“It is very possible; that does not occasion us any uneasiness.”
“Les chemins sont affreux.”
“N'importe; we have travelled in worse.”
“In some places they are dangerous, absolutely precipitous.”
“We shall walk; en effet, it is possible we may walk great part of the journey.”
That our muleteer could not understand at all: “la fatigue serait pénible;” and with true Corsican indolence, he protested against being included in that part of our plan.
“Then you can ride.”
So far all objections were dismissed. The banditti had not been mentioned among the lions in our path, but I imagined they were darkly shadowed forth in the guide's picture of horrors; so I put the question to him point blank.
“Are the roads safe in these districts? Are there no bad people (mauvais gens—cattive genti) abroad?”
His only reply was a shrug of the shoulders, the foreign substitute for a Burleigh shake of the head; leaving us to infer that we must not make too sure of coming off with a whole skin. Knowing well enough that all apprehensions of that kind were imaginary, we had been only amusing ourselves with him. If there had been any danger, he seemed just the fellow to be in league with the brigands.