“We’re in luck,” said Mr. Triggs as we marched along; “don’t you think so, Mr. Darcy?”
“Oh, it’s splendid fun!” I cried enthusiastically; “I’m simply dying to come to close quarters with these freebooters and seize the loot they’ve stowed away in the caves. Can’t we double, Mr. Triggs? We’d get there so much sooner, and I’m sure the men are just as ready to run all the way as I am!”
“If I wasn’t on the shady side of fifty, perhaps I should too,” responded the gunner with a laugh.
“What nonsense, Mr. Triggs! Why, you’ve got the reputation of being one of the strongest men on board the Rattler!”
“Oh, come, come; draw it mild!” exclaimed the gunner deprecatingly, but nevertheless looking very pleased with the compliment. “And then you mustn’t forget, Mr. Darcy, that our orders are to reconnoitre.”
“And to attack if necessary,” I added triumphantly. “Why, you can’t suppose, Mr. Triggs, that these rascally fellows won’t get wind of what we’re up to; that they won’t see us; that they won’t defend their ill-gotten booty with desperate bravery; that they won’t——”
“Stop, stop, for heaven’s sake!” cried the gunner; “how you young gentlemen let your imaginations run away with you! You remind me of mill-wheels in a spate; they are kept spinning round at such a rate as to risk putting the machinery out of gear.”
“Not a bad simile, Mr. Triggs. Bad luck to those who put a spoke in, say I! They’re the fellows who put the machinery out of gear.”
The ground began to fall away more steeply, and rocks cropped up more abundantly. The trees seemed more stunted, and as if huddled together for shelter, and underwood began to make its appearance, growing quite thickly in some places. We appeared to be approaching the side of a steep valley, from the distant depths of which I seemed to hear the subdued thunder of a cascade. A pair of eagles soared above our heads; and far away, peering here and there from amid the clouds, the purple-tinted mountains of the interior were discernible.
Our conversation had ceased, for our eyes and ears had to be on the alert.