still speaking
seriously, "that while you were dancing around the rock, I saw the
Siren."

"Saw the Siren?"

"Yes. Just where we had been--up by the _ahuehuetes_--I saw by the
blaze of our fire a face, surrounded by a diadem of shining gold. What
could that have been but the Siren?"

"You must have been mistaken, friend Clara."

"I was not mistaken. I saw what I tell you, and I shouldn't a bit
wonder that what we took for pebbles were neither more nor less than a
shower of _pepitas_ (nuggets) of gold, which the spirit had thrown down
to us."

"_Carajo_! why did you allow us to leave the place without telling me of
this?"

"Because it has just occurred to me now that it was _pepitas_, and not
pebbles; besides, our touchwood is all gone, and we could not have
kindled another fire."

"We might have groped in the dark."

"Nonsense, friend Costal! How could we tell grains of gold from gravel
or anything else in the midst of such darkness as there is down here.
Besides, if I came away, it was only with the thought of returning
again. We can come back in the morning at daybreak."

"Aha!" cried Costal, suddenly starting with an alarmed air, and striking
his forehead with his hand. "We shan't return here to-morrow morning.
_Carrai_! I had forgotten; we shall do well to get out of this ravine
as quickly as possible."

"Why so?" hastily inquired the black, astounded beyond measure at the
altered demeanour of his companion.

"_Carrai_! I had forgotten," said Costal, repeating his words.
"To-night is new moon; and it is just at this season that the rivers
rise, break over their banks, and inundate the whole country. Yes! the
flood will come upon us like an avalanche, and almost without warning.
Ha! I do believe that is the warning now! Do you not hear a distant
hissing sound?" And as he said this the Indian bent his head and stood
listening.

"The cascade, is it not?"

"No--it is very different--it is a distant sound, and I can distinguish
it from the roar of the river. I am almost certain it is the
inundation."

"Heaven have mercy upon us!" exclaimed the black. "What are we to do?"

"Oh! make your mind easy," rejoined Costal in a consolatory tone. "We
are not in much danger. Once out of the ravine, we can climb a tree.
If the flood should find us here, it would be all over with us."

"_Por Dios_! let us make haste then," said Clara, "and get out of this
accursed place, fit only for demons and