acket to let us know his whereabouts. Now, I propose that our
friend in the bows be asked to shin up the cliff and prospect a bit.
He ought to know how to crawl through this undergrowth. Fifty feet
higher he will be able to see some distance."

Elsie agreed miserably. She was crushed by the immensity of the
difficulties confronting them. Expedients which looked simple
beforehand were found lamentably deficient to cope with wild nature on
the stupendous scale of this gloomy land. Suarez, too, was very
reluctant to leave the boat, but the American adopted a short cut in
the argument, offering him the alternative of climbing ashore or of
being thrown overboard.

So the Argentine adopted the less hazardous method, and climbed to the
bank. A splash, and a scramble, and a slight exclamation from Elsie
told that the dog had followed. Soon the swish of leaves and the
crackling of rotten wood ceased. Suarez might be out of earshot or
merely hiding for a time, intending to return with news of an
impassable precipice. There was a crumb of comfort in the absence of
the terrier. Joey would either go on or come back to them at once.

Gray felt that the girl was too heart-broken to talk. He listened to
the rhythmical chorus of that witches' cauldron in the heart of the
defile, and watched the gray light slowly etching a path through the
trees, until it touched the fast-running water with a shimmer of silver.

Neither of them knew how long they remained there; at last, a straining
and creaking of the boat warned them that the water level was rising
and the ropes needed readjusting. It was now possible to see that
Elsie had made fast to a fallen tree; its branches were locked among
the gnarled roots of the lowermost growth above high-water mark.
Already there was a distinct lessening in the pace of the current, and
Gray fancied that the distant rumble was softer. It would not be many
minutes before the neighboring rocks were covered; high tide, he knew,
was at 3.15 A.M. He forebore to look at his watch, lest the girl
should note his action. That would imply the utter abandonment of hope.

It might be that his mind was too taken up with the weird influences of
the hour, or that Elsie's senses were strung to a superhuman pitch. Be
that as it may, it was she who sprang to her feet all a-quiver with
agitation.

"Do you hear?" she whispered, and her hand clutched Gray's shoulder
with an energy which set his heart beatin