Yes; free--in a sense; yet not wholly so; for they were still within the
boundaries of the Holy Inquisition, although outside the building. To
have done so much as they had, however; to have evaded capture for the
best part of a day, and finally to have won outside the walls,
undetected, was no mean achievement; and they felt that, having
accomplished so much, the rest ought to be an easy matter.
Standing within the deep shadow of the doorway for a minute or two after
they had silently closed the door behind them, the pair searched with
their gaze as much of the garden as came within the range of their
vision, and nowhere could they detect any sign of human presence within
it; indeed they scarcely expected to do so, for it was now altogether
too dark for anything in the nature of gardening operations; moreover,
they surmised that it was about the hour when everybody connected with
the establishment would be at supper. Therefore, feeling that the
moment was propitious, they left the shelter of the doorway, and,
keeping as closely within the shadow of the building as they could,
moved off toward the shrubbery, into the dense obscurity of which they
plunged a minute or two later. Here, as they wound their way cautiously
among the bushes, they suddenly found themselves close to a long low
block of buildings which, being entirely in darkness, they surmised must
be sheds devoted to the storage of the gardeners' tools, implements, and
paraphernalia generally, and they at once halted and subjected the
buildings to careful examination; for, their weapons having been taken
away from them by the soldiers who had seized them, weapons of some sort
were now a first necessity with them, and they hoped that the sheds
might at least afford them a knife apiece, if nothing better.
Investigation, however, resulted in the discovery that the sheds were
locked; but this difficulty was soon overcome by the simple process of
breaking a pane of glass, inserting a hand, unfastening the hasp, and
entering through the open window, when their enterprise was eventually
rewarded by the discovery of several formidable pruning knives, two of
which, together with a couple of short, stout iron bars, and a length of
thin, strong rope, they unhesitatingly appropriated.
The two adventurers now felt that, whatever might befall them, they were
no longer altogether defenceless, and leaving the sheds behind them,
they again plunged into the shrubbery, their object now being to
discover a way of escape from the garden into the streets of the city.
The first obstacle which they encountered was a stone wall about fifteen
feet high, surmounted by _chevaux de frise_; and deciding that this was
rather too formidable to be tackled until they had made a further
search, they followed the wall for some distance, and eventually arrived
at a stout wicket gate built of wood. Of course, it was locked; but
upon examination they soon came to the conclusion that, with the help of
their pruning knives and bars, it would not be a difficult matter to
burst the lock open. Unfortunately, however, this could not be done
without making a considerable amount of noise, and they had already
ascertained, while examining the lock, that a good many people were
still abroad in the city, for they heard footsteps frequently passing on
the other side of the wicket; they therefore decided to seek further
before attempting to force a way out, their decision being influenced by
the fact that it was evidently still early in the evening, or there
would not be so many people moving about, and that consequently it might
be wise to delay their final escape until the bulk of the population had
retired to rest. Soon afterward, however, while pursuing their
investigations, they reached a spot where the wall ended and where the
grounds were enclosed for some distance by a lofty iron railing which,
despite the fact that it was formidably spiked at the top, they thought
might be easily scaled by two men who were accustomed, as they were, to
climbing the masts and rigging of a ship. But on the other side of the
railing was a wide, open street, along which people were constantly
passing to and fro; the adventurers therefore retired to the shelter and
concealment of the shrubbery, having come to the resolution not to run
any unnecessary risk by undue precipitancy, since they had managed so
excellently thus far.
At length, however, the sounds of traffic in the streets began to
diminish sensibly, and finally they died away altogether; the good
people of Cuzco seemed to have gone home to bed at last; so, throwing
off his disguise for the moment, Dick essayed to climb the high railing
which was now the only barrier between them and liberty. The task was
not at all difficult, except when it came to his clambering over the
complicated arrangement of spikes at the top; but a steady head and a
little patience were all that were needed; and in about two minutes
young Chichester was standing on the pavement outside, once more in his
clerical disguise, receiving the few articles that Phil passed through
the railings to him before the latter in his turn climbed over the
obstacle. As it chanced, they only just accomplished the feat in time,
for as Stukely reached the pavement on the right side of the railing,
footsteps were heard approaching, and Phil scarcely had time to don his
priest's habit, draw the hood well over his head, and conceal his bar
and pruning knife in the ample folds of the garment when a belated
frequenter of one of the numerous posadas of the city staggered past,
humming in maudlin tones the refrain of a bacchanalian song which he cut
short when he realised that the two dark figures which he jostled were,
as he supposed, connected with the dread institution which lay back
there frowning in the distance.
As soon as this roysterer was fairly out of the way the adventurers
looked about them to get their bearings. Their purpose was to leave the
city by the same way that they had come into it, and then strike
eastward until they again came to the river, which, in accordance with
Vilcamapata's instructions, they were to follow to its source.
Recalling the several twists and turns which they had taken through the
building after their encounter with the jailer that morning, they
finally decided that they must follow the footsteps of the drunken man
until they reached the first street bearing to the right, which would be
the street by which they had been conducted to the Inquisition that
morning; once arrived in which they were convinced that they could find
their way over the remainder of the route. Accordingly they started
briskly off, and in the course of a few minutes reached the street which
they sought, and which they presently verified as the right one by
passing the great entrance gateway by which they had been admitted to
the Inquisition building that morning. That morning! It seemed much
more like a week ago! Still walking briskly, yet without exhibiting
undue haste, and meeting only an occasional wayfarer here and there who
took no notice of them except to stand respectfully aside and yield the
narrow pavement to them as they passed, the two Englishmen wound hither
and thither along the streets, occasionally identifying some building
that they remembered to have passed before, until, in a little, narrow
street, Phil suddenly halted before a small building which bore across
its narrow front a sign reading, in Spanish, of course--"Mateo
Cervantes. Armourer. Plate and chain mail. Blades of the finest,
imported direct from Toledo in Old Spain; musquets; pistolettes; and
ammunition for the same."
"Ah!" ejaculated Phil, with a sigh of satisfaction; "here we are at
last. This is the place that I have been looking for. I was beginning
to fear that I had missed it."
"And what a plague want ye with it, now that you have found it?"
demanded Dick, peevishly; for he was beginning to feel sleepy, and knew
that many a weary mile must yet be walked before he could hope to get
any rest.
"What want I with it?" reiterated Phil. "My gentle mutton-head, read
the sign over the shop; there is light enough for that, surely, though
it is but starlight."
Dick read the sign, and his eyes brightened. "Ah!" he said, "of course;
I begin to understand. I have been wondering, all along, what we should
do without weapons, if we chanced to make good our escape. These bars
and pruning knives are well enough in their way, and are better than
nothing at all, of course; but they won't help us to get game--"
"Precisely," interrupted Phil. "Therefore, since the Spaniards have
seen fit to deprive us of our weapons, I propose to make a Spaniard
provide us with others. Now, I am going to knock up our friend
Cervantes, and persuade him to supply our needs, so far as the resources
of his establishment will allow. And, to make sure that, after we have
obtained what we require, the senor shall not prematurely give the alarm
and set the soldiers upon our track, we must seize and bind him, or
whoever comes to the door. So be ready to pounce as soon as the door is
opened." And therewith Phil proceeded to hammer loudly upon Senor
Cervantes' door.
Five or six times did he hammer upon the door with his iron bar, gently
at first, but with steadily increasing vehemence, before any notice was
taken of his summons. At length, however, a thin pencil of light
appeared through the shutters of a window over the door, the drawing of
bolts became audible, and just as Phil began to hammer afresh the window
was thrown open, a figure appeared, and a gruff voice demanded,
querulously--
"Hallo, there! who knocks at this untimely hour? Away with you, whoever
you are, and leave me in peace, or I will sound my rattle and summon the
watch!"
"The watch!" exclaimed Phil, under his breath, "phew! I never thought
of that. If we should chance to encounter the watch we may yet have
trouble." A sudden inspiration came to him, and, stepping back into the
middle of the road, where his hooded figure might be seen from above, he
exclaimed, in a deep, solemn voice:
"Mateo Cervantes, in the name of the Holy Inquisition I command you to
open!"
"The Holy Inquisition! Ave Maria! What have I done?" ejaculated the
figure above, in evident trepidation. "Your pardon, Reverend Father,"
he continued, "I knew not who you were. I will be down instantly." And
the light vanished from the window.
"That was a good idea of mine," remarked Phil, in a whisper. "I thought
it would fetch him down. Now, I do not think it will be necessary to
seize and bind friend Cervantes immediately that he comes to the door.
He will admit us without question, no doubt; and after we are in and the
door is closed, we must be guided by circumstances, and act accordingly.
Here he comes."
A streak of light showed beneath the door; there was a sound of bolts
being drawn; and presently the door opened and a big, burly, elderly
man, his touzled hair touched with grey, and his body enveloped in a
long white nightgown, appeared; holding a candle above his head. As the
light fell upon the two hooded figures he involuntarily drew back with a
gasp, whereupon Phil and Dick stepped into the passage, closing the door
behind them.
"Holy Fathers," exclaimed Cervantes, dropping on his knees, placing the
candle on the floor beside him, and raising his hands in an attitude of
supplication, "I swear to you that I have done nothing; I am a good
Catholic--"
"Peace!" commanded Phil, raising his hand imperatively. "How many are
there in the house with you?"
"How many?" reiterated the trembling man. "I am alone, Reverend Father,
quite alone, I give you my solemn word. My workmen do not live here
with me; the house is not large enough--"
"It is well," interrupted Phil. "Now, rise to your feet, friend
Cervantes, and conduct us to your shop."
"My shop!" echoed the armourer. "I give you my word, Reverend Sirs,
that there is nothing in my shop that--"
"The less reason why you should hesitate to lead us thither,"
interrupted Phil, sternly.
"Of course; of course," agreed the man, anxiously. "Follow me, your
Reverences; I have nothing to conceal; nothing to conceal." Then,
scrambling to his feet and taking up the candle, the man proceeded a few
steps along the passage, flung open a door, raised the candle above his
head in such a manner as to throw the light into the room, and stood
aside to allow his unwelcome and untimely visitors to enter.
"After you, friend," remarked Phil, waving his hand for the armourer to
precede them. "And light a lamp or two," he added, "we must have more
light than your candle affords."
The man bowed, entered the room, which was in fact the shop, set the
candlestick down upon a bench, and proceeded to light a couple of lamps
which stood on wall brackets. While he was doing this his visitors were
busily engaged in noting the contents of the shop, so far as the
imperfect light afforded by the single candle permitted. The most
prominent objects, and those which therefore first arrested their
attention, were half a dozen complete suits of very fine armour, two of
them being black inlaid with fine gold scroll-work, while the others
were perfectly plain, but highly polished. Then there were back and
breast pieces, greaves, gauntlets, maces, axes, and sheaves of arrows
suspended from the walls, several very fine bows tied up in a bundle in
one corner; and last, but by no means least, a large case resting upon a
counter, in which were set out a number of swords, daggers, and
poniards. There were also three long cases ranged along the base of the
side and back walls of the shop, which the two visitors shrewdly
suspected contained firearms and ammunition.
"Now, Reverend Sirs," said the armourer as, having lighted the two
lamps, he turned and faced the two hooded figures, with a bow, "I am at
your service. Be pleased to give me your commands."
"It is well," retorted Phil. "Now, hark ye, friend Cervantes, you are
credited with being a man of discretion; see to it, then, that ye
justify your reputation by observing the most complete silence regarding
this visit. You understand me?"
"Perfectly, Father," replied the armourer. "No word or hint will I
breathe to a living soul about it."
"Good!" replied Phil. "You will do well to remember that promise, and
keep it. Now, for a reason which does not concern you in the least, we
require certain arms, and they must be the very best you have. To begin
with, therefore, show me the two best swords in your stock."
"Arms! swords!" ejaculated the astonished Cervantes, looking keenly at
his visitors. Then, suddenly seizing the candle and thrusting it
forward, he endeavoured to peer into their faces. "Who are ye?" he
exclaimed. "Ye are not--ah! I have it. Ye are the two English
prisoners who this morning--"
Before he could get any further the pair threw themselves upon him and
bore him to the ground; and while Phil gripped the unfortunate man by
the throat to prevent him from crying out and raising an alarm, Dick
whipped out the rope which he had been carrying beneath his habit, and
trussed up the worthy senor so securely that he could move neither hand
nor foot. Then they gagged him very effectively by thrusting the hilt
of one of his own daggers between his teeth and securing it there.
"Now, hark ye, friend Cervantes," admonished Phil, "it is unfortunate
for you that you have penetrated our disguises, since it will
necessitate your remaining as you are until the morning, when no doubt
someone will arrive to release you. We need certain weapons, and we
propose to help ourselves to them; but you need not fear that you are
about to be robbed; we will pay you generously for whatever we take.
Now, Dick," he continued, turning to Chichester, "pick your weapons, and
let us begone, we have none too much time before daylight. I recommend
for your choice, a good sword, a musket, a brace of pistols, with a good
supply of ammunition for each, a stout dagger, a bow, arrows, and a good
strong machete for general purposes. That, I think, will be quite as
much as it will be advisable for us to cumber ourselves with."
"So do I," agreed Dick, dryly. "For my own part I am not at all sure
that we could not dispense with the musket, which is a heavy, cumbersome
thing to carry, and we may never need it. Still, I suppose we may as
well take one apiece; we can always throw them away if we find them too
troublesome. But how do you propose to pay the man, Phil? You know
that we have no money."
"True," assented Phil; "but we have still the two emerald eyes of the
idol which we found in that cave where we slew the monstrous beast: we
will give him one of those in payment; and handsome payment it will be,
too."
"Ay, that it will," agreed Dick. "I had entirely forgotten about those
emeralds. Give him one of them, by all means; we can then help
ourselves, with a clear conscience, to the best the shop affords."
Swiftly, yet with the greatest care, the two Englishmen selected the
weapons which they required, together with as much ammunition as they
considered it wise to cumber themselves with; after which Phil extracted
from a pocket in his puma-skin tunic one of the emeralds which he had
mentioned, and holding it close to the eyes of the prostrate armourer,
said:
"You see that, my friend? It is an emerald; and its value is about one
hundred times that of what we have taken from you. Nevertheless, I am
going to leave it with you for payment. See, there it is." And he
placed the stone on the floor where Cervantes could see it. "And now,
listen to me," continued Phil. "You probably have it in your mind to go
to the authorities to-morrow, as soon as you are released, and inform
them of this visit of ours to you. Isn't that so? Yes, I can see by
the expression of your eyes that I have guessed aright. Well, friend,
be advised by me: Don't do it. Remember that we have escaped from the
Inquisition; and if the Head of that institution should learn that we
have been here, he will certainly hold you responsible for our escape
from the town; and it will be useless for you to say that you could not
help yourself, that we surprised and overpowered you, and helped
ourselves to some of your property; he will simply reply that you ought
not to have allowed yourself to be surprised and overpowered, that you
knew two prisoners had escaped, and that you should have had wit enough
to have seen through our disguise and given the alarm before we had time
or opportunity to overpower you. And I suppose I need not remind you of
what your fate will be in that case. Therefore, think well over the
matter, and do nothing that you may afterward regret. You should be
easily able to concoct a story to account for your present plight that
should satisfy those who may find you in the morning, without referring
to us. And now we will leave you. Farewell!"
Therewith the two friends extinguished the lamps, and, taking the
candle, retired from the shop, quietly closing the door behind them.
The light of the candle enabled them easily to unfasten the outer door;
and, this done, they blew out the light, silently opened the door, and
cautiously peered out into the street. It was silent and deserted,
therefore, without further ado, they tiptoed down the steps, closing the
door behind them as they went, and, keeping within the shadows as much
as possible, hastened in the direction which would take them out of the
city. An hour later they were clear of Cuzco, and using the stars as
their guide, were speeding along a fairly good road which led in a
south-easterly direction, intending to strike off to the eastward in
search of the river some twenty or thirty miles farther on, since they
suspected that the high road would be the last place where their
pursuers would be likely to look for them. But about ten o'clock the
next morning--having encountered meanwhile only a troop of some thirty
loaded llamas with their attendant drivers, whom, having sighted them at
a distance, they easily avoided by concealing themselves until the whole
had passed--they unexpectedly came upon the river again where a bend
brought it close to the road; they therefore deserted the latter at this
point, and, although the going was by no means so easy, thenceforward
followed the river until at length they reached its source high up among
the Andes of Carabaya.
And now ensued a period of incredible hardship and suffering for the
adventurous pair; for they were now among the most lofty of those
stupendous peaks which run in an almost unbroken chain from one end of
the continent to the other, from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the
north to within little more than one hundred miles from the Strait of
Magellan in the south; and their way lay over boundless snowfields,
across enormous glaciers gashed with unfathomable crevasses, up and down
stupendous precipices, and along narrow, ice-clad ledges, where a single
false step must have hurled them to death thousands of feet below. To
journey amid such surroundings was of course bad enough in itself; but
the hardship of it was increased tenfold for the two Englishmen, from
the fact that they came new to it and without experience, after months
of life in the torrid lowlands had thinned their blood and rendered them
peculiarly sensitive to the piercing cold of those high altitudes, which
was further intensified by the icy winds which seemed to rage
continuously about the peaks and come howling at them through the
ravines. Add to this the difficulty of obtaining food--for there was no
life among those mountain solitudes, save an occasional llama or
guanaco, so wild as to be scarcely approachable, and a condor or two
soaring aloft at such a height as to be scarcely distinguishable to the
unaided eye--and the impossibility of making a fire, and the reader will
be able to form some faint idea of what Phil and Dick were called upon
to endure while making that awful passage over the mountains.
Fortunately for them, it lasted only five days; had it been prolonged to
six they must inevitably have perished. Fortunately, also, for them,
they had acquired from the Indians a knowledge of the wonderful, almost
miraculous, virtue that lay in the coca leaf--with a bountiful supply of
which they had been careful to provide themselves--otherwise even their
indomitable hardihood and courage must have succumbed to the frightful
toil, privation, and exposure which they were obliged to undergo. A
detailed description of that five days' journey over the mountains would
of itself suffice to fill a book, for it would be a record of continuous
adventure and hairbreadth escapes from avalanches that were constantly
threatening to overwhelm them; of treacherous snow-bridges that crumbled
away beneath their feet; of furious, icy winds that, seeming to be
imbued with demoniac intelligence and malignity, always assailed them in
some especially perilous situation, and sought to buffet them from their
precarious hold; and of long hours of intolerable suffering when, during
the hours of darkness, they were compelled to camp on some snow-patch
and build themselves a snow-hut as a partial protection from the
howling, marrow-piercing, snow-laden gale. Such a narrative, however,
exciting as it might be in its earlier pages, would soon grow wearisome
from the rapidity with which one adventure would tread upon the heels of
another, and can therefore only be hinted at here. Suffice it to say
that early in the afternoon of the fourth day, upon surmounting the
crest of a long ridge of ice-encased rock, at a moment when the demon of
the mountain had temporarily withdrawn himself elsewhere, and the
atmosphere was for a brief space calm and clear, the two weary and
exhausted adventurers caught a brief but entrancing glimpse of a long
green valley stretching away ahead of them between the two mountain
ranges, with an island-dotted lake in the far distance, and Sorata's
dominating ice-clad peak piercing the blue sky to the left of it. At
last, at last, their goal was in sight; and incontinently they flung
themselves down, gasping, upon the iron-hard rock, and gazed entranced
upon the glorious vision--thrice glorious to them after all that they
had suffered--until another great snow-cloud evolved itself out of
nothing and swooped down upon them in a final effort at destruction.
The gale and snowstorm lasted less than an hour, however, and when at
length the atmosphere again cleared the two friends, who had been
crouching under the sheltering lee of a great shoulder of rock, rose to
their feet and again looked forth toward the land of promise. A vast
snowfield, corrugated by the wind as the sand of the seashore is by the
rippling advance of the tide, but otherwise smooth of surface, and
gently sloping downward, offered them an easy road for the first two
miles of their descent; and, weary though they were, they traversed it
in half an hour. Then came an almost perpendicular descent of some five
hundred feet to another snowfield, where, in a deep recess that might
almost have been termed a cave in a great spur of rock, they camped
comfortably for the night and enjoyed the sweetest rest that they had
known for many a long day.
When they arose on the following morning, rested and refreshed by their
long night's sheltered sleep, but weak and famished with hunger which
even their coca leaves could now but partially relieve, nature was again
kind to them, for the air was still and so crystalline clear that they
were able to determine accurately their road for many miles ahead;
while, most welcome sight of all, in a little sheltered valley, some six
miles away, on a small patch of green, they perceived a flock of some
twenty vicuna grazing. Here, at last was food for them once more, if
they could but reach within bowshot without alarming the animals; and to
this task they bent all their energies, with such success that three
hours later they were gorging themselves to repletion on the raw flesh
of one of the animals, being still without the materials wherewith to
kindle a fire. But this marked the end of their troubles; for before
the night again closed down upon them they had not only passed below the
snow-line, but were also fortunate enough to encounter an Indian who was
herding a flock of llama; and upon Phil addressing the man in his own
language--of which, it will be remembered, Stukely had acquired a
knowledge in some extraordinary and quite incomprehensible manner--the
fellow received them with open arms, conducted them to his hut, fed them
as they had not been fed since they had fallen into the hands of the
Spaniards, and not only lodged them for the night, but gave them minute
instructions how they were to proceed during the following day. Four
days later they arrived at the northern extremity of the Sacred Lake.
They reached its margin at the precise moment that the sun sank beyond
the long line of lofty, rugged, snow-clad peaks that ran parallel to the
lake on its western side. The evening was perfectly calm and cloudless,
save in the west, where an agglomeration of delicate rosy-purple streaks
and patches of vapour lay softly upon a clear background of palest
blue-green sky, forming the picture of a fairy archipelago of thickly
clustering islands, intersected by a bewildering maze of channels
winding hither and thither, with the thin sickle of the young moon,
gleaming softly silver-white, hanging just above the whole. It was one
of those skies that set the imaginative dreamer's fancy free to wander
afar into the realms of fairyland and to picture all sorts of strange,
unreal happenings; the sort of sky that probably suggested to the simple
mind of the Indian the poetic idea that when gazing upon it he was
vouchsafed a vision of the Isles of the Blessed where dwell the souls of
the departed in everlasting bliss; and for full five minutes after the
two Englishmen had halted by the margin of the lake, the smooth,
unruffled surface of which repeated the picture as in a mirror, they
stood gazing, entranced, upon the loveliness of the scene that lay
spread out before them.
In front of them and almost at their feet lay the placid waters of the
lake, bordered with reeds and rushes just where they happened to stand,
its glassy, mirrorlike surface faithfully reproducing every soft,
delicate tint of the overarching sky, the bank of rosy clouds in the
west, the cold, pure blue of the snow-capped sierras on their right, the
ruddy blush of the peaks on their left--upon the summits of which the
last rays of the vanished sun still lingered, to change to purest white
even as they gazed--and every clump of sombre olive vegetation between.
To the right and left of them, a few miles apart, two streams, having
their sources in the neighbouring mountains, discharged into the lake;
and so perfectly still was the air that the murmur of their waters came
faint but clear to the ears of the two comrades who had travelled so
many hundreds of miles with that scene as their goal. To right and left
of them the shores of the lake swept away in many a curve and bay and
indentation clear to the horizon, and far beyond it; and in the whole of
that fair landscape never a sign of life, human or animal! Yet, stay;
what was that dark film, like a tiny cloud, that came sweeping down
toward them from far up the lake? Dick, the practical, was the first to
catch sight of it, for Phil was standing like one in a trance gazing at
the scene with a retrospective look in his eyes that seemed to say his
thoughts were far away. As Dick watched the approaching cloud-like film
it resolved itself into a flock of wild ducks, making, as it seemed,
directly for the patch of rushes near which the two were standing, and,
with the momentous question of supper looming large in his mind,
Chichester plucked his companion by the sleeve, pointed to the
approaching wild ducks, and suggested the propriety of immediately
seeking some hiding-place until the birds had settled.
"A murrain on you and your ducks, Dick!" exclaimed Stukely, in a tone
half-pettish, half-playful; "you have jolted me out of a reverie in
which I was endeavouring to account for the extraordinary feeling that
sometime in the past I have beheld this very scene, even as I behold it
now. Of course I know that it is only a fancy; I know that I have never
before stood on the soil which my feet are pressing at this moment; yet,
believe me or not, as you please, all this"--he waved his right hand
before him to right and left--"is absolutely familiar to me, as familiar
as though I had lived here all my life! Nothing is changed, except that
the clumps of bush seem to have approached a little closer to the margin
of the lake, and--yes, you see that low bluff yonder? Well, when I last
looked upon it--oh, well! never mind; you are laughing at me, and I have
no right to be surprised that you should do so; but, all the same, I
know exactly where we are now; I know that there are islands out there
on the lake, beyond the horizon, and I know which of them it is that we
must visit--I shall recognise it instantly when I see it; remember my
words. And now, come along, and let us see whether we can get one or
two of those ducks; they seem to be making for the reeds yonder."
The pair crept down to the margin of the patch of reeds, and concealed
themselves therein; and scarcely had they done so when the flock came
sweeping along with a great rush of wings, wheeled, and finally settled,
with loud quacks--probably of satisfaction that their day's work was
over, and that they were once more back in their haven of rest. Then
the two muskets--which the wanderers had tenaciously retained throughout
their perilous journey across the mountains--barked out their death
message simultaneously, and the flock rose again with loud squawks of
alarm, leaving a round dozen of their number, either dead or badly
wounded, behind them. Ten minutes later, as the brief twilight was
rapidly deepening into night, the nude figures of the two Englishmen
scrambled out of the water, each bearing his quota of dead wild duck,
and, laying their spoils upon the ground, nonchalantly proceeded to
resume the quaint garments of skins that now constituted their only
clothing.
Long into the night sat the pair, crouching over their camp fire, for
though the days were hot the nights were bitterly cold, even in that
valley between the two ranges of mountains; and while Dick gazed
abstractedly aloft into the velvet blackness at the innumerable stars
that glittered above him through the frosty atmosphere, Phil spoke of
the strange dreams--which he persisted, half-jestingly and half in
earnest, in regarding as memories--that visited him so frequently, of
curious scenes that he had witnessed and remarkable deeds that he had
done in the far past, either in imagination or reality, he could not
possibly say which. And while he talked and Dick listened, vacillating
between amusement and conviction, some twenty stalwart figures, thin and
aquiline of feature, copper-hued of skin, and strangely clothed, came
creeping up out of the darkness until they reached a clump of bush
within earshot of the pair, where they lurked, waiting patiently until
the audacious intruders upon their most sacred territory should resign
themselves to sleep--and to a captivity which, as planned by the chief
figure of the group, was to be of but brief duration, ending in a death
of unspeakable horror.