The Captain looked at him.
"Will you answer my questions?"
"I do not know."
"What do you say?"
"Listen, Excellency," the guide said, with a simple look, "my mother, worthy woman that she was, always recommended me to distrust two sorts of people, borrowers and questioners, for she said, with considerable sense, the first attack your purse, the others your secrets."
"Then you have a secret?"
"Not the least in the world."
"Then what do you fear?"
"Not much, it is true. Well, question me, Excellency, and I will try to answer you."
The Mexican peasant, the Manzo or civilized Indian, has a good deal of the Norman peasant about him, in so far as it is impossible to obtain from him a positive answer to any question asked him. The Captain was compelled to be satisfied with the guide's half promise, so he went on:—