"We are ready now, señor."
"Here is my fowling-piece. It is already loaded with buck-shot. Bertie has taken down his rifle and gun, and will give you the latter as you pass. I suppose José will take no weapons?"
"Only a long knife, señor, that may be useful if he comes upon one of them suddenly."
At the barricade José stripped, retaining only a pair of sandals. These were as noiseless as his bare feet, and would be needed, as in the dark he might tread upon a thorny creeper, or strike against a projecting rock.
"Good-bye, José!" Harry said. "Now, be careful. It would be a great grief to us if anything happened to you."
"I will be careful, señor. The Indians won't catch me, never fear."
Harry and Bertie both shook hands with him, and then he and Dias stepped into the water, and, keeping close along by the wall of rock, started on their perilous expedition.
"I don't like it, Bert," Harry said as they lost sight of them. "It seems a cowardly thing to let that lad go into danger while we are doing nothing."
"That is just what I feel, Harry. I would have volunteered willingly, but he will do it a great deal better than either you or I could."
"There is no doubt about that," Harry agreed. "Of course when he is out with the mules he often travels at night, and certainly both he and Dias can see in the dark a good deal better than we can."