"Yes, is it not so? You know the feeling of instinctive repulsion one experiences on touching a reptile?"
"Of course."
"Well, when that man advanced toward me, even before I saw him, I felt his presence, if I may say so; my heart beat violently; and when he addressed me I felt a sudden and incomprehensible pain."
Belhumeur regarded him for a moment with fixed attention.
"And you conclude from that?" he said.
"That this man will be my enemy at some appointed moment; that he will stand in my path, gloomy and implacable, and prove fatal to me."
"Come, my friend, that is not possible. You are leaving this country, never to return to it, since, in spite of all your researches, you have been unable to find the man on whose behalf you came. The man you saw this morning is a field officer in the Mexican army, and it is not very likely he will leave his country: everything opposes it. Where can you meet again?"
"I do not know, Belhumeur; I seek neither to guess nor to foresee the future. It is evident that, after leaving you at the Hacienda del Milagro, I shall proceed to Guaymas, where I shall embark, I know not yet for what country; and it is my settled purpose never to set foot in Mexico again. Still I repeat to you, although it may appear absurd, I am convinced that that man will be my enemy some day, and that one of us will kill the other."
"Come, come, I will not discuss that subject with you; it is better for us, I fancy, to start, for we have a long journey before us today."
"That is true, my friend. Let us start, and think no more of my forebodings. They will turn out as Heaven may direct."