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.

But the turf below was firm, and a salt drop that had spattered to his lips told him that it was only the encroaching of the tide in the meadow.