When he heard of our contemplated journey, he offered us mules, arms, and whatever else we required and he possessed, and any mention of payment on our part would, as Carmen said, and I could well see, have given our generous host dire offense.
We found, moreover, that we could easily engage as many men as we wanted, on condition of letting them be our co-adventurers and share in the finds which they were sure we should make; for nobody believed that we would undertake so long and arduous a journey with any other purpose than the seeking of treasure.

Our business being thus satisfactorily arranged, we might have started at once, but, for some reason or other--probably because he found our quarters so pleasant--Carmen held back.

Whenever I pressed the point he would say: "Why so much haste, my dear fellow?
Let us stay here awhile longer," and it was not until I threatened to go without him that he consented to "name the day." Now Don Esteban had a daughter, by name Juanita, a beautiful girl of seventeen, as fresh as a rose, and as graceful as a gazelle, a girl with whom any man might be excused for falling in love, and she showed me so much favor, and, as it seemed, took so much pleasure in my company, that only considerations of prudence and a sense of what was due to my host, and the laws of hospitality, prevented me from yielding myself a willing captive to her charms.

But as the time fixed for our departure drew near, this policy of renunciation grew increasingly difficult.

Juanita was too unsophisticated to hide her feelings, and I judged from her ways that, without in the least intending it, I had won her heart.