“But what has caused it?”
“Oh, cousin,” answered Cypriano, who now comprehends all. “Can’t you see? I do.”
“See what?”
“Why, that the dust has settled down over the plain; and the rain coming after, has converted it into mud.”
“Quite right, Señor Cypriano,” interposes Gaspar; “but that isn’t the worst of it.”
Both turn their eyes upon him, wondering what worse he can allude to. Cypriano interrogates:—
“Is it some new danger, Gaspar?”
“Not exactly a danger, but almost as bad; a likelihood of our being again delayed.”
“But how?”
“We’ll no longer have track or trace to guide us, if this abominable sludge extend to the river; as I daresay it does. There we’ll find the trail blind as an owl at noontide. As you see, the thing’s nearly an inch thick all over the ground. ’Twould smother up the wheel-ruts of a loaded carreta.”