er. After that, if nothing else is left, I'll be with
you."

"But I don't want a thousand of those brutes falling on us in the dark.
If they would end it I wouldn't care."

"Keep your spear ready."

I had given him my promise, so I pushed on at his side. I had no
stomach for it. In a fight I can avoid disgracing myself, because it
is necessary; but why seek it when there is nothing to be gained? Thus
I reflected, but I pushed on at Harry's side.

As he had said, I was in for the finish. What I feared was to be taken
again by the Incas unseen in the darkness. But that fear was soon
removed when I found that we could see easily some thirty or forty feet
ahead--enough for a warning in case of attack.

Our flannel shirts and woolen undergarments hung from us in rags and
tatters. Our feet were bare and bruised and swollen. Our faces were
covered with a thick, matted growth of hair. Placed side by side with
the Incas it is a question which of us would have been judged the most
terrifying spectacles by an impartial observer.

I don't think either of us realized the extreme foolhardiness of that
expedition. The passage was open and unobstructed, and since it
appeared to be the only way to their fishing-ground, was certain to be
well traveled. The alarm once given, there was no possible chance for
us.

We sought the royal apartments. Those we knew to be on a level some
forty or fifty feet below the surface of the great cavern, at the foot
of the flight of steps which led to the tunnel to the base of the
column. I had counted ninety-six of those steps, and allowing an
average height of six inches, they represented a distance of
forty-eight feet.

How far the whirlpool and the stream which it fed had carried us
downward we did not know, but we estimated it at one hundred feet.
That calculation left us still fifty feet below the level of the royal
apartments.

But we soon found that in this we were mistaken. We had advanced for
perhaps a quarter of an hour without incident when the passage came to
an abrupt end. To the right was an irregular, twisting lane that
disappeared around a corner almost before it started; to the left a
wide and straight passage, sloping gently upward. We took the latter.

We had followed this for about a hundred yards when we saw a light
ahead. Caution was useless; the passage was straight and unbroken and
only luck could save us from discovery. We pushed on, and soon stood