He spoke strangely, to be sure, but it was no more unintelligible than rural Outer Barony dialect, and Cuthbert took the gist of his meaning well enough even if not all the words were known to him. He had again nodded his agreement, sympathy for one who had been so tricked even if he ought to have known better. There were reasons Cuthbert had turned down that other fellow's offer to tell him where he might find a brothel in this place. Robbery was one. The fact that he'd rather his first time was with blue-eyed Sidony from New Canaan, or one like her, and not some American whore was another, though clearly that particular fact was one he'd be keeping most assuredly to himself.
Before he could speak up again, lightly chide the man for poor choices, he heard words from him that gave him pause. Mayhap he had been robbed by some whore, but not here. No, what Cuthbert Allgood had here was a brand-new walk-in, fresh from between worlds, one that even the authorities of this town hadn't reached yet. Had he ever been quite this clueless about his surroundings? He had, say true. He'd been terrible lost and starting asking direction to Mejis as if it were only a matter of wheels distant and not another world entirely. If Cuthbert, gunslinger-trained, could have been so fazed by it, he'd have to tread careful with this one.
What was he even to say? He stopped there on the walkway, standing to the side so that others might pass, and faced his companion. At least Cuthbert had had the dignity of being properly dressed when he heard the news, but there was naught he could do to remedy that now. 'I don't take it wrong,' he began, careful. 'I might say that your question's a perfect natural one and I shan't doubt your wits over it. You see, sai, you're not in...Navronne, did you say? You're not there at all any longer. You've gone todash, between worlds. I can't say how, that's for Gan to know and us to guess at, but I reckon that while she may well have robbed you, your whore had no hand in this. This is a land called America. Does it not seem strange to your eyes?' It was, to his mind, the best way to keep his words from being dismissed as nonsense. One could hardly dismiss the evidence before their eyes.