n Drake may have passed
already, but we may still be in time."

The next morning they bade adieu to their companions, with whom
they had been traveling for a fortnight. These, glad again to turn
their faces homeward, set off at once; and the lads, shouldering
their packs, started up the valley. The scenery was grand in the
extreme, and Ned and Tom greatly enjoyed it. Sometimes the sides
approached in perpendicular precipices, leaving barely room for the
little stream to find its way between their feet; at others it was
half a mile wide. When the rocks were not precipitous the sides
were clothed with a luxuriant foliage, among which the birds
maintained a concert of call and song. So sheltered were they that,
high as it was above the sea, the heat was very oppressive; and
when they reached the head of the valley, late in the afternoon,
they were glad indeed of a bathe in a pool of the stream.

Choosing a spot of ground near the stream, the lads soon made a
fire, put their pieces of venison down to roast, and prepared for a
quiet evening.

"It seems strange to be alone again, Tom, after so many months with
those Indians; who were ever on the watch for every movement and
word, as if they were inspired. It is six months, now, since we
left the western coast; and one almost seems to forget that one is
English. We have picked up something of half a dozen Indian
dialects; we can use their weapons almost as well as they can
themselves; and as to our skins, they are as brown as that of the
darkest of them. The difficulty will be to persuade the people on
the other side that we are whites."

"How far do you think the sea lies on the other side of this range
of giant mountains?" Tom asked.

"I have no idea," Ned replied, "and I do not suppose that anyone
else has. The Spaniards keep all matters connected with this coast
a mystery; but I believe that the sea cannot be many days' march
beyond the mountains."

For an hour or two they chatted quietly, their thoughts naturally
turning again to England, and the scenes of their boyhood.

"Will it be necessary to watch, think you?" Tom asked.

"I think it would be safer, Tom. One never knows. I believe that we
are now beyond the range of the natives of the Pampas. They
evidently have a fear of approaching the hills; but that only shows
that the natives from the other side come down over here. I believe
that they were, when the Spaniards landed, peaceable people; quiet
and gent