CHAPTER VIII
DEFEAT OF THE NATIVES
Bertie, who had joined Harry when he saw Dias approaching, had listenedsilently to their talk, then said:
"Don't you think that, by loading the mules and moving towards themouth of the next gorge just as it is getting dark, we might induce theChincas to think that we are going that way, and so to follow along thetop of the hills. We might, as soon as night has fallen, come backagain and go down the stream. Of course there may be some of them leftto watch the mouth of the ravine, but we could drive them off easilyenough, and get a long start before the fellows on the hills know whathas happened."
None of the others spoke immediately; then Harry said:
"The idea is a good one as far as it goes. But you see at present weare in a very strong position. If we leave this and they overtake us inthe woods, we shall not have the advantages that we have here."
"Yes, I see that, Harry; but almost anything is better than having towait here and lose our chance of finding that gold."
"We can't help that, Bertie. You know how much that gold would be tome, but, as I said this morning, I will run no desperate risks toobtain it. When I started upon this expedition I knew that the chancesof success were extremely slight, and that there might be a certainamount of danger to encounter from wild beasts and perhaps brigands;but I had never calculated upon such a risk as this, and certainly I amnot prepared to accept the responsibility of leading others into it."
There was again silence, which was broken at last by Dias.
"The proposal of the young senor is a very bold one; but, as you say,Don Harry, after leaving our position we should be followed andsurrounded. In the forest that would be very bad. I should say let uswait for at least a week; that will still give us time to reach thegold valley. By then the savages may have left, and some other plan mayhave occurred to us; at any rate, at the end of a week we shall see howthings go. The Indians may have made an attack, and may lose heartafter they are repulsed. They may find difficulty in procuring food,though I hardly think that is probable. Still, many things may occur ina week. If at the end of that time they are still here, we can decidewhether to try some such plan as the young senor has thought of, orwhether to wait until the Indians leave, and then return to Cuzco; forI feel certain that the place cannot be found except by the help of thestar."
"Well, then," Bertie said, "could we not hit upon some plan to frightenthem?"
"What sort of plan, Bertie?"
"Well, of course we could not make a balloon--I mean afire-balloon--because we have no paper to make it with. If we could,and could let it up at night, with some red and blue fires to go offwhen it got up high, I should think it would scare them horribly."
"Yes; but it would be still better, Bertie, if we could make a balloonbig enough to carry us and the mules and everything else out of thisplace, and drop us somewhere about the spot we want to get to."
"Oh, it is all very well to laugh, Harry! I said, I knew we could notmake a fire-balloon; I only gave that as an example. If we had powderenough we might make some rockets, and I should think that would scarethem pretty badly."
"Yes, but we haven't got powder, Bertie. We have plenty of cartridgesfor sporting purposes, or for fighting; but a rocket is a thing thatwants a lot of powder, besides saltpetre and charcoal, and so on."
"Yes, yes, I know that," Bertie said testily. "My suggestion was thatwe might frighten them somehow, and I still don't see why we shouldn'tbe able to do it. Let us try to hit upon something else."
"There is a good deal in what the young senor says," Dias said gravely."All the Indians are very superstitious, and think anything they don'tunderstand is magic. It is worth thinking over: but before we doanything else we might find out how many of them there are at the otherend of the ravine. Only a few may be left, or possibly the whole tribemay be gathered there at nightfall. To-night nothing will be settled,but to-morrow night I will go down the torrent with Jose. I will carryyour double-barrelled guns with me, senor, if you will let me havethem. When we get to the other end I will take up my station there.Jose is small and active. He could crawl forward and ascertain how manyof them there are. If he should be discovered, which is not likely, hewould run back to me. I should have four barrels ready to pour intothem. That would stop them, for they would think we were all there andwere going to attack them, and before they could recover from theiralarm we should be back here again."
"That seems a good plan, Dias; but I do not see why Bertie and I shouldnot go down with you."
"It would be better not, senor. In the first place, they may have menposted at their end of the ravine, and though two of us might crawldown without being seen, just as they crawled up here, they would bemore likely to see four; in the next place, they might chance to crawldown the hillside above just as we were going down the ravine, andMaria and the animals would be at their mercy."
"They are hardly likely to choose the exact moment when we are to beaway, but I quite agree with you that the risk must not be run."
"Well," Bertie said, returning to his former idea, "if Dias can go downthere, I still think that somehow we might get up a scare."
Harry laughed.
"Well, you think it over, Bertie. If you can suggest anything, Ipromise you that Dias and I will do our best to carry it out."
"Very well," Bertie replied gravely, "I will think it over."
"Now," Harry said, "we had better sleep in watches at night; one mustbe at the breast-work, and one must listen for noises on the cliffs. Itwould be hardly possible for a number of men to crawl down withoutexciting suspicion or putting in motion some small stones."
"I do not think, senor," Dias said, "that it will be necessary to keepthat watch, for, as we knew from the noise when you fired last night,there are numbers of birds and at least one beast--I fancy it is a bearfrom the sound of its roar--up there, and it would be strange if anumber of men making their way down did not disturb some of them;indeed, if one bird gave the alarm, it would put them all in motion;besides, there are certainly monkeys, for I heard their cries andchattering when the birds flew up. Still, it is perhaps as well thatone of us should watch. Shall we divide, as we did last night? only, ofcourse, Jose takes his place with you."
"I quite agree with you, Dias. Bertie, you had better get three hours'sleep at once, and then after dinner we will sit by the fire here,smoke, and listen, and Dias will watch the gorge and keep one ear openin this direction too. It is a comfort to know that if we cannot getaway by going up the stream, the Indians cannot get down to attack usfrom that direction."
Two nights and days passed. The Indians were still on the hills, andonce or twice men came down some distance, but a shot from Harry'srifle sent them speedily back again. The third night Bertie was onwatch; he saw nothing, but suddenly there came three sharp taps. Hedischarged one barrel of his gun at random down the ravine, and thenheld himself ready to fire the other as soon as he saw anyoneapproaching. It was an anxious minute for him before the other threeran up.
"What is it, Bertie; have you seen anything?"
"No, but three arrows tapped against the wall, so I fired one barrel tocall you up, and have been looking out for someone to take a shot atwith the other; but I have not seen anyone, though, as you may imagine,I looked out sharply."
"It is probable that after the lesson they got the other night they didnot come so near, and that they merely shot their arrows to see if wewere still on guard. However, we may as well stay here for a bit to seeif anything comes of it."
Nothing happened, however, and they returned to the tents. Next morningBertie said to his brother:
"Look here, Harry, I have been thinking over that plan of mine. Ireally think there is something to be done with it."
"Well, tell us your plan."
"In the first place, how much powder can you spare?"
"There is that great powder-horn Jose drags about with him to chargehis musket with. It will contain about a couple of pounds, I
shouldsay."
"That ought to do, I think."
"Well, what is your plan, Bertie?"
"In the first place, do you think that burned wood would do forcharcoal?"
"It depends on what purpose you want it for."
"I want it to prevent the powder from going off with a bang."
"Oh, well, I should think that burned wood ground to a powder would bejust as good as charcoal. So you are still thinking of rockets? Yourtwo pounds of powder won't make many of them--not above two fair-sizedones, and the betting is they would not go up."
"No, I am not thinking of rockets, but of squibs and crackers. I knowwhen I was at school I made a lot of these, and they worked very well.My idea is that if we could crawl up close to where the Indians areassembled, each carrying a dozen squibs and as many crackers, we couldlight a lot of the crackers first and chuck them among them, and thensend the squibs whirling about over their heads, with a good bang atthe end. It would set them off running, and they would never stop tillthey were back in their own forests."
"Well, I really do think that that is a fine idea--a splendid idea! Theonly drawback is, that in order to carry it out we should want a lot ofstrong cartridge-paper, and we have no paper except our note-books."
"I have thought of that, Harry, though it bothered me for a good longtime. You see, the cases are only to hold the powder and to burnregularly as the powder does. At first I thought we might find somewood like elder and get the pith out, just as we used to do forpop-guns, but that unfortunately would not burn. We might, however,make them of linen."
"But we have no linen."
"No, but our leather bed-bags are lined with that coarse sort of stuffthey cover mattresses with."
"Tick, you mean?"
"Yes, tick. Now, it struck me that this would do for the crackers. Weshould have to cut it in strips three or four times the width of thecracker. Then we could get Maria to make us some stiff paste; starchwould be better, but of course we have none. Then, taking a strip ofthe cloth, we would turn over one side of it an inch from the edge tomake a sort of trough, pour in the gunpowder, carefully paste all therest of it and fold it over and over, and then, when it begins to dry,double it up and tie it with string. We should then only have to addtouch-paper, which, of course, we could make out of anything, and putinto the end fold. We could break up a few of the cartridges, soak themin wetted powder, and then cut them up into small pieces and stick theminto the ends of the crackers. I think that would do first-rate. I havemade dozens of crackers, and feel sure that I could turn out a good lotof them now. The squibs will be easier; we should only have to pasteone side of the strips and roll them up so as to form suitable cases.When these are dry we should put a thimbleful of powder into each, andthen fill them up with powder and charcoal. In order to make sure of aloud bang we could undo a piece of rope and wind the strands round eachcase for an inch and a half from the bottom. Of course, when we hadground down the burned wood we would mix it with powder and try one ortwo of the squibs, so as to find the proportions of charcoal to beused."
"You have evidently thought it all out well, and I think it does you noend of credit. I authorize you to begin the experiment at once. Thefirst thing, of course, will be to get some wood and char it. I shouldthink that you would require at least two pounds of that to two poundsof powder; but you had better only do a little at first--just enough tomake an experiment. You know it will require ramming down well."
When Dias, who was on watch, returned he found Bertie at work burningpieces of wood and scraping off the charred surface. Harry explainedthe plan to him. As he had frequently seen fireworks at Lima, Diasquickly grasped the idea.
"It is splendid, senor; those things will frighten them far more thanguns. They will think so many devils have got among them, and we willheighten the effect by discharging every piece that we can among them.In their confusion they will think it is the fireworks that are killingthem. That would be necessary, for otherwise when they recovered fromthe panic and found that no one had been hurt, they might summon upcourage to return."
At noon the next day Bertie with assistance had four squibs and twocrackers ready for trial. The squibs contained respectively one, two,three, and four parts of charcoal to one of powder.
"Don't hold them in your hand while you are trying the experiment,Bertie. Lay them down on that stone one by one and touch them off witha burning brand from the fire, and take care that you have a good longone."
All, with the exception of Jose who was on watch, gathered round. Thefirst squib exploded with a bang, the second did the same, but withless violence, the third went off in an explosive spurt, the fourthburned as a squib should do, though a little fiercely, and gave a goodbang at the end.
"They go off rather too rapidly, Bertie," Harry said; "we should wantthem to whiz about in a lively way as long as possible. I should put infive parts of that burned wood next time."
"I will try at once," Bertie said. "I have got lots of cases made, andenough burned stuff to make eight or ten more."
The mixture was soon made and another case charged, Bertie ramming downthe mixture with a stick which he had cut to fit exactly, and a heavystone as a hammer. This was done after each half-spoonful of themixture was poured in. Then he inserted a strip of his touch-paper.
"I will take this in my hand," he said, "there is no fear of itsexploding. I want to throw it into the air and see how it burns there."
The touch-paper was lit, and when the mixture started burning Bertiewaved the squib high above his head and threw it into the air. It flewalong some fifteen yards and then exploded.
"I don't think you can better that, Bertie. But you might make thecases a bit stronger; it burned out a little too quickly. We shallprobably not be able to get very close to them."
The cracker was equally satisfactory, except that they agreed that asomewhat larger charge of powder should be used to increase the noiseof the explosion.
"Now, Bertie," Harry said, "we will put all hands on to the business.Donna Maria shall make a good stock of paste, and cut the tick intostrips for both widths. You shall make the cases for the squibs. Diasand I will take charge of the manufacture of charcoal. That will be along job, for as you have two pounds of gunpowder we shall want ten ofthis charred wood."
"Not quite as much as that, Harry, because we shall want the powderalone for the crackers and the bangs of the squibs, and also for makingthe touch-paper for all of them."
"Well, we will say ten pounds, anyhow. We have a big stock ofcartridges, and can spare a few of them for so good a purpose."
They were soon at work. By night the cases were all made and drying,and were left near the fire so as to be ready for filling in themorning.
Dias then said: "Jose will go down to-night, senor. Of course I shallgo with him. We must find out, in the first place, how near the mouthof the ravine the savages are gathered, whether they keep any watch,and what force they have. It will be well not to make ourselves knownto them until at least the greater part are gathered there. If we wereonly to scare a small party, the others, when they came down, wouldknow nothing of the panic, and might take up the pursuit."
"I wish we had some means of driving them off the top of the hill,Dias."
"I don't see how that can be done, senor. But probably in another dayor two they will all go down of their own accord. They must by thistime have satisfied themselves that there is no getting at us fromabove, and that it would be too dangerous to attempt a descent hereunder the fire of our guns. They will be very likely, instead, to godown to-morrow or next day to hold a general council, and in that casethey may decide either to risk climbing down at night, or to make agrand assault on the breast-work. Or, if they cannot bring themselvesto that, they may decide to leave half a dozen men to watch theentrance, while the rest scatter themselves over the forests. In thatcase the watchers would only have to go off and summon them when westarted again. As they might well imagine that we should not findanother position like this
again, I expect that is what they will do.If there are a hundred of them, they will find it difficult to feedthemselves long. Certainly the men on the hills will get little to eatup there."
"Well, Dias, be sure you warn Jose to be careful. They may be postingsentries at the mouth of the ravine, just as they are keeping them atthis end."
"They may be, but I do not think it is likely; they will know that wecould not abandon our animals, and that if we passed through they wouldhave no difficulty in over-taking us, and would then have us at theirmercy. The last thing they would want is to prevent us from leavingthis position. They certainly would not fear an attack from us, knowingthat there are but four of us and a woman. Therefore, I think itprobable that they will keep at some little distance from the entrance,so as to tempt us to come out."
"I hope it is so, Dias. Still, Jose will have to be very careful."
"He will be careful, senor. He knows his own life will depend upon hiscrawling along as noiselessly as a snake. If he is seen, of course hewill come at all speed back to me; and, unless he is hit by a chancearrow, he will not run much risk, for by the time they are ready toshoot he will be out of sight on such dark nights as these, and in theshade of the mountains and trees. I shall be ready to send four barrelsof buck-shot among them when they come up. That is sure to stop themlong enough to allow us to get under the cover of your rifles beforethey can overtake us.
"I don't think that you need be at all uneasy about him, senor. We willstart in an hour's time, so that Jose can get near them before they goto sleep. They will probably have a fire burning, but if not the onlyguide to their position will be the sound of their talking. He willstrip before he leaves me, so that if they catch sight of him, theywill suppose that he is one of themselves."
Bertie now relieved Jose, who came back and had a long talk with Dias.
"We are ready now, senor."
"Here is my fowling-piece. It is already loaded with buck-shot. Bertiehas taken down his rifle and gun, and will give you the latter as youpass. I suppose Jose will take no weapons?"
"Only a long knife, senor, that may be useful if he comes upon one ofthem suddenly."
At the barricade Jose stripped, retaining only a pair of sandals. Thesewere as noiseless as his bare feet, and would be needed, as in the darkhe might tread upon a thorny creeper, or strike against a projectingrock.
"Good-bye, Jose!" Harry said. "Now, be careful. It would be a greatgrief to us if anything happened to you."
"I will be careful, senor. The Indians won't catch me, never fear."
Harry and Bertie both shook hands with him, and then he and Diasstepped into the water, and, keeping close along by the wall of rock,started on their perilous expedition.
"I don't like it, Bert," Harry said as they lost sight of them. "Itseems a cowardly thing to let that lad go into danger while we aredoing nothing."
"That is just what I feel, Harry. I would have volunteered willingly,but he will do it a great deal better than either you or I could."
"There is no doubt about that," Harry agreed. "Of course when he is outwith the mules he often travels at night, and certainly both he andDias can see in the dark a good deal better than we can."
There was suddenly a slight movement behind them, and they turnedsharply round. "It is I, senor. I am anxious about Dias, and I didn'tlike staying there by myself. I thought you would not mind if I came upand sat by you."
"Certainly not," Harry said. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Ido not think there is any fear for Dias. He cannot be taken bysurprise, for he will hear by their shouting if they discover Jose, andyou may be quite sure that he will bring them to a stand with the fourshots he will fire among them as they come near, and so will get a goodstart. They might run faster than he can in the forest, but willscarcely be better able to make their way up the torrent."
When Dias had been gone twenty minutes their conversation ceased, andthey sat listening intently. In another ten minutes, which seemed anhour to them, Harry said, "The savages can keep no watch at their endof the torrent, and Jose must have got safely away."
Very slowly the time passed.
"They must have been gone an hour," Bertie said at last.
"Quite that, I should think, Bertie. At any rate, we may feel assuredthat all has gone well so far. For, though we might not hear the yellsof the savages over the rustle and roar of the torrent, we shouldcertainly hear gunshots."
Another half-hour passed, and then to their relief they heard Dias callout, "All is well!" some little distance down. In three or four minutesthey could see the two figures approaching. "Give me your guns, Dias,"Harry said, "and then I will help you up the rocks. They might go offif you were to make a slip. Now, while Jose is putting on his clothes,tell me what he has found out."
"I have not heard much, senor. As soon as he rejoined me we startedoff, and, coming up the torrent, we had not much chance of talking. Hetold me that there were many of them, and that they were camped at somelittle distance from the stream, just as I thought they would be."
"I will stay here, Harry," Bertie said. "You can hear the news and thencome and tell me."
"Very well. I will be back before long."
Dias, his wife, and Harry walked down towards the tent, and Bertiechatted with Jose while the latter was dressing.
"You must feel horribly cold, Jose," he said.
"I am cold, now I think of it. I did not notice it while I was watchingthe savages. When I took to the water again I did feel it. Maria willmake me a cup of hot coffee, and then I shall be all right again. Itwas good fun to look at them, and know that they had no idea that I wasso close. If I could have understood their language, I should havelearned something worth telling. I felt inclined to scare them bygiving a tremendous yell, and I know I could have got away all right.They were sitting round a big fire and would not have been able to seein the dark. I should have done it, only I thought Dias would haveblamed me for letting them know that one of us had come down the canyon."
"He would have been angry, Jose, and so would my brother, for theywould certainly have set a watch afterwards, which would have spoiltall our plans. Now run along, your teeth are chattering, and the sooneryou get something warm and wrap yourself up in your blankets thebetter."
The fire had burnt low when the others returned, but an armful ofsticks was thrown upon it at once. The kettle had been left in theembers at its edge by Maria when she started, so that after it had hungin the blaze for two or three minutes it began to boil, and coffee wassoon ready. At this point Jose ran in, and after he had drunk a largemugful he told them what he had learned.
"When I left Dias at the mouth of the ravine," he said, "everythingseemed quiet. I walked along the edge of the stream for fifty yards,keeping my ears open, you may be sure, and I saw a light glow closeunder the rocks some distance on the other side of the river. Ifollowed the stream down till I came to a place where there was a quietpool, and there I swam across, then very carefully I made my way towhere I could see the light. It was quite three hundred yards from theriver. As I got near I could hear talking; I crawled along like a cat,and took good care not to disturb a leaf, or to put a hand or a kneeupon a dried stick, for I could not tell whether they had anyone onwatch near the fire. I perceived no one, and at last came to a pointwhere I could see the flame. It was in an opening running a hundredfeet into the mountains, and perhaps forty feet across at the mouth.
"In this were sixty or seventy savages sitting or standing round afire, which had evidently been made there so that anyone coming down tothe mouth of the ravine should not see it. The fire was not a verylarge one, and a good many of the men were gathered outside the littlehollow. Some of them were talking loudly, and it seemed to me that theywere quarrelling over something. Sometimes they pointed up to the topof the hills, sometimes towards the mouth of our ravine. I would havegot close if I had understood their language. Presently I saw some ofthem lying down, so that I could see that the quarrel, whatever it wasabout, was co
ming to an end, and that they were going to lie down forthe night. As I could learn nothing further I crawled away and wentdown to the place where I had swum the river before, and then creptquietly up to Dias, who was on the look-out; for although I had seen noone as I had passed before, there might still have been some of them onthe watch."
"You have done very well, Jose," Harry said. "We have learned twothings. First, that they are not keeping watch at the mouth of theravine, either because they feel sure that we will not try to escape,or because they wish us to leave and are giving us the opportunity ofdoing so. In the second place, you have learned what force they havegot down there, their exact position, and the fact that they wereevidently arguing how they had best attack us. Well, from what you saythere is every chance that we shall be able to come upon them withoutbeing noticed till we are close enough to throw our fireworks amongthem. Really the only thing for us to learn is whether many of them arestill at the top of the hill."
"I hardly think there can be many; only a few have shown themselvesto-day. They must know very well that we would not venture to climb upduring the day, and that it would be next to impossible for us to do soin the dark, even if we made up our minds to abandon the animals andall our stores."
"Well, I should say, Dias, there is no reason why we should put thematter off. It will not take us long to load all the squibs to-morrow.My opinion is that at dusk we had better saddle the mules and packeverything on them in readiness for a start; then at ten o'clock we cango down and attack the savages. The best moment for doing so will bewhen they are just lying down. When we have sent them flying we willcome up the torrent again, and start with the mules as soon as it isdaylight. It would be next to impossible to get them down in the dark,as they might very easily break their legs, or by rubbing against thewall shift their packs and tumble them into the water."
"It would be a pity to waste time, senor. I will get some torches madeto-morrow. Some of the trees have resin, and by melting this I can maketorches that would do very well. By their aid we could get the mulesdown without waiting for daylight. As they have already come up thetorrent, they will have less fear in going down, for the stream willhelp them instead of keeping them back. I will go first with Jose andhis mule; she is as steady as a rock, and where she goes the otherswill follow; and with five torches along the line they will be able tosee well enough."
"Four torches, Dias. Your wife rode coming up, and she had better ridegoing down."
"She can hold a torch as she sits; it does not matter to us if we getwet to the waist, but it would be very uncomfortable for her. We shallhave to put the largest burdens on to the mules. One of the ridingmules could carry the two llamas, or if you think that that is toomuch, we can tie each across a separate mule. They were more troublecoming up than all the mules put together. We had pretty nearly tocarry them through the deep places, though at other points they leaptfrom rock to rock cleverly enough."
"I am not going to be left behind if you are going to the fight,senor," Donna Maria said, "if you will give me one of your pistols."
"We could manage that, I should think," Harry said. "We can put you onone of the steadiest mules when we first go down, and with one at eachside of you we can manage it very well. Jose must go on a hundred yardsahead to see whether any of the savages are on the watch at their end,and if so, you must wait till we have cleared them out. You see, weshall have no hesitation in shooting any of them if necessary, andthough that would bring the rest of them down on us, yet when oursquibs and crackers begin to fly among them, you may be sure they won'tface us for an instant."
Dias grumbled that his wife had better stay where she was till theywent back for the mules; but Harry said: "I do think, Dias, that shehad better go with us. It would be cruel to leave her now that we aregoing into a fight--leave her all alone to tremble for our lives, witha knowledge that if things should go wrong with us the savages willsoon be up here."
"Well, senor, if you think so, there is no more to be said."
"I am not going to be made a trouble of," Maria said. "I shall go downon foot like the rest of you. I will take some other clothes with me,so that when you all come back for the mules I can change into them."
"Perhaps that would be the best plan," Harry agreed. "Now I will goback and take Bertie's place. It is my turn to be on watch, and he willbe wanting to hear the news."
"Well, Harry, is it all right?" Bertie asked as he heard his brothercoming up to him.
"It couldn't be better! There are sixty or seventy of them in a sort oflittle ravine three hundred yards away, on the left-hand side of theriver. They don't seem to be keeping guard at all, and if they are notmore careful to-morrow night we shall take them completely by surprise.We are going to saddle all the mules directly it gets too dark for anyof the fellows on the hills to see us, then we must set to work andpull down enough of the barricade here to allow them to pass. Weourselves, when we go down, will cross at that shallow place abovehere, and go down the river at that side, otherwise we sha'n't be ableto cross it except at some distance beyond the other end of thetorrent. Of course the mules must go down this side, as we shall wantto turn to the right when we get off. We shall make our attack aboutten o'clock."
Bertie went off, and three hours later Dias relieved Harry. As soon asit was light the next morning Bertie and Jose set to work to fill thecases--there were a hundred squibs and fifty large crackers.
Donna Maria after breakfast went out and returned with a number offlexible sticks of about half an inch in diameter; these she carriedinto her tent, where she shut herself up for the forenoon. When, at oneo'clock, she came out with the result of her work, it resembled a chairwithout legs and with a back about a foot wide and three feet high.
"What in the world have you got there, Donna Maria?" Bertie asked.
"Don't you know?"
"No, I have never seen a thing like it before."
"This is the thing the porters use for carrying weights, and sometimespeople, over the Cordilleras. You see that strap near the top goesround the man's forehead, and when there is a weight in the chair theseother straps pass over his shoulders and under his arms, and then roundwhatever is on the seat."
"But what is going to be on the seat?"
"I am," she laughed. "Dias is so overbearing. It had all been arrangednicely, as you know; and then when he spoke to me afterwards he said,'The first thing to-morrow morning, Maria, you will set to work to makea porter's chair, and I shall carry you down the stream. No words aboutit, but do as you are told.' Generally Dias lets me have my own way,senor, but when he talks like that, I know that it is useless to arguewith him. And perhaps it is best after all, for, as he said to meafterwards, it is a nasty place for men to get along, but for a woman,with her petticoats dragging and trailing round her, it would be almostimpossible for her to keep her footing."
"Well, I thought the same thing myself when we were talking about ityesterday," Bertie said. "Of course I did not say anything, but I amsure Dias is right. I found it very hard work to keep my footing, and Ireally don't believe that I could have done it if I had been dressed asa woman. And Dias can carry you like that?"
"Carry me, senor! he could carry three times that weight. He has cuthimself a staff seven or eight feet long this morning to steadyhimself, but I don't think there was any need for it. Why, it is acommon thing for people to be carried over the Cordilleras so, and Diasis stronger a great deal than many of the men who do it. As he said, ifI had been going through on foot you would all have been botheringabout me. And it is not as if two people could go abreast, and one helpthe other. There is often only room between the rocks for one to passthrough, and it is just there where the rush of the water is strongest."