ou
were mustered out, I went to South America, where a friend of mine
wished me to go into business with him. I did capitally well, and I
grew very strong. The climate suited me, and I used to go on those
long horseback rides into the interior among the plantations that I
told you about last night. My partner disliked that branch of the
business far more than I did; so he left it almost wholly to me. I did
not think often about Henry, though I mourned so much over his death
at first, and I never was less nervous in my life.

"One evening I had just returned to Rio after an absence of several
weeks, and I went to dine with some friends of mine. It was a terribly
hot night, and after dinner we went out in the harbor for a sail, as
the moon would be up later. There was not much wind, however; and the
two boatmen took the oars, and we struck out farther, hoping to catch
a breeze beyond the shipping. It was very dark, and suddenly there
came by a large, heavy boat which nearly ran us down. Our men shouted
angrily, and the other sailors swore; but there was no accident after
all. They seemed to be drunk, and we were all in the shadow of a brig
that was lying at anchor; but, Ainslie! as that boat slid by--I was
half lying in the stern of ours, and so close that I could have
touched it--I saw Henry Dunster's face as plainly as I see yours now.
It turned me cold for a minute, and gave me an awful shock. I told the
men to give chase; and they, thinking I was angry at the carelessness,
bent to their oars with a will, and overhauled them. There were two
men on board,--one a negro, and the other an old gray-haired
sailor,--not in the least like Henry. And I said I had been half
asleep, and dreamed it was his face. But there was no mistaking him;
it was the most vivid thing; it was the man himself I saw for that one
horrible minute. And late the next night I was sitting in my own
sleeping-room. I had reasoned myself out of the thing as well as I
could, and said I was tired, and not as well as usual, and all that;
and I had thought of it as calmly as possible. I sat with my back
toward the window; but I was facing a mirror, and suddenly I had a
strange feeling, and looked up to see in the mirror Dunster's face at
the window looking in. It was staring straight at me; and I met the
eyes, and that was the last I knew: I lost my senses. Only a monkey
could have climbed there. There was a frail vine that clung to the
stone, and in the mor