g day.

Harry proposed a postponement of our departure for two days, saying
that he wished to make an excursion up the mountain. I understood him
at once.

"It would be useless," I declared. "You would find nothing."

"But she was with us when we fell," he persisted, not bothering to
pretend that he did not understand me. "She came--it must be near
where we landed."

"That isn't it," I explained. "Have you forgotten that we have been
here for over a month? You would find nothing." As he grasped my
thought his face went white and he was silent. So on the following
morning we departed.

Our host furnished us with food, clothing, mules, and an arriero, not
to mention a sorrowful farewell and a hearty blessing. From the door
of the hacienda he waved his sombrero as we disappeared around a bend
in the mountain-pass; we had, perhaps, been a welcome interruption in
the monotony of his lonely existence.

We were led upward for many miles until we found ourselves again in the
region of perpetual snow. There we set our faces to the south. From
the arriero we tried to learn how far we then were from the cave of the
devil, but to our surprise were informed that he had never heard of the
thing.

We could see that the question made him more than a little suspicious
of us; often, when he thought himself unobserved, I caught him eyeing
us askance with something nearly approaching terror.

We journeyed southward for eleven days; on the morning of the twelfth
we saw below us our goal. Six hours later we had entered the same
street of Cerro de Pasco through which we had passed formerly with
light hearts; and the heart which had been gayest of all we had left
behind us, stilled forever, somewhere beneath the mountain of stone
which she had herself chosen for her tomb.

Almost the first person we saw was none other than Felipe, the arriero.
He sat on the steps of the hotel portico as we rode up on our mules.
Dismounting, I caught sight of his white face and staring eyes as he
rose slowly to his feet, gazing at us as though fascinated.

I opened my mouth to call to him, but before the words left my lips he
had let out an ear-splitting yell of terror and bounded down the steps
and past us, with arms flying in every direction, running like one
possessed. Nor did he return during the few hours that we remained at
the hotel.

Two days later found us boarding the yacht at Callao. When I had
discovered, to my profound as