“Oh, I’m against everything, Doctor,” she chuckled grimly. “At first, anyway. I have to be to keep Charmian from going to extremes. Did you think for one moment, back there at El Trono de Tolerancia, that I’d allow her to go on this wild-goose chase without me? Not in a thousand years! And last night, before we went to sleep, she told me something, with her head resting on my lean old shoulder, that would keep me going to the end of time if she asked it.” “And what was that?” asked Shonto. “Well, that queer country we just passed through seemed to work a sort of spell over her. Up until we struck the high altitudes this thing has been more or less of a lark with her. But up there, it seems, the queer things she saw made her mighty thoughtful. That was a weird, queer country, you’ll admit yourself. It gave me the creeps; but it fired Charmian with the realization that this is, after all, a big undertaking, and that there’s nothing foolish or childish about it. “Charmian always wanted to do something different--something outstanding. She hates a commonplace existence. She told me last night that at last she saw a way to realize her ambition. Other women have climbed the Alps, she said, explored the Andes, and nosed into all sorts of queer places. She said that she had the strength and the courage to do as much as any woman can. And she thought her trip to the Valley of Arcana would make a good beginning. It really amounted to a lot, she said, for a girl to be the first, so far as anybody knows, to enter that hidden valley. It would add something to the geographical knowledge of the state, and who knew what she might not discover? “I never before saw her so enthusiastic over anything. And now that she has come so far, I’d be the last one on earth to turn her back. So you must go on--you and Charmian and Andy and Marblehead. I can live here quite comfortably till you get back. I’m used to it--but I know now that I am too old to have considered coming along.” “Mary,” said the doctor--and his unhandsome face was aglow with appreciation--“I am proud to know you. Your devotion to that girl is wonderful. But I think your present sacrifice is too great. Charmian will never--” Mary Temple lifted a lean hand to stop him. “I won’t have it any other way,” she said. “To-morrow a couple of you men go back to the cache and pack in all that you can of the provisions we left there. That will give me an assurance of plenty, and you can start out, loaded to capacity again, from this point. I’ll be all right. Don’t worry about me. And what better plan have you to offer, anyway?” “We could all camp here until you are fit to travel back,” suggested Shonto, “and then--” “Absolute nonsense!” Mary objected. “What’s the use in wasting your opportunity that way? Don’t try to be frivolously chivalrous, Doctor. This is no time for useless sentiment. Winter is close at hand, and this is a hard, hard country. It’s time to look at the matter seriously.”