Yussuf was silent for a few moments.
“I am sorry about them,” he said at last. “We cannot leave them behind, for it would mean their death; but if we fail in our escape, it will be through them. No, excellency, say no word till we are ready to start, and then say, ‘Come!’”
“You are right, Yussuf,” said Mr Burne. “That woman would chatter all over the place if she knew: say nothing, and we must make the best of them. But I say, isn’t it turning very cold?”
“Yes, excellency, we are high up in the mountains. There is no other place so high as this, and if we do not go soon the winter will be upon us.”
“Winter? not yet,” said the professor.
“Your excellency forgets it is winter in the mountains when it may be only autumn in the plains.”