This was followed by a silence, which Valentine at length broke.
"What a charming country!" he cried, with feigned enthusiasm, for the purpose of giving the conversation another direction, as he swallowed, with delectation, an enormous piece of bacon.
"Yes, but the roads are very bad."
"Who knows?" said Valentine, with a smile: "they say the roads to Paradise are of that kind; this may be the way thither." Then addressing the dog, "And you, Cæsar, what do you think of our journey, old boy?"
The dog wagged his tail, fixing his eyes, sparkling with intelligence, upon the speaker's face, whilst he eagerly devoured all that was given to him. But he stopped suddenly in his masticating operations, pricked up his ears, turned his head sharply round, and balked furiously.
"Silence, Cæsar!" said Valentine; "what do you bark in that manner for? You know right well we are in a desert, and that in a desert there is nobody but the devil!"
But Cæsar continued to bark without heeding his master.
"Hum!" said Louis, "I do not agree with you; I think that the deserts of America are thickly peopled."
"Well, perhaps you are right."
"The dog's barking is not usual; we ought to take precautions."