"I am delighted, madam," said the colonel, bowing low; "your society will in some degree atone for the hardships of our journey."
Neither of us thought she would really carry out her threat; but early next morning she appeared mounted on one of her own mules, and attached herself to me.
"Madam," said I gravely, trying to imitate the colonel, "this is a great pleasure for us; but even at the risk of losing your valued company, I must once more point out to you the real nature of this journey. We shall be half starved, besides suffering torments from thirst; we shall be worn out by forced marches, and some of us, no doubt, will fall victims to the Spanish bullets."
"I won't leave my mules," was her only reply.
"But why not sell them to the colonel? he will give you a fair price."
"And what about my profit?" she cried. "Do you know why I came to Pisco?—to buy brandy at eight dollars a jar, which just now I could sell in Lima at eighty! What do you think of that, young man? Why, I should have cleared a handsome fortune by this trip!"
"It is very sad, madam; but soldiers, you know—"
"Soldiers? Bah! Look at them riding on my mules! My mules, mark you! And to think that each of the honest beasts might be carrying four jars of brandy at eight dollars a jar! It's a wicked waste of mule-flesh! Eight from eighty leaves seventy-two; take twelve for expenses, there's still sixty, and four sixties are two hundred and forty—all clear profit from! A dozen of your vagabonds would be dear at the price! Look at that rascally fellow cutting my mule with a whip! I will most certainly have your colonel shot!"
"I think not, madam; you have too tender a heart."
"Yes," said she complacently, "that is the truth. I am not stern enough. But fancy"—and here she went all over her calculations again, winding up with the assertion that we were a set of common thieves and rogues.