then, for it
barred our progress northward as completely as would a hostile army.

Our depth of disappointment at facing this barrier was beyond
expression. We could but stand in silence, gazing upon the broad,
impassable sheet of water, blocking further advance. De Noyan was
earliest to recover power of speech.

"_Le Diable_!" he swore, half unconsciously. "This cursed place is
surely damned! Yet it has some consolation to my mind, for that will
drive us backward into the lowlands, out of this demon-haunted defile."

"Your judgment is right," I returned gravely enough, not unrelieved
myself by the thought. "There is no other course open to us. We shall
be compelled to retrace our steps, and if we desire to reach the open
before another night, we need be at it. May the good God grant us free
passage, with no skulking enemies in ambuscade, for never saw I poorer
spot for defence than along this narrow shelf."

Fortunately, the way proved easier travelling as we proceeded downward,
and we were not long in passing beyond our haunted camp of the previous
night. Below this spot--which was passed in painful anxiety--we
entered into that narrower, gloomy gorge leading directly toward the
plain beyond. The little river foamed and leaped in deep black waves
upon our left, the rocks encroaching so near that we were compelled to
pass in single file, picking a way with extreme caution lest we slip
upon the wet stones, and having neither time nor breath for speech.
The Puritan led, bearing the Spaniard's naked rapier in his hand.
Suddenly, from where I brought up the rear, his voice sounded so
noisily I made haste forward fearing he had been attacked.

He stood halted, staring like a demented man at a massive rock, a huge
monster with sheer, precipitous front, filling every foot of space from
the cliff wall to the river, completely closing, as by a wall of
masonry, the narrow foot-path along which we had advanced unhindered
the day before. It was easy to see from whence that rock mass came;
the great fresh scar on the overhanging cliff summit high above told
the fatal story of its detachment. Yet how had it fallen so suddenly
and with such deadly accuracy across the path? Was it a strange
accident, a caprice of fate, or was it rather the hellish work of
design?

None knew at that moment; yet we stood there stupefied, staring into
each others' despairing faces, feeling we were hopeless prisoners
doomed to perish mi