ray hit on the idea that the powerful current had probably
carried them a good deal southward of the point they were aiming at.
He suggested that they should boldly pull a quarter of a mile or so
against the tide and then try their luck. Their progress, of course,
became slower than ever, and Elsie began to despair that they would
ever find the mouth of the stream which ran through the cleft in the
hill, when she suddenly saw the luminous crescents which heralded the
sunrise over the inner mountain range. They could not be visible
unless there was a break in the cliffs in that locality.

"Pull in now," she whispered tensely, and, with a little further
effort, they found that the boat was traveling not against but with the
tide, which was flooding a small offshoot of the main estuary.

Precaution became not only useless but impossible. They were all worn
out. Nothing but the most inflexible determination on the part of
Elsie and Gray, eked out by a certain desponding fear of both of them
felt by Suarez, had sustained them thus far. They went on, and on;
they swept rapidly into the jaws of a precipitous defile, the lofty
crests on either hand coming momentarily nearer against the brightening
sky. It did not seem credible that this sheer cut through the heart of
a gigantic hill could continue for more than a few yards, nor that
anything save a bird could find foothold on its steep sides. Yet the
current flowed smoothly onwards, through a wealth of vegetation which
clung precariously to every ledge and natural escarpment.

Joey, embarrassed by his gag, nevertheless managed to emit a warning
growl. Then the boat crashed into a canoe, and a hoarse yell of alarm
came from beneath the lowermost trees, whose dense foliage flung a pall
over the water. Gray was seized with an inspiration. He grasped the
canoe as it bumped along the gunwale, and held it down on one side
until it filled and sank. He sent another, and yet a third, guzzling
to the bottom before the outburst of raucous cries from both banks
showed there were Indians here in some force.

Stones, too, began to hum around them; some struck the boat, but the
greater number whizzed unpleasantly close to the heads of the two men
and the girl, proving conclusively that they were visible to the unseen
enemy. Gray whipped forth the revolver and fired twice. The second
time a shriek of pain told that he had hit one of their assailants.
The two reports made a deaf