"I think, Bill, that we'll find the way a long one. My explanation is that, on starting for the bridge, they disencumbered themselves of the provision-supply (if they were not in camp) so that, of course, they could make the greater speed. That the angel had a companion back there, we know. We know, too, that that companion—in all likelihood, it was one of the girls—went for help."
"What on earth were they doing there, with the men off some place else?"
"I wish that I could tell you, Bill. And what was the angel doing up in the Tamahnowis Rocks? And all by her lovely lonesome? I wish that you would tell me that."
"I wish that I could. And that isn't the only thing that I wish I could tell you. What in the world are they doing here? And what at the Tamahnowis Rocks?"
"What, Bill, are we?"
"But women!" said I. "Our explorers don't take women along."
"Lewis and Clark took a woman along, Sacajaweah, and took her papoose to boot. And this isn't our world, remember. Things may be very different down here. Maybe, in this subterranean land, the lady is the boss."
"Where," I exclaimed, "isn't she the boss? You don't have to come down here to find a—a what do you call it?—a gynecocracy. Which reminds me of Saxe."
"What does Saxe say, sweet misogynist?"
"This, sweet gyneolater: