"To me!" I shouted desperately; they were coming down from above
despite my efforts to hold them back.

Then, in answer to a call from Harry, I turned and leaped across the
chasm, throwing the spears ahead of me. Harry took Desiree in his arms
and swung her far out; I braced myself for the shock and caught her on
my feet.

I set her down unhurt, and a minute later Harry had joined us and we
were scrambling up the face of a boulder nearly perpendicular, while
the spears fell thick around us.

Desiree lost her footing and fell against Harry, who rolled to the
bottom, pawing for a hold. I turned, but he shouted: "Go on; I'll make
it!" Soon he was again at my side, and in another minute we had gained
the top of the boulder, quite flat and some twenty feet square. We
commanded Desiree to lie flat on the ground to avoid the spears from
below, and paused for a breath and a survey of the situation.

It can be described only with the word chaotic.

The light of the urns were now hidden from us, and we were in
comparative darkness, though we could see with a fair amount of
clearness. Nothing could be made of the mass of boulders, but we knew
that somewhere beyond them was the passage from the cavern which we
sought.

The Incas came leaping across the chasm to the foot of the rock.
Several of them scrambled up the steep surface, but with our spears we
pushed them back and they tumbled onto the heads of their fellows below.

But we were too exposed for a stand there, and I shouted to Harry to
take Desiree down the other side of the rock while I stayed behind to
hold them off. He left me, and in a moment later I heard his voice
crying to me to follow. I did so, sliding down the face of the rock
feet first.

Then began a wild and desperate scramble for safety, with the Incas
ever at our heels. Without Desiree we would have made our goal with
little difficulty, but half of the time we had to carry her.

Several times Harry hurled her bodily across a chasm or a crevice,
while I received her on the other side.

Often I covered the retreat, holding the Incas at bay while Harry
assisted Desiree up the steep face of a boulder or across a narrow
ledge. There was less danger now from their spears, protected as we
were by the maze of rocks, but I was already bleeding in a dozen places
on my legs and arms and body, and Harry was in no better case.

Suddenly I saw ahead of us an opening which I thought I recognized. I