'It is amazing, my dear! Positively. You never heard of such a thing.
The horse, the tall, slender one, ran away, from me. I hastened in
pursuit, calling to him to wait for me. It appeared that he had become
suddenly refractory: they do that sometimes. I was going to reprimand
him; I thought that it might be necessary to chastise him, as sometimes
a man must do to retain the mastery. But I stayed my hand. The animal
had not run away at all! He actually knew what he was doing. He came
straight here. And what do you think he discovered? What do you
imagine brought him? You would never guess.'

'Water?' suggested the girl, coming on.

Something of the man's excitement had gone from his voice when he
answered. He was like a child who has propounded a riddle that has
been too readily guessed.

'How did you know?'

'I didn't know. But the horses must be thirsty. Of course they would
go straight to water. Animals can smell it, can't they?'

'Can they?' He looked to her inquiringly when she stood at his side.
'It is amazing, nevertheless. Positively, my dear,' he added with a
touch of dignity.

The two horses, side by side, were drinking noisily from a small
depression into which the water oozed slowly. The girl watched them a
moment abstractedly, sighed and sat down in the sand, her hands in her
lap.