“But why have we not gone along the main road, and then taken that you speak of? We could have ridden on to the house?”
“No—not to the house. Thar’s a bit o’ it too—the last hundred yards or so—impossible for bosses.”
“Still it would have been better than to leave them here? I don’t like separating the men from their saddles—especially as we know nothing of the ground.”
“Thar’s another reezun for our not goin’ the other way,” pursued the guide, without replying to my remarks. “If I’d taken you by the road we might a made a mess o’ it.”
“How?”
“If they’re up at the big house there’ll be one o’ ’em on the watch down below—near the joinin’ o’ the roads. They allers keep a sentry there. He’d be sartin to a seen us—whereas, by comin’ this way, we may have a chance o’ stealin’ close to the shanty afore any o’ ’em sets eyes on us.”
“You propose that we dismount, then, and go forward afoot?”
“Thar’s no other way, cap’n.”
“How far is it to the house?”
“As to distance, nothin’; not over six hundred yards, I shed say. I’ve only been there once. It’s the steepness o’ the track that takes up the time.”