"'Precisely at six Major Falcon came into my room, and looked at me in
silence. I threw myself into his arms, weeping bitterly, and he exclaimed,
caressing me:

"'"Yes, my dear fellow, weep, weep."'"

IV.

"My friend Telesforo," Gabriel went on, after having drained another glass
of wine, "also rested a moment when he reached this point, and then he
proceeded as follows:

"'If my story ended here, perhaps you would not find anything
extraordinary or supernatural in it. You would say to me the same thing
that men of good judgment said to me at that time: that every one who has
a lively imagination is subject to some impulse of fear or other; that
mine came from belated, solitary women, and that the old creature of
Jardines Street was only some homeless waif who was going to beg of me
when I screamed and ran.

"'For my part, I tried to believe that it was so. I even came to believe
it at the end of several months. Still, I would have given years of my
life to be sure that I was not again to encounter the tall woman. But,
to-day, I would give every drop of my blood to be able to meet her again.'

"'What for?'

"'To kill her on the spot.'