I laughed, and motioned my
hand across my throat, pointing down the valley as though I was afraid
lest I should be killed when I got there. But they divined me at once,
and shook their heads with much decision, to show that I was in no
danger. Their manner quite reassured me; and in half an hour or so I had
packed up my swag, and was eager for the forward journey, feeling
wonderfully strengthened and refreshed by good food and sleep, while my
hope and curiosity were aroused to their very utmost by the extraordinary
position in which I found myself.
But already my excitement had begun to cool and I reflected that these
people might not be the ten tribes after all; in which case I could not
but regret that my hopes of making money, which had led me into so much
trouble and danger, were almost annihilated by the fact that the country
was full to overflowing, with a people who had probably already developed
its more available resources. Moreover, how was I to get back? For
there was something about my hosts which told me that they had got me,
and meant to keep me, in spite of all their goodness.
CHAPTER VII: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
We followed an Alpine path for some four miles, now hundreds of feet
above a brawling stream which descended from the glaciers, and now nearly
alongside it.
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