"Yes. Where shall we go?"
"That is for you to say," said Lewis, gravely, fearing a joke.
"Not at all," said the stranger. "To me it is a matter of complete indifference. Of all the spots on the face of the earth, this is the last; no game, no water, no scenery, no women, no food. And having seen the last spot on earth, direction no longer interests me. What would you like to see?"
Lewis felt himself inside a book of fairy-tales.
"I?" he said, smiling shyly. "I should like to see the sea again."
"Right you are!" said the stranger. "Tell the guide to start for the sea."
CHAPTER XI
The stranger was accompanied by two muleteers, a cook, a wash-boy, and the guide. Not one of these was a menial, for menials do not breed in open country. When the stranger shouted for one of them, they all gathered round him and stood at ease, smiling at his gestures, guessing genially at what he was trying to say, and in the end calmly doing things their own way.
When Lewis called the guide, they all came, as was their custom.
"Your master," said Lewis to the guide, "wishes to go to the sea. He bids you start for the sea."