, had dropped.

"Pick them all up, Tom, and toss them on the fire. We will take the
sting out of the snake, in case it tries to attack us again."

In a minute or two a score of bows, spears, and others weapons were
thrown on the fire; and the boys then, leaving the place which had
so nearly proved fatal to them, took their way up the mountain
side. It was a long pull, the more so that they had the food,
water, and large skins for protection from the night air to carry.
Steadily as they kept on, with only an occasional halt for breath,
it was late before they emerged from the forest and stood upon a
plateau between two lofty hills. This was bare and treeless, and
the keen wind made them shiver, as they met it.

"We will creep among the trees, Tom; and be off at daybreak,
tomorrow. However long the journey, we must get across the pass
before we sleep, for the cold there would be terrible."

A little way down the crest it was so warm that they needed no
fire, while a hundred feet higher, exposed to the wind from the
snow-covered peaks, the cold was intense. They kept careful watch,
but the night passed quietly. The next morning they were on foot,
as soon as the voices of the birds proclaimed the approach of day.
As they emerged from the shelter of the trees they threw their deer
skins round them, to act as cloaks, and stepped out at their best
pace. The dawn of day was yet faint in the east; the stars burning
bright as lamps overhead, in the clear thin air; and the cold was
so great that it almost stopped their breathing.

Half an hour later the scene had changed altogether. The sun had
risen, and the air felt warm. The many peaks on either side
glistened in the flood of bright light. The walking was easy,
indeed, after the climb of the previous day; and their burdens were
much lightened by their consumption of food and water. The pass was
of irregular width, sometimes but a hundred yards, sometimes fully
a mile across. Long habit and practice with the Indians had
immensely improved their walking powers and, with long elastic
strides, they put mile after mile behind them. Long before the sun
was at its highest a little stream ran beside them, and they saw,
by the course of its waters, that they had passed the highest part
of the pass through the Cordilleras.

Three hours later they suddenly emerged, from a part where the
hills approached nearer on either side than they had done during
the day's walk, and a mighty l