description given him by Don Nicolas. And, moreover, which was even
more important, as they began its ascent there came to him that sense
of conviction which every true son of the jungle feels when he is
following the right course. He might not say how he knew he was right;
but he followed the leading without further question.

Up over the steep talus at the base of the canon wall they clambered,
up into the narrowing _arroyo_, cutting every foot of the way, for the
_macheteros_ were now no longer keeping ahead of them--the common
danger held the band united. Often they believed they discovered
traces of ancient trails. But the jealous forest had all but
obliterated them, and they could not be certain. In the higher and
drier parts of the forest, where they left the creek and followed
the beds of dead streams, slender ditches through which the water
raced in torrents during the wet season, they were set upon by
countless swarms of bees, a strange, stingless variety that covered
them in a buzzing, crawling mass, struggling and fighting for the
salt in the perspiration which exuded from the human bodies. Harris
swore he would cease to eat, for he could not take even a mouthful
of food without at the same time taking in a multitude of bees.
Often, too, their _machetes_ cut into great hornet nests. Then, with
the shrill cry, "_Avispas_!" Rosendo would tear recklessly through
the matted jungle, followed by his slapping, stumbling companions,
until the maddened insects gave up the chase. Frequently they
walked into huge ant nests before they realized it, sometimes the
great _tucanderas_, so ferociously poisonous. "Ah, senores,"
commented Rosendo, as he once stopped to point out the marvelous
roadway cut by these insects for miles straight through the jungle,
"in the days of the Spaniards the cruel taskmasters would often tie
the weak and sick slaves to trees in the depths of the forest and
let these great ants devour them alive! Senores, you can never know
the terrible crimes committed by the Spaniards!"

"And they were Christians!" murmured Harris, eying Carmen furtively.

But she knew, though she voiced it not, that the Spaniard had never
known the Christ.

Night was spent on the summit of the divide. Then, without further
respite, Rosendo urged the descent. Down through ravines and gullies;
over monster bowlders; waist deep through streams; down the sheer
sides of gorges on natural ladders formed by the hanging _mora_