No; perish the dueno—the duena too! Let die the good doctor, if need be—all whom his vengeance has devoted!
“Sirrah! are those the two peaks you spoke of?”
It is Uraga who puts this interrogatory, pointing to a pair of twin summits seen rising above the horizon to eastward.
“Si Señor Coronel; they are the same.”
“And you say the path leads down between them?”
“Goes down through a gulch, after keeping round the cliff.”
“And there’s no other by which the valley may be entered?”
“Your excellency, I did not say that. There is another entrance, but not from the upper plain here. A stream runs through, and cuts it way out beyond. Following its channel through the cañon, the place can be reached from below; but not after it’s been raining. Then the flood fills its bed, and there’s no path along the edge. As it hasn’t rained lately, the banks will be above water.”
“And anyone could pass out below?”
“They could, Señor Coronel.”