“Two, I should say, boy,” said the colonel, for Perry had involuntarily spoken aloud. “Don’t take any notice of the depth; you’ll soon get used to it. Look at the mules, how they keep to the very edge.”
“Yes, it’s horrible, father. The guides ought to train them to keep close to the wall.”
“The mules know best, boy. They are used to carry loads which spread out on either side, and they avoid the wall because it is as dangerous. They might catch their burden against it, and be jerked off.”
“I don’t think I shall ever get used to such paths as this.”
The colonel laughed.
“Not in half a day,” he said. “In a short space of time you will run along them as fearlessly as if you were on an English road.”
“But are there many like this?”
“Pooh, this is nothing, Perry. You are going up into a land of wonders, where everything is so vast and grand that you will have no time to feel nervous.”
“But what are we going for?” asked Perry.
The colonel turned and looked his son full in the eye. Then, smiling: