He knew that a long tongue of the slough filled by the rising tide followed the marsh, and lay between him and the hacienda.

The sinking of his horse's hoofs in the spongy soil determined its proximity, and he made a detour to the right to avoid it.

In doing so, a light suddenly rose above the distant horizon ahead of him, trembled faintly, and then burned with a steady lustre.

It was a light at the hacienda.

Guiding his horse half abstractedly in this direction, his progress was presently checked by the splashing of the animal's hoofs in the water.