he dark and gloomy
depths of the gorge below. To Carlos--and still more to Jack--it seemed
impossible that the fugitive should have chosen to pursue the track
which they were now following--for to where did it lead? The place was
quite new to Carlos; he had never been there before, and it seemed
unlikely in the extreme that a stranger to the neighbourhood as Alvaros
was would know more about it than one who had dwelt only a few miles off
during practically his whole life: yet Juan was now pressing on, a long
way ahead, as though he were following on a hot scent, and presently he
disappeared altogether in a thick cluster of fir trees high up the side
of the hill. Ten minutes later he emerged on the other side of the
clump and went scrambling toward the spot where the stream of water
spouted out of the rock. Then Carlos saw him suddenly stop and look
steadily down the almost vertical side of the mountain, then at the
ground at his feet. It took the two lads nearly a quarter of an hour to
reach the spot where Juan stood, now surrounded by the other four
negroes, to whom he was talking animatedly; and, as they approached, the
Fantee pointed to some scars on the hillside which looked as though they
had been quite recently made by the passage of some heavy body.

"Look, Senores," he cried; "that is where the Spaniard has gone! A
loose boulder caught him just here and swept him down into the gorge
below. We shall never see him again!"

Carlos and Jack looked. Yes; the marks were precisely such as a falling
boulder would make, and they were apparently quite fresh, possibly less
than half an hour old. But how did Juan know that Alvaros had gone down
the hillside with the boulder? Jack asked the question.

"Because," answered the black triumphantly, "he came as far as this--as
we have seen by his footprints--but went no farther; there are no more
footprints to be found. And see, the boulder struck the ground just
here"--pointing to a big, raw dint in the soil--"and bounded off,
striking again down there where you see that mark. It must have struck
here just as the Spaniard reached the spot, and hurled him down to the
bottom of the gorge before it. He is doubtless down there at the bottom
of the stream, at this moment, pinned down by the boulder that killed
him!" And the other negroes emphatically corroborated the statements
and suggestions.

To Jack and Carlos the theory enunciated by Juan appeared quite
possibl