with the aid of his telescope, nowhere could he detect so much as a
single speck of snow to indicate the presence of even the smallest ledge
or inequality in the face of the rock. This ridge, or range, stretched
away to right and left of the spot where the party had come to a halt,
retiring to the eastward, as it went, in a tolerably regular curve,
until the cusps, if such there were, swept out of sight behind the
nearer ridge.

At length Escombe rose from his llama skin and, with an ejaculation of
inexpressible relief, began to slap his still benumbed hands together,
and vigorously rub his stiffened limbs, in order to restore feeling and
warmth to them; whereupon Tiahuana also rose and gave the order to re-
pack the skins prior to resuming the journey. A few minutes later the
entire party were once more on the march, moving rapidly athwart the
meadow toward the ravine, and within a quarter of an hour they were in
the ravine itself, clambering down the steep slope of its hither side
toward where the sound of rushing water began to make itself heard with
increasing distinctness. Another ten minutes, after a wild and
breathless downward scramble among the trunks of thick-growing pine
trees, brought them to the margin of a wide and turbulent mountain
torrent that in the course of ages had scored a deep channel for itself
right down the centre of the ravine. The bed of the stream was thickly
strewed with enormous boulders, moss-grown upon their upper surfaces
where drenched with the everlasting spray, and between these the turbid
waters from the melting snow on the heights above leapt and foamed with
a clamour and fury that rendered conversation impossible, and threatened
instant death to the foolhardy adventurer who should attempt to cross
them.

Yet those indomitable Indians somehow contrived to win a passage across;
and half an hour later the entire party stood safely on the opposite
side.

Then followed a long and toilsome scramble up the other side of the
ravine, the top of which was not reached until the sun had set and
darkness had fallen upon the scene. But, at the top of the ravine and
clear of the trees, they found themselves on a grassy slope very similar
in character to that which they had encountered on the other side of the
stream, and there, fatigued to the point of exhaustion by their long and
arduous day's travel, they went into camp, prepared and partook of their
evening meal, and at once resigne