“I think you ought to send your friends back East—and go with them, until this guerrilla war is over.”
“Why, Stewart, they would be broken-hearted, and so would I.”
He had no reply for that.
“If I do not take your advice it will be the first time since I have come to look to you for so much,” she went on. “Cannot you suggest something else? My friends are having such a splendid visit. Helen is getting well. Oh, I should be sorry to see them go before they want to.”
“We might take them up into the mountains and camp out for a while,” he said, presently. “I know a wild place up among the crags. It’s a hard climb, but worth the work. I never saw a more beautiful spot. Fine water, and it will be cool. Pretty soon it’ll be too hot here for your party to go out-of-doors.”
“You mean to hide me away among the crags and clouds?” replied Madeline, with a laugh.
“Well, it’d amount to that. Your friends need not know. Perhaps in a few weeks this spell of trouble on the border will be over till fall.”
“You say it’s a hard climb up to this place?”
“It surely is. Your friends will get the real thing if they make that trip.”
“That suits me. Helen especially wants something to happen. And they are all crazy for excitement.”