eir chins they
chewed their coca leaves and stared at their toes, immovable as
images. Stubbs looked them over; they did not appear to be strong men.
Their arms and legs were rounded like those of women, and their chests
were thin. He wondered now why he had not been able to shake them
off.

Stubbs settled back to wait, but every now and then he deliberately
tossed, turning from his back to his side and again to his back. He
had two objects in mind; to keep the watchmen alert so that the strain
would tell eventually in dulled senses, and to throw them off their
guard when the time came that the movements really meant something.
But they never even looked up; never shifted their positions. Each had
by his side a two-edged sword, but neither revolver nor rifle. His own
Winchester still lay in the grass near the hut, if they had not stolen
it.

In this way several hours passed before he made the first move
towards escape. They gave him neither water nor nourishment. So he
waited until dark. Then he turned his head until his teeth rested upon
the rope. He remained in this position without moving for ten minutes
and then slowly, carefully began to nibble. The rope was finely knit
and as tough as raw hide. At the end of a half hour he had scarcely
made any impression at all upon it. At the end of an hour he had
started several strands. The wiry threads irritated his lips and
tongue so that they soon began to bleed, but this in turn softened the
rope a trifle. The three brown men never stirred. The stars looked
down impartially upon the four; also upon the girl by the lake and the
man in the cave. It was all one to them.

He gnawed as steadily and as patiently as a rat. Each nibble soon
became torture, but he never ceased save to toss a bit that the guards
might not get suspicious. The dark soon blurred their outlines, but he
had fixed their positions in his mind so that he could have reached
them with his eyes shut. At the end of the third hour he had made his
way half through the rope. It took him two hours more to weaken one
half of the remainder. The pain was becoming unendurable. He quivered
from head to foot each time he moved his jaw, for his lips were torn
to the quick. His tongue was shredded; his chest damp with blood.
Finally he ceased. Then carefully, very carefully, threw back his
shoulders so as to bring a strain to the rope. He felt it pull apart,
and sank to rest a bit.

Apparently he lay without moving.