"So you do. Well, señorita, this guide promises to save us three days' march and to take us in one day into a region almost temperate."
"A very good thing for you! But you will again allow my remark that it does not concern me."
"But you have a vast interest in it! You shall see for yourself too. It was the guide himself who suggested my coming to you."
"This is getting extremely interesting at last!"
"Yes, while we were on the move this morning."
"More and more interesting," she said seriously, whilst Miss Maclan leaned forward eagerly.
"The guide said to me, then," went on the captain, smiling, "'I can, if you like, avoid the long way round and drop you in four-and-twenty hours into mild weather; but I must not hide from you that it is by a breakneck road, so dangerous that the bravest men never go through without an attack of ague. There's only two ways of doing it, on foot or on horseback. Your band is lumbered up with women and children. Reflect how you are going to get them along.' My answer to this was, 'There's no need to fret about the women and girls, as they are frontier bred and know how to rough it. There is only one person whose safety is important to me, and I do not care to endanger her in a risky path. That person is the Spanish doña.' 'If she is enough of a rider to stick to a horse, I warrant we'll get her through,' said he to that. 'Can't you ask her anyway? Then we shall know whether we are in a fix or not.' So I said I would see about it; and here I am, señorita, come to disturb you."
"If one is to go by your story, it was more you than the guide that led to your coming."
"To tell the truth, my head is confused, and I do not carry a clear memory of the exact phrases employed. But this does not matter much one way or the other. The main point is to know, señorita, if you can ride well enough to stay in the saddle in a bad bridle path."
"Either I am very dull, or you have left out part of your argument, señor, though of importance."