Behind our backs remained only one soldier, very brutish in appearance and apparently very hostile to us.

I had time to whisper to my companion only one word: "Mauser," and saw that he very carefully unbuttoned the saddle bag and drew out a little the handle of his pistol.
Soon I understood why these soldiers, excellent woodsmen as they were, would not attempt to go to the Seybi without a guide.

All the country between the Algiak and the Seybi is formed by high and narrow mountain ridges separated by deep swampy valleys.

It is a cursed and dangerous place.

At first our horses mired to the knees, lunging about and catching their feet in the roots of bushes in the quagmires, then falling and pinning us under their sides, breaking parts of their saddles and bridles.