It was bright day when our travellers awoke, but only a dim light
penetrated into their dungeon-like dormitory, for, besides being very
small, the three windows, or loop-holes, had been so filled up with snow
as to shut out much of the light that would naturally have entered.
That the gale still raged outside was evident enough to the sense of
hearing, and sometimes the gusts were so sudden and strong that the
little building trembled, stout though it was. Indeed, Lawrence at
first thought they must be experiencing the shocks of an earthquake, a
mistake not unnatural in one who, besides having had but little
experience in regard to such catastrophes, knew well that he was at the
time almost in the centre of a region celebrated for earthquakes.
It was with mingled feelings of interest, anxiety, and solemnity that he
surveyed the scene outside through a hole in the door. It seemed as if
an Arctic winter had suddenly descended on them. Snow completely
covered hill and gorge as far as the vision could range but they could
not see far, for at every fresh burst of the furious wind the restless
wreaths were gathered up and whirled madly to the sky, or swept wildly
down the valleys, or dashed with fury against black precipices and
beetling cliffs, to which they would sometimes cling for a few seconds,
then, falling away, would be caught up again by the tormenting gale, and
driven along in some new direction with intensified violence.
"No prospect of quitting the hut to-day," observed Lawrence, turning
away from the bewildering scene.
"None," said Pedro, stretching himself, and rising sleepily on one
elbow, as men are wont to do when unwilling to get up.
"Nebber mind, massa; lots o' grub!" cried Quashy, awaking at that
moment, leaping up like an acrobat, and instantly setting about the
kindling of the fire.
Having, as Quashy truly said, lots of grub, possessing a superabundance
of animal vigour, and being gifted with untried as well as unknown
depths of intellectual power, also with inexhaustible stores of youthful
hope, our travellers had no difficulty in passing that day in
considerable enjoyment, despite adverse circumstances; but when they
awoke on the second morning and found the gale still howling, and the
snow still madly whirling, all except Pedro began to express in word and
countenance feelings of despondency. Manuela did not speak much, it is
true, but she naturally looked somewhat anxious. Lawrence began to
recall the fate of previous travellers in that very hut, and his
countenance became unusually grave, whereupon Quashy--whose nature it
was to conform to the lead of those whom he loved, and, in conforming,
outrageously to overdo his part--looked in his young master's face and
assumed such an aspect of woeful depression that his visage became
distinctly oval, though naturally round.
Observing this, Lawrence could not restrain a short laugh, whereupon,
true as the compass to the Pole, the facile Quashy went right round; his
chin came up, his cheeks went out, his eyes opened with hopeful sheen,
and his thick lips expanded into a placid grin.
"There is no cause for alarm," observed Pedro, who had risen to assist
in preparing breakfast. "No doubt it is the worst storm I ever met
with, or even heard of, at this season of the year, but it cannot last
much longer; and whatever happens, it can't run into winter just now."
As if to justify the guide's words, the hurricane began to diminish in
violence, and the pauses between blasts were more frequent and
prolonged. When breakfast was over, appearances became much more
hopeful, and before noon the storm had ceased to rage.
Taking advantage of the change, without delay they loaded the
pack-mules, saddled, mounted, and set forth.
To many travellers it would have been death to have ventured out on such
a trackless waste, but Pedro knew the road and the landmarks so
thoroughly that he advanced with his wonted confidence. At first the
snow was very deep, and, despite their utmost care, they once or twice
strayed from the road, and were not far from destruction. As they
descended, however, the intense cold abated; and when they came out upon
occasional table-lands, they found that the snow-fall there had been
much less than in the higher regions, also that it had drifted off the
road so much that travelling became more easy.
That night they came to a second hut-of-refuge, and next day had
descended into a distinctly warmer region on the eastern slopes of the
great range, over which they travelled from day to day with ever
increasing comfort. Sometimes they put up at outlying mountain farms,
and were always hospitably received; sometimes at small hamlets or
villages, where they could exchange or purchase mules, and, not
unfrequently, they encamped on the wild mountain slopes, with the green
trees or an overhanging cliff, or the open sky to curtain them, and the
voices of the puma and the jaguar for their lullaby.
Strange to say, in crossing the higher parts of the Andes not one of the
party suffered from the rarity of the air. Many travellers experience
sickness, giddiness, and extreme exhaustion from this cause in those
regions. Some have even died of the effects experienced at the greater
heights, yet neither Manuela, nor Lawrence, nor Quashy was affected in
the slightest degree. We can assign no reason for their exemption--can
only state the fact. As for the guide, he was in this matter--as,
indeed, he seemed to be in everything--invulnerable.
One afternoon, as they rode along a mountain track enjoying the
sunshine, which at that hour was not too warm, Lawrence pushed up
alongside of the guide.
"It seems to me," he said, "that we are wandering wonderfully far out of
our way just now. We have been going due north for several days; at
least so my pocket compass tells me, and if my geography is not greatly
at fault, our backs instead of our faces are turned at present towards
Buenos Ayres. I do not wish to pry into your secrets, Senhor Pedro, but
if it is not presuming too much I should like to know when we shall
begin to move in the direction of our journey's end."
"There is neither presumption nor impropriety in your wish," returned
the guide. "I told you at starting that we should pursue a devious
route, for reasons which are immaterial to you, but there is no reason
why I should not explain that at present I am diverging for only a few
miles from our track to visit a locality--a cottage--which is sacred to
me. After that we will turn eastward until we reach the head-waters of
streams that will conduct us towards our journey's end."
With this explanation he was obliged to rest content, for Pedro spoke
like one who did not care to be questioned. Indeed there was an
unusually absent air about him, seeing which Lawrence drew rein and fell
back until he found himself alongside of Quashy.
Always ready--nay, eager--for sympathetic discourse, the negro received
his young master with a bland, expansive, we might almost say effusive,
smile.
"Well, massa, how's you gittin' along now?"
"Pretty well, Quashy. How do you?"
"Oh! fuss-rate, massa--only consid'rable obercome wid surprise."
"What surprises you?"
"De way we's agwine, to be sure. Look dar." He pointed towards the
towering mountain peaks and wild precipices that closed in the narrow
glen or gorge up which they were slowly proceeding.
"In all our trabels we's nebber come to a place like dat. It looks like
de fag end ob creation. You couldn't git ober de mountain-tops 'cept
you had wings, an' you couldn't climb ober de pres'pisses 'cep you was a
monkey or a skirl--though it _am_ bery lubly, no doubt."
The negro's comments were strictly correct, though somewhat uncouthly
expressed. The valley was apparently surrounded in all directions by
inaccessible precipices, and the white peaks of the Andes towered into
the skies at its head. Within rugged setting lay a fine stretch of
undulating land, diversified by crag and hillock, lake and rivulet, with
clustering shrubs and trees clinging to the cliffs, and clothing the
mountain slopes in rich, and, in many places, soft luxuriance. It was
one of those scenes of grandeur and loveliness in profound solitude
which tend to raise in the thoughtful mind the perplexing but not
irreverent question, "Why did the good and bountiful Creator form such
places of surpassing beauty to remain for thousands of years almost, if
not quite, unknown to man?"
For, as far as could be seen, no human habitation graced the
mountain-sides, no sign of cultivation appeared in the valley, though
myriads of the lower animals sported on and in the waters, among the
trees and on the ground.
Perchance man over-estimates his own importance--at least underrates
that of the animal kingdom below him--and is too apt to deem everything
in nature wasted that cannot be directly or indirectly connected with
himself! Is all that glows in beauty in the wilderness doomed to "blush
unseen"? Is all the sweetness expended on the desert air "wasted?"
As the guide rode slowly forward, he glanced from side to side with
thoughtful yet mournful looks, as if his mind were engaged in meditating
on some such insoluble problems. As he neared the head of the valley,
however, he seemed to awake from a trance, suddenly put spurs to his
mule, and went off at a canter. The rest of the party followed at some
distance behind, but at so slow a pace, compared with that of the guide,
that the latter was soon lost to sight among the trees.
Somewhat surprised at his unusual state of mind Lawrence pushed on and
soon reached an open glade which showed some signs of having been
cultivated. At the end of it stood a pretty little cottage, in front of
which Pedro was standing motionless, with clasped hands and drooping
head.
Lawrence hesitated to disturb him, but as Quashy had no such
hesitations, and rode smartly forward, his companions followed.