“You know now. Isn't that soon enough? Are you afraid of the place, because people make a mystery of it?” she demanded impatiently.
“No. It isn't that.” He looked across at the valley again, and asked abruptly: “Is this the only way in?”
“No. There is another, but this is the quickest.”
“Is the other as difficult as this?”
“In a way, yes. It is very much more round-about. It isn't known much by the public. Not many outsiders have business in the valley.”
She volunteered no explanation in detail, and the man beside her said, with a grim laugh:
“There isn't any general admission to the public this way, is there?”
“No. Oh, folks can come if they want to.”
He looked full in her face, and said significantly: “I thought the way to Lost Valley was a sort of a secret—one that those who know are not expected to tell.”
“Oh, that's just talk. Not many come in but our friends. We've had to be careful lately. But you can't call a secret what a thousand folks know.”