ccasion."

They agreed at once to follow the stream up, as by this means they would
leave no trace of footmarks, and might be able to find some suitable spot
for an encampment.

CHAPTER XI.

A DANGEROUS COMPANION.

They had gone but a few hundred yards up the stream when they heard the
sound of a waterfall, and presently they came upon a perpendicular cliff
some eighty feet high, over the edge of which the water fell unbrokenly.

"It would be a splendid place to camp at the edge of this pool," the
captain said. "We should have our bath always ready at hand, and even on
the hottest days it would be cool in the shade of the trees."

"It would not be a nice place to be caught by the natives," Stephen said.
"Even if we fortified ourselves, they would only have to get up above and
throw rocks down at us."

The Peruvian regarded this risk as trifling in comparison with the
advantages of the situation. Stephen, however, determined to climb to the
top of the cliff, and examine the position there, so leaving the others
lying in indolent enjoyment by the pool, he set to work to find a way up.
He had to go fully a quarter of a mile along the foot of the cliff before
he could find a place where it could be ascended. Once on the crest, he
followed the edge back until he came to the top of the waterfall. To his
surprise he found that this flowed almost directly from a little lake of
some three hundred yards in diameter. For about fifteen yards from the
fall on either side the rock was bare; and although the level of the
little lake was some three feet below it, Stephen had no doubt that in the
case of a heavy tropical rain the water would rush down from the hills
faster than the gap through which it fell below could carry it off, and
that at such a time it would sweep over the rock on either side, and fall
in a torrent thirty yards wide down in to the pool.

The view, as he stood on the patch of bare rock, was a striking one. The
tree-tops of the forest between the cliff and the shore were almost level
with his feet, some of the taller trees indeed rising considerably higher
than the ground on which he stood. Beyond, a wide semicircle of sea
extended, broken by several islands, some small, others of considerable
size. Behind him the ground rose, in an apparently unbroken ascent, to a
hill, which he judged to be some three or four miles away.

"This would be