Part 17 (1/2)
”This it said and vanished I lifted my whip, but needed not to strike s could fly faster than he noith me on his back No path was before h rushes and through thickets, over burrows of wild animals, stones, rivers, marshes, we flew as if all the devils that are on the earth and under it were at our heels; and when the horse stopped it was atthe surcingle with my knife, left him to shake the saddle off; then with the bridle I ha tofor the tinder-box 'For the love of Heaven, woht,' I cried '_Santa Barbara bendita_! have you seen a ghost?' she exclai in and bolting the door, 'and had you struck a light you would now have been a '
”For thus it is, sirs, the ht immediately drops down dead”
I made no sceptical remarks, and did not even shake my head The circumstances of the encounter were described by Mariano with such graphic power and minuteness that it was is in it afterwards struck me as somewhat absurd; that straw hat, for instance, and it also seee that a person of Mula's disposition should have been so much improved in tehosts----” said Laralde, the other man--but proceeded no further, for I interrupted his and bushy grey whiskers; he was called by his familiars Lechuza (owl) on account of his immense, round, tawny-coloured eyes, which had a treht we had had enough of the supernatural by this ti you; but there will be no sleep for us to-night if we have any more stories about spirits frohosts----” resu my remark, and this nettled me; so I cut in once h about them,” I said ”This conversation was only to be about rare and curious things Now, visitors from the other world are very comhosts than la foxes with their breath?”
”I have seen that once only,” said Rivarola gravely ”I have often seen ghosts”
The others also confessed to having seen host apiece
Lechuza sat inattentive, san again
”Talking of ghosts----”
nobody interrupted hi, deliberate pause
”Talking of ghosts,” he repeated, staring around hi that was _not_ a ghost I was a young e of youth--for what I ao
I had been playing cards at a friend's house, and left it at ues I had quarrelled that evening and left a loser, burning with anger against the man who had cheated and insultedvengeance on hi serene, and alht as day, for the eon a white horse, which stood perfectly motionless directly in my path I dashed on till I came near him, then shouted aloud 'Out ofinthat he took no notice of ainst him; then at the very ht down my iron whip-handle with all the force that was inas if I had struck upon an anvil, while at the sa, clutched my cloak with both hands I could feel that they were bony, hard hands, arle's, which pierced throughmy whip, I seized him by the throat, which seeether in a desperate struggle, ayed this way and that, each trying to drag the other froether with a crash upon the earth In a htning flashed out his long, sharp weapon, and, finding I was too late to drawhis armed hand in both mine before he could strike
”For a fewatcoals; then,me off , and finally cast reat was his strength I was launched with tremendous force into the middle of some thorny bushes, but had no sooner recovered froed hie chance I had carried away his weapon, firer, sharp as a needle, and while I grasped the hilt I felt the strength and fury of a thousand fighting-men inthe top his body to one side and wrenched it out of the earth by the roots Swinging the bush with the rapidity of a ind round his head, he advanced against me and dealt a blow that would have crushed ed under it to close with hi weapon was buried to its hilt in his boso yell, and at the sa h to the skin For a moment I was blinded; but when I had dashed the blood from my eyes and looked round he had vanished, horse and all
”Then,my horse, I rode ho the knife, which I still carried in athered at ht had taken place There we found the bush torn up by the roots, and all the earth about it ploughed up where we had fought
The ground was also dyed with blood for several yards round, and where it had fallen the grass ithered up to the roots, as if scorched with fire We also picked up a cluster of hairs--long, wiry, crooked hairs, barbed at the ends like fish-hooks; also three or four scales like fish-scales, only rougher, and as large as doubloons The spot where the fight took place is now called _La Canada del Diablo,_ and I have heard that since that day the devil has never appeared corporeally to fight any reat satisfaction I said nothing, feeling half stupid with amazement, for the man apparently told it in the full conviction that it was true, while the other listeners appeared to accept every word of it with the an to feel veryfroainst ly veracious Orientals, and so I could not think of inventing anything
”My friends,” I began at length, ”I a s do not often happen, so that I can tell you nothing to equal in interest the stories I have heard I can only relate a little incident which happened to me in my own country before I left it It is trivial, perhaps, but will lead reat city you have all heard of”
”Yes, we have heard of London; it is in England, I believe Tell us your story about London,” said Blas encouragingly
”I was very young--only fourteen years old,” I continued, flattering myself that my modest introduction had not been ineffective, ”when one evening I came to London from my home It was in January, in the middle of winter, and the whole country hite with snow”
”Pardon ot the cucu end We say that January is in summer”
”Not in my country, where the seasons are reversed,” I said