3o6 THE LONELY DESERT 



being struck : to be prepared against all emergencies, 

 and above everything to take proper care of his 

 horses. It made him a man, a gaucho — proud of his 

 skill and strength. There was a savour in that life 

 which satisfied him above all others. 



Then followed the speech from the other side which 

 so impressed me, from a man I knew, named Bruno 

 Lopez. He was a middle-aged man, a gambler and 

 fighter and something of a ruffian; but in spite of his 

 faults there was that in him which made people like 

 him; when not in a quarrelsome mood he was very 

 genial, and took everyone into his heart. 



He said he knew what the life of the frontier and 

 the desert was, none better, since he had spent years 

 as a frontiersman, also on several occasions he had 

 been a fugitive from justice in the desert on account 

 of some accident or misfortune which had befallen 

 him. But he was never happy there. He was con- 

 tented enough when on horseback from morning to 

 night, or when doing something, also he could endure 

 cold and hunger and thirst and fatigue as well as any 

 man. But when his active day was finished, when he 

 was alone in the desert under the sky, or in a hovel 

 on the plains, and there was no one with him, no 

 friend, no woman or child, he felt the loneliness. 

 He felt it most when the sun went down, and a 

 shadow came over all the earth; when he looked to 

 this side and to that, and as far as he could see it 

 was all a waste of tall grasses where there was no 

 thatched roof, no smoke rising from any hearth; 

 and then at that moment, the sun going down, the 



