"Before us," growled Marty.
Janice smiled faintly without otherwise acknowledging the correction.
"Say! what have you done toward learning how to get across that river and up there to San Cristoval?" the boy suddenly asked.
"Why—that is too far ahead. I shall have to be guided by circumstances."
"Ye-as! That's what the feller said when they were goin' to hang him. But I've been lookin' ahead and I've been askin' questions."
"Of whom, Marty?" his cousin cried.
"Folks. I got acquainted with a good many back there in the smoker."
"I thought you intimated it was dangerous to make such acquaintances?" suggested Janice.
"'Tis—for girls," announced her cousin stoutly.
"And why not for boys, I'd like to know?"