Our guide, in front of us, answers that it will end in the ponies finding their way certainly to the nearest village or the nearest house.
It is easy for the guide to let his bridle be--he is accustomed to place himself in that helpless position under stress of circumstances, and he knows exactly what his pony can do.
I begin to get fidgety and irritable; I find myself secretly doubting the trustworthiness of the guide. While I am in this unsettled frame of mind, my pony approaches a dim, black, winding line, where the bog must be crossed for the hundredth time at least.
Damon had objected to its being brought along, but the guide had said it would do for fish bait.
"See!" was the guide's remark, and something like a cold shiver of fear passed over the white members of the party.
"The alligator nearly had your hand," said the guide. "They can turn in the water like a flash, wherefore it is not wise to pat one on the tail lest it present its mouth instead."
At two o'clock the guide entered a thick forest which extended several miles; he preferred to travel under cover of the woods.
The guide unloosed the elephant and led him into a thicket, at the same time asking the travellers not to stir.
Sir Francis watched the procession with a sad countenance, and, turning to the guide, said, "A suttee."
Jones contented himself however with a negative punishment, and walked off with his new comrades, leaving the
guide to the poor revenge of cursing and reviling him; in which latter the landlord joined, saying, "Ay, ay, he is a pure one, I warrant you.
In the evening when they encamped, the old chief and his privy counsellor, the guide, had another mysterious colloquy, after which the guide mounted his horse and departed on some secret mission, while the chief resumed his seat at the fire, and sat humming to himself in a pleasing but mystic reverie.
Here they met the guide returning from his secret errand.
I am writing this chapter partly for the satisfaction of abusing that accomplished knave Billfinger, and partly to show whosoever shall read this how Americans fare at the hands of the Paris
guides and what sort of people Paris
guides are.
SOCRATES: And a person who had a right opinion about the way, but had never been and did not know, might be a good guide also, might he not?
SOCRATES: And while he has true opinion about that which the other knows, he will be just as good a guide if he thinks the truth, as he who knows the truth?
