"Very good; that is what we will do; you see that enormous branch jutting out about thirty feet above our heads?"
"I see it—what next?"
"I will seize its end with my lasso, and we will pull it down till it touches the ground; we will hold it so while daughter mounts and reaches the higher branches; you will pass next, then Sutter, and myself last; in that way we shall leave no sign of our ascent."
"Your idea is very ingenious, I approve of it highly, especially as that way of mounting will be easy for your daughter and myself, while Sutter will not have much trouble. Still one thing bothers me."
"Out with it."
"So long as anyone is here to hold the branch, of course it will remain bent; but when we are up and you remain alone, how will you follow us? That I do not understand, and I confess I should not be sorry to learn it."
Red Cedar burst into a laugh.
"That need not bother you, señor Padre; I am too much used to the desert not to calculate my slightest actions."
"As it is so, we will say no more it. What I said was through the interest I take in you."
The squatter looked him in the face.