I50 A SURPRISING FACULTY 



pushed the door open could he convince his com- 

 panion that no road or light of star was needed to 

 find your way back; nothing, in fact, was wanting 

 but one's own sense. 



It was just that sense, I told him, that I was 

 without, and I knew that many others were in the 

 same condition, otherwise we would not hear of 

 people getting lost. That he possessed this sense 

 in such perfection seemed almost incredible. 



He replied that to him it seemed incredible that 

 any sane person complete in his senses should be 

 without it. He had to believe there were such men, 

 just as there were others blind or deaf or idiots from 

 birth. It made him laugh. For how could anyone, 

 no matter how far he might go in a strange district, 

 or how many turns he might take, fail to know just 

 where he was and the exact direction of the place 

 he wished to return to ? You could take him blind- 

 folded fifty leagues off into any place unknown to 

 him, and lead him now in this direction, now in that, 

 then take off the bandage in a dark night and set 

 him free, and he would not be lost. Naturally he 

 would know the right direction to take. How could 

 he help knowing it ? 



I was surprised at hearing all this, as up till then 

 I had looked on this young gaucho friend who did 

 not know a letter of the alphabet as a good-natured 

 half-fool. He was a big fellow, so dark, with such 

 thick lips and such broad nostrils, that one supposed 

 he had negro blood in him, and, negro-like, he was 

 much given to laughter. But he had coarse lank 



