We found it impossible to procure a complete outfit in the mining
town, and were forced to despatch a messenger to Lima. He
returned in two days with mules, saddles, saddle-bags, boots,
leather leggings, knickerbockers, woolen ponchos, and scores of
other articles which he assured us were absolutely necessary for
any degree of comfort. By the time we were ready to start we had
a good-sized pack-train on our hands.
The proprietor of the hotel found us an arriero, whom he declared
to be the most competent and trustworthy guide in all the
Andes--a long, loose-jointed fellow with an air of complete
indifference habitually resting on his yellow, rather
sinister-looking face. Le Mire did not like him, but I certainly
preferred the hotel proprietor's experience and knowledge to her
volatile fancy, and engaged the arriero on the spot.
Our outfit was complete, and everything in readiness, when Harry
suddenly announced that he had decided not to go, nor to allow Le
Mire to do so.
"I don't like it," he said in troubled tones. "I tell you, Paul,
I don't like it. I've been talking to some of the miners and
arrieros, and the thing is foolhardy and dangerous.
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