“You will come back, I dare say, sir?” said Ritchie.
“If spared, yes. I may not spend another winter here though, for the simple reason that I will not have such pleasant company. I am fond of loneliness, still I shall ever look back to this winter as to some of the happiest months ever I spent in all my chequered career.”
“So shall we all,” I made bold to say.
“Hear, hear,” said Peter and Jill.
“You’ve been happy, Pedro?”
“Ah! señor, multo, multo.”
“Peter, your pipe.”
“Is that a command,” said Peter.
“Certainly. Am I not still your cacique?”
Peter got his pipe and commenced to play, and presently, after a gentle knock at the door, in came the giant Jeeka and his wife Nadi. They stood at some little distance till invited to draw nearer the fire. Then they squatted on a guanaco skin, Jeeka holding his wife’s hand in his lap, and both looking so pleased and happy.