"That is our road."
"What, our road, my friend!" Don Miguel objected; "but how shall we reach the platform to which you allude?"
"In the easiest way: I will let you down with my lasso."
"That is true; it is easy for us, but how will you join us?"
"That need not trouble you."
"Very good," Don Miguel remarked; "but now permit me to make a remark."
"Do so."
"Before us," the hacendero said, stretching out his hand, "is a readily traced road, most convenient to follow, I fancy."
"In truth," Valentine coldly answered, "what you say is most correct; but two reasons prohibit my taking that road, as you call it."
"And those two reasons are?"