No vehicle could cross. The journey
might be tried on mules, or it might be tried on foot; but the best
guides must be paid danger-price in either case, and that, too, whether
they succeeded in taking the two travellers across, or turned for safety
and brought them back.
In this discussion, Obenreizer bore no part whatever. He sat silently
smoking by the fire until the room was cleared and Vendale referred to
him.
"Bah! I am weary of these poor devils and their trade," he said, in
reply. "Always the same story. It is the story of their trade to-day,
as it was the story of their trade when I was a ragged boy. What do you
and I want? We want a knapsack each, and a mountain-staff each. We want
no guide; we should guide him; he would not guide us. We leave our
portmanteaus here, and we cross together. We have been on the mountains
together before now, and I am mountain-born, and I know this
Pass--Pass!--rather High Road!--by heart. We will leave these poor
devils, in pity, to trade with others; but they must not delay us to make
a pretence of earning money. Which is all they mean."
Vendale, glad to be quit of the dispute, and to cut the knot: active,
adventurous, bent on getting forward, and therefore very susceptible to
the last hint: readily assented. Within two hours, they had purchased
what they wanted for the expedition, had packed their knapsacks, and lay
down to sleep.
At break of day, they found half the town collected in the narrow street
to see them depart.
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