It was New Year's eve.
All the day had endured that sombre sky which is so often the sky of the Basque country—and which harmonizes well with the harsh mountains, with the roar of the sea, wicked, in the depths of the Bay of Biscay.
In the twilight1 of this last day of the year, at the hour when the fires retain the men around the hearths2 scattered3 in the country, at the hour when home is desirable and delicious, Ramuntcho and his mother were preparing to sit at the supper table, when there was a discreet4 knock at the door.
The man who was coming to them from the night of the exterior5, at the first aspect seemed unknown to them; only when he told his name (Jose Bidegarray, of Hasparitz) they recalled the sailor who had gone several years ago to America.
“Here,” he said, after accepting a chair, “here is the message which I have been asked to bring to you. Once, at Rosario in Uruguay, as I was talking on the docks with several other Basque immigrants there, a man, who might have been fifty years old, having heard me speak of Etchezar, came to me.
“'Do you come from Etchezar?' he asked.
“'No,' I replied, 'but I come from Hasparitz, which is not far from Etchezar.'
“Then he put questions to me about all your family. I said:
“'The old people are dead, the elder brother was killed in smuggling6, the second has disappeared in America; there remain only Franchita and her son, Ramuntcho, a handsome young fellow who must be about eighteen years old today.'
“He was thinking deeply while he was listening to me.
“'Well,' he said at last, 'since you are going back there, you will say good-day to them for Ignacio.'
“And after offering a drink to me he went away—”
Franchita had risen, trembling and paler than ever. Ignacio, the most adventurous7 in the family, her brother who had disappeared for ten years without sending any news—!
How was he? What face? Dressed how?—Did he seem happy, at least, or was he poorly dressed?
“Oh!” replied the sailor, “he looked well, in spite of his gray hair; as for his costume, he appeared to be a man of means, with a b............