oes, having arranged among themselves a course of action
during the short period while Carlos and Jack were preparing for the
expedition, were enacting a very cleverly carried out piece of comedy,
so cleverly performed, indeed, that neither of the young men had the
slightest suspicion that they were being deceived.

At length the track, which had led them steadily over rising ground
almost from the moment of starting, conducted the party to the entrance
of a very wild, romantic, and picturesque-looking gorge which seemed to
pierce right into the very heart of the mountains. For some time the
going had been growing increasingly difficult, especially for the two
horsemen; and now a single glance ahead sufficed to show that it must
speedily become impossible for mounted men, for the side of the mountain
grew increasingly steep, as one looked forward, until, about a quarter
of a mile farther on, it seemed to be practically perpendicular, while
the pine trees grew so thickly that in places it appeared as though
there would be scarcely room for a man, much less a horse, to pass;
moreover, the side of the hill was covered with big outcrops of rock,
interspersed with loose boulders, to pass over and among which would
require a clear head, a steady eye, and a sure foot. The two young men
therefore determined to dismount forthwith and proceed on foot, leaving
their horses in charge of one of the negroes.

And it was well that they did so, for the path almost immediately grew
so steep and difficult that before they had advanced another hundred
yards the party found it necessary to frequently drop on their hands and
knees to pass some of the more awkward places without being precipitated
into the stream which they heard brawling some hundreds of feet below
them at the bottom of the ravine. And now, as they slowly and with
difficulty made their way along the steep mountain-side, a low murmur,
gradually growing in strength and volume of sound, told them that they
were approaching a waterfall or cataract of some sort: and after another
half-hour of exhausting and perilous crawling, and slipping, and sliding
over the loose and shaley ground, they came in sight of it as it opened
out before them from behind an enormous, precipitous crag--a solid
column of water about twenty feet in diameter, leaping out of a narrow
cleft in the rock some three hundred feet above them, and gradually
resolving itself into mist as it plunged down into t