Mr. Henry Stephens
Mr. Hugo Gumprecht
When Gumprecht, Prat, and myself left early the next morning to make the ascent of the volcano Chillán we took as a guide a native named Savedra. The hotel servants lied to us, telling us that there was no water to be had en route and that we had better take along plenty of liquid refreshments. This is their old trick of trying to sell a lot of beer and whiskey. When Gumprecht told the head-waiter to put in two drinks of whiskey for himself, the knight of the apron put in twelve. I saw it and did not like the idea for I thought that Gumprecht really had ordered twelve shots of whiskey and was going to go on a drunk on top of the volcano, which could cause a mishap. As neither Prat nor myself drink whiskey and since I would not permit Savedra to drink any, I was horrified at Gumprecht, for the amount of spiritus frumenti exceeded a quart. I approached him and said:
"What in hell are you going to drink those twelve shots of whiskey for? I think it's a bad scheme."
"I only ordered two drinks," he replied.
"The waiter put in twelve."
"Impossible."
"It's the truth," I replied.