So, expostulations were useless, the final preparations and
farewells were made, a last communication held with Our Hostess at
Cristobal, before our passing into the wilds, and the Tacuru coaches
with their freight of precious humans, and still more precious food and
drink, started off from their pleasant rest at Lucero. Someone was heard
to murmur as the coaches drove off--
"Then hey! for boot and horse, lad,
And round the world away;
The Instigator _must_ have his tour, lad,
And _never_ will give way!"
But this puerile parody met with the indifference it deserved, and,
accompanied by the Section Manager, we commenced our journey, travelling
for some hours over the land which is in his charge. "Monte," too,
seemed to consider that his presence as a guide and friend would be
necessary to the party, and came along with us; he is a "wild" dog of
the deerhound type, who was taken as a tiny puppy from a litter found in
a wood near Los Moyes, and has ever since been devoted to his captors.
There is a calm air of disinterested abstraction about "Monte" which is
very satisfying, and he is undoubtedly a philosopher. One of the two
Indian guides we picked up during the day's journey also had a dog, but
it was of a very different appearance and character to "Monte.
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