"Very well; it is a substantial house."
"Good! Then tomorrow we will cash it. After selling the herd, I left San José with my two friends, not knowing, I confess, how to procure the money I had promised you, and of which you had such pressing need."
"A need I still have," Louis observed.
"Agreed," Valentine continued; "after galloping about for a long time, without knowing exactly where we were going, I resolved to ask my companions' advice. Of course Don Cornelio could suggest nothing. He contented himself with strumming a melancholy air on his guitar: you know that is his resource in embarrassing circumstances. You have known Curumilla as long as I have: the worthy chief only speaks when he is compelled; but when he opens his mouth, he speaks gold, and this time it really occurred."
While saying this, Valentine could not refrain from smiling. Louis turned to the chief, to whom he offered his hand, which the other pressed with a grimace of pleasure. The hunter continued,—
"From the descriptions you had given me, I knew pretty nearly the position of the mine of which you had become proprietor. Curumilla offered to take us there. 'We shall be very unlucky,' he said, 'we who know the desert so well, if we do not succeed in foiling the Indians and reaching the mine. Once there, we will take as much native gold as we want to satisfy our friend's wants.' As the advice was good, I resolved to follow it."
"What!" Louis shouted, rising hurriedly, "you did that, brother?"
"Of course I did."
"But you ran a risk of assassination at every step."
"I knew it; but I knew also that you must have a large sum."