human
he cries out, his own brow becoming shadowed as the sky;
gpt
And what? asks Cypriano, seeing that the gaucho hesitates, as if reluctant to say why fortune has so suddenly forsaken them.
human
There's a cloud come over the sun; has that anything to do with it?
gpt
Everything, senorito. If that cloud don't pass off again, we're as good as lost. And, he adds, with eyes still turned to the east, his glance showing him to feel the gravest apprehension,
human
I am pretty sure it won't pass off--for the rest of this day at all events. _Mira_! It's moving along the horizon--still rising up and spreading out!
gpt
continues the gaucho in the same serious tone,
human
But how lost? inquires Ludwig, who, with his more limited experience of pampas life, is puzzled to understand what the gaucho means.
gpt
In what way?
human
Just because there's _no may_. That's the very thing we've lost, senorito. Look around! Now, can you tell east from west, or north from south? No, not a single point of the compass. If we only knew one, that would be enough. But we don't, and, therefore, as I've said, we're lost--dead, downright lost; and, for anything beyond this, we'll have to go a groping. At a crawl, too, like three blind cats.
gpt
Nothing of the sort! breaks in Cypriano, who, a little apart from the other two, has been for the last few seconds to all appearance holding communion with himself.
human
Nothing of the sort, he repeats riding towards them with a cheerful expression.
gpt
We'll neither need to go groping, Gaspar, nor yet at a crawl. Possibly, we may have to slacken the pace a bit; but that's all.