hing, while
their men folk were compelled to cultivate the land, care for the
cattle, cook the food, look after the children, and so on! Then there
was the gradual change in the nature of the vegetation and the character
of the scenery as the travellers worked their way upward from the level
of the great plains, or pampas, into the mountainous region toward
Cuzco, with the ever-increasing difficulties of the navigation, which at
length became so great that the canoe had to be abandoned altogether,
and the journey continued by land, although they still followed the
course of the river as closely as possible, in order that they might
always be able to get water, and also because it served them as a guide.

But it was not until they had been journeying a full month, after their
escape from the Mayubuna, that their next really important adventure
befell. They had by this time climbed upward out of the low, hot,
tropic forest region, and had attained an altitude at which the climate
might almost be described as temperate, where, while the days were still
distinctly hot, the nights were cool, sometimes even to the extent of
sharpness, and where dense morning-fogs were frequent at that particular
period of the year. Those fogs were the cause of much inconvenience and
delay to the pair; for they could neither hunt nor travel in a fog, the
result being that they were frequently obliged to remain in camp until
eight or nine o'clock in the morning, instead of resuming their journey
at daybreak, as had heretofore been their custom.

Such was the case on the particular morning when the young Englishmen
encountered their next important adventure. The sun had been above the
horizon nearly two hours when at length the dense fog which had
enveloped their camp cleared sufficiently to permit of their proceeding
upon their journey, but it still hung about here and there in heavy
wreaths, motionless in the still morning air, when they quite
unexpectedly came upon one of the old Peruvian roads constructed by the
Incas. This road bore evidences of having at one time been a
magnificent highway; but under the rule of the Spaniards it had been
neglected until now it was little more than a sandy track over which
Nature was fast resuming her sway. But it happened to lead in
approximately the right direction for the Englishmen, and heavy as was
the travelling over it, it was less laborious than toiling over a rough,
trackless country, they t