since overtaken us, when we saw at a
distance a large clearing, in the middle of which lights shone from the
windows of a large house whose dim and shadowy outline appeared to us
surrounded by a halo of peace.

But we were nearly forced to fight for it. The proprietor of the
hacienda himself answered our none too gentle knock at the door, and he
had no sooner caught sight of us than he let out a yell as though he
had seen the devil in person, and slammed the door violently in our
faces. Indeed, we were hardly recognizable as men.

Naked, black, bruised, and bleeding, covered with hair on our faces and
parts of our bodies--mine, of recent growth, stubby and stiff--our
appearance would have justified almost any suspicion.

But we hammered again on the door, and I set forth our pedigree and
plight in as few words as possible. Reassured, perhaps, by my
excellent Spanish--which could not, of course, be the tongue of the
devil--and convinced by our pitiable condition of our inability to do
him any harm, he at length reopened the door and gave us admittance.

When we had succeeded in allaying his suspicions concerning our
identity--though I was careful not to alarm his superstitions by
mentioning the cave of the devil, which, I thought, was probably well
known to him--he lost no time in displaying his humanity.

Calling in some hombres from the rear of the hacienda, he gave them
ample instructions, with medicine and food, and an hour later Harry and
I were lying side by side in his own bed--a rude affair, but infinitely
better than granite--refreshed, bandaged, and as comfortable as their
kindly ministrations could make us.

The old Spaniard was a direct descendant of the good Samaritan--despite
the slight difference in nationality. For many weeks he nursed us and
fed us and coaxed back the spark of life in our exhausted and wounded
bodies.

Our last ounce of strength seemed to have been used up in our desperate
struggle down the side of the mountain; for many days we lay on our
backs absolutely unable to move a muscle and barely conscious of life.

But the spark revived and fluttered. The day came when we could
hobble, with his assistance, to the door of the hacienda and sit for
hours in the invigorating sunshine; and thenceforward our convalescence
proceeded rapidly. Color came to our cheeks and light to our eyes; and
one sunny afternoon it was decided that we should set out for Cerro de
Pasco on the followin