t' do anything of th' sort--they'd 'a' had a set of steps runnin' smack
from th' bottom t' th' top, an' folks would have got up in no time. It's
just th' Greaser fashion all over t' spend a hundred years or so in
makin' a path five miles long around a hill about as high as th' Boston
State-house, so's they can get up it easy an' save their wind. But I
wish they'd put in drinkin' fountains along th' road. I'm as thirsty as
a salt cod--an' there's so precious little water left in th' keg that
I'm afraid t' begin at it for fear of suckin' it all up."

"Drinking fountains?" Rayburn, who was a little in advance, called back
to us. "Well, so they did. Come along and drink as much as you want to."

"Cut that, Rayburn," Young answered. "I'm too dead in earnest about my
being thirsty to stand any foolin'."

"I'm not fooling"--we had caught up with him by this time--"look for
yourself."

To which Young's only reply was to spring forward eagerly and drink a
long deep draught from a stone basin beside the path into which trickled
a tiny stream from above. Finding water in this unlikely place was as
great a surprise as it was a joy to us; for we all longed for it, yet
dared not drink freely because our supply was nearly gone. It was
touching to hear the long sigh of happiness that El Sabio gave when at
last he lifted his dripping snout out of the basin; and then to see the
look that he gave Pablo, as though to thank him for so blessedly
plentiful a drink. In truth, the Wise One had not tasted a drop of water
for nearly twenty-four hours--not since his perilous passage of the
canon--and his throat, and his poor little inside generally, must have
been very dry.

When we came out on the top of the pyramid at last, which at that moment
was wrapped in clouds almost as dense as London fog, we perceived the
ingenious plan that had been adopted in order to secure water
plentifully on this mountain-top. By careful scoring of the rock with
many little channels, all leading to a cistern that seemed to be of
great dimensions, the warm vapor of the clouds as it condensed into
water on touching the chill stone surface was captured and safely stored
away. And from the overflow of the cistern the fountain below was fed.

But we did not stop to examine very carefully into this matter, so eager
were we to press on to the temple close before us. This stood upon a
terraced platform, cut from the living rock, and was a perfectly plain
structure-