easts like the
flashes of a platoon of musketry. And while this elemental warfare was
raging furiously up there among the mountains it was brilliant weather
where the wanderers were camped, with not a breath of wind to assuage
the torrid heat. Stukely happened to make some remark upon the contrast
to Vilcamapata, to which the old man replied:

"Yes, it is well for us that we are here rather than there; for such a
storm might well mean death for us all. But we must be watchful to-day,
lord, for that storm covers many miles of country, and the rain is
falling in torrents; and, unless I am greatly mistaken, most of it will
find its way into this river. Therefore must we be on our guard against
a sudden spate, which may overwhelm us if we are caught unawares."

The Englishmen agreed, and nothing further was said about the matter,
for they were busy making their preparations for the day; and in due
time they embarked and proceeded on their journey. About midday, in
confirmation of the old Peruvian's words, the first of the expected
spate revealed itself in a sudden acceleration of the current and a
change in the appearance of the water, which became turbid with mud in
suspension. Yet although the speed of the current continued to increase
gradually, it merely helped the voyagers on their way, for they now
seemed to have reached a stretch of the river that was entirely free
from rapids, nothing of the kind having been encountered since their
start in the early morning. Swiftly the canoe sped down the river,
running now at the rate of a good nine miles an hour, and her occupants
rejoiced exceedingly, for they were getting over as much ground in a
single hour as sometimes cost them a whole day to cover. They began to
make light of the precautions which they had observed during the earlier
hours of the day, and told each other with glee that if this was the
worst a spate could do they would welcome one every day so long as they
were bound downstream.

Indeed it was speedy travelling compared with what they had been
accustomed to; it was like journeying by postchaise after travelling in
a market wagon. The country swept past them at a speed that almost made
them giddy as they watched it, while the motion of the canoe was smooth
and easy as that of a cradle. Then, as they whirled round a bend they
suddenly, and without warning, found themselves sweeping through a gorge
with vertical, rocky, fern-grown banks on either h