"Oh," he said, "it is very simple. I have been hunting in these parts for some days past. I had tracked this family of jaguars, which I obstinately determined to kill, I know not why; but now I understand that it was a presentiment. After pursuing them all day, I had lost them out of sight, and was seeking their trail, when your horse enabled me to recover it."
"What!—my horse?" she exclaimed, in amazement.
"Do you not remember that it was I who gave you this poor Negro on our first meeting?"
"That is true," she murmured, as she let her eyes fall beneath the hunter's ardent glance.
"I saw you for a moment this morning when you were going to Sanchez' rancho."
"Ah!" she remarked.
"Sanchez is a friend, of mine," he continued, as if to explain his remark.
"Go on."
"On seeing the horse, which I at once recognised, I feared that some accident had happened to you, and set out after it. But the jaguars had scented it at the same time, and in spite of my thorough acquaintance with this forest, it was impossible for me to run as fast as they did. Luckily, they were hungry, and amused themselves by devouring poor Negro; otherwise I should not have arrived in time."
"But how was it that you came by this strange road?"