He went on with a list of reasons as long as my arm. There is nothing like a friend to lay it on with regard to your good qualities, when he is in the mood.
"Hold! hold!" I broke in on him. "Save that to tell to Señorita Vallois. I'd rather you'd inform me as to how soon I'm to reach Santa Fe."
"That's the question," he replied. "We've first to round the headwaters of this stream, then those of the Red River. Afterwards it is not unlikely we can manage so to lose ourselves as to contrive to wander into the midst of the Spanish settlements."
I stared glumly at the snowy peaks towering upon the western horizon. "That may be months hence. We cannot travel fast among the mountains. Why not strike first for Santa Fe?"
"The Spanish settlements must all lie to the southward of yonder grand peak. Santa Fe is rumored to have a mild climate; hence it must lie to the south of our present position," he argued. "Therefore we must first explore the sources of the Arkansas. When we go south among the Spaniards, there is no telling what they will do with us, but it is fair to presume that they will at least do their best to check our explorations."
"Very true," I assented. "Suppose, then, that I part company from you here, and strike out to cross my barrier alone?"
"No!" he exclaimed.
"Why not?"
"You surely would perish. I could not spare you a horse. We shall need all for the packs before the week is out. Without a horse, and alone, you surely would perish, either in this bleak desert or among those mountain wilds."
"Yet I am willing to chance it. I hoped to have crossed the barrier—to have reached her side—before now."