inute we remained motionless on our knees while the king
stood gazing at us, it seemed to me with an air of doubt. Then slowly,
and with a gait that smacked of majesty despite his ungainly appearance
and diminutive stature, he stalked across to the doorway and
disappeared in the corridor without.

Harry and I looked at each other, kneeling like two heathen idols, and
burst into unrestrained laughter. But with it was mixed a portion of
anger, and I turned to Desiree.

"In the name of Heaven, was that necessary?"

"You do it very prettily," said she, with a smile.

"That is well, but I don't care to repeat it. Harry, for the sake of
my dignity, employ a little discretion. And what do you suppose the
beggar will do about it?"

"Nothing," said Desiree, shrugging her shoulders. "Only he must be
pacified. I must go. I wonder if you know you are lodged in the royal
apartments? His majesty's room--he has but one--is in the corridor to
the left of this.

"Mine is on the right--and he is probably stamping the place to pieces
at this moment." She left the granite couch and advanced half way to
the door. "Au revoir, messieurs. Till later--I shall come to see you."

The next moment she was gone.

Harry and I, left alone, had enough to think and talk about, but there
was ten minutes of silence before we spoke. I sat on one of the stone
seats, wondering what the result would be--if any--of the king's visit
and his discovery.

Harry paced up and down the length of the apartment with lowered head.
Presently he spoke abruptly:

"Paul, I want to know exactly what you think of our chances for getting
out of this."

"Why--" I hesitated. "Harry, I don't know."

"But you've thought about it, and you know something about these
things. What do you think?"

"Well, I think they are slim."

"What are they?"

"Nothing less than miracles. There are just two. First--and I've
spoken of this before--we might find an underground stream that would
carry us to the western slope."

"That is impossible--at least, for Desiree. And the second?"

"Nature herself. She plays queer tricks in the Andes. She might turn
the mountain upside down, in which case we would find ourselves on top.
Seriously, the formation here is such that almost anything is possible.
Upheavals of vast masses of rock are of ordinary occurrence. A passage
might be opened in that way to one of the lower peaks.

"We are surrounded by layers of limest