saddle on—nothing was missing of the gear. I unsaddled him, caught another, geared him up, and drove the troop, by a less steep side of the ravine, up on to the plain again. There still stood Dorotéo, motionless, but the smile on his face was now unmistakable. He wheeled round slowly, stretching out his arm before him, as if to direct me. I rode on—I could not have done otherwise—driving the horses before me; once I glanced backwards—yes, there still stood the silent sentinel. I could feel he was watching me; I almost could feel he was smiling. But the next time I looked back he was gone.’
‘Practically from that moment my troubles were over. That very morning I balled an ostrich, which gave me plenty of food till I reached a farm, a day or two’s distance from the Rio Negro.
‘A fortnight later I was on my way to England. That’s all my story. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Doroteo’s death.’ Charles Maud was silent.
‘Thank you for telling it to me, old fellow,’ he said at last. ‘And—may I ask you one thing? The guacho’s prophecy came true—the first part of it. And how about the second? ’
Darcy smiled.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I was going to tell you. That’s why I’m going down to The Chase. I’m going to be married soon—to—you know whom. . . . Yes, I am glad to live—now—thank God.’
The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Mrs Molesworth Page 31