ce had left him more profoundly impressed even than he had been
willing to admit to me.

Soon we heard the low music of running water, and a minute later we
reached the stream Harry had found.

The fact that there was something to be done seemed to infuse a new
spirit into Desiree, and soon her deft fingers were bathing my wounds
and bandaging them as well as her poor material would allow.

The cold water took the heat from my pumping veins and left me almost
comfortable. Harry had come off much easier than I, since I had so
often sent him ahead with Desiree, and myself brought up the rear and
withstood the brunt of the attack.

As Harry had said, the stream cut across a corner of the cavern,
disappearing beneath the opposite wall, forming a triangle bound by two
sides of the cavern and the stream itself. I saw plainly that it would
be impossible for me to move any distance for at least a few days, and
that triangle appeared to offer the safest and most comfortable retreat.

I spoke to Harry, and he waded across the stream to try its depth.
From the other side he called that the water was at no point more than
waist-high, and Desiree and I started to cross; but about the middle I
felt the current about to sweep me off my feet. Harry waded in and
helped me ashore.

On that hard rock we lay for many weary hours. We had no food; but for
that I would soon have been myself again, for, though my wounds were
numerous, they were little more than scratches, with the exception of
the gash on my shoulder. Weakened as I was by loss of blood, and
lacking nourishment, I improved but slowly, and only the cold water
kept the fever from me.

Twice Harry went out in search of food and of an exit from the cavern.
The first time he was away for several hours, and returned exhausted
and empty-handed and without having found any exit other than the one
by which we had entered.

He had ventured through that far enough to see a group of Incas on
watch at the other end. They had seen him and sprung after him, but he
had returned without injury, and at the entrance into the cavern where
we lay they had halted abruptly.

The second time he was gone out more than half an hour, and the instant
I saw his face when he returned I knew what had happened.

But I was not in the best of humor; his terror appeared to me to be
ridiculously childish, and I said so in no uncertain terms.

But he was too profoundly agitated to show any anger