I told him you were there, he asked me to keep watch over you.… He went on immediately afterwards."
"Do I need somebody to keep watch over me, then? Am I in any danger?"
"The ordinary dangers of a journey like this. A mule may miss its footing, or a saddle may slip off. In either case, it spells death. That is what Huascar meant, and that is why I myself chose your mule and girthed it up this morning."
"You are too kind," said Maria-Teresa drily.
At this moment, Uncle Francis drew level with them. He had recovered his equanimity with the wider path, and spoke casually of mountain dangers.
"All the same," he added, "I wonder how Pizarro managed to bring his little army through here."
Maria-Teresa threw him a look which, had he seen it, would have toppled the clumsy scientist into a ravine, mule and all. But he remained serenely unconscious.
"It is extraordinary," acquiesced Oviedo. "I have made rather a study of it. At some points, the road was so steep that the horsemen had to dismount and almost drag their chargers after them. A single false step would have hurled them thousands of feet below. The defiles were then just practicable for the half-
