"How you happened so fortunately to come to my aid."
"Confound it! That is exactly what I was afraid of. Your question obliges me to enter into details far too long for me to be able to satisfy you at this moment."
"The truth is, my friend, that, in spite of the lively desire I feel to spend a few days with you, I am compelled to leave you at sunrise."
"Nonsense! It is not possible."
"It is, indeed."
"But what is your hurry?"
"I have engaged myself as scout with a caravan, which I have given the meeting at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon, at the Del Rubio ford. That appointment has been made for the last two months. You know that an engagement is sacred with us hunters, and you would not like to make me break my word!"
"Not for the hides of all the buffalos killed every year on the prairie. Towards what part of the Far West will you guide these men?"
"I shall know that tomorrow."
"And with what sort of people have you to do? Are they Spaniards, or Gringos?"