he thousandth
time the story of "El Dorado;" others would sit beside Master Jeffreys
whilst he read and translated Dan's papers; and any words that fell
from the Johnsons, and others who had sailed the Spanish Main before,
and heard the Spanish stories of fabulous Indian treasures, were stored
up as precious oracles.

And yet the mysterious region never seemed to come nearer; rather it
receded as the adventurers advanced, a yellow will-o'-the-wisp that had
led them through tangled forest and pestilential swamp only to mock
them in the end. The natives grew fiercer and more threatening; the
guides began to murmur at the length of the way--their river homes
seemed so far behind them. Savage faces peered out from bush and rock
upon the company of wearied, ragged, dispirited men. One soldier went
mad, raved of gold and jewels, and jumped into a whirlpool to seek
both. Two others--one a Cornish squire who had sold his little all to
join the expedition--were stricken by the sun, and dropped dead as they
were pulling at the boat ropes. A jaguar pounced upon another man as
he stooped to get water from a stream. An Indian arrow found the heart
of another. The sun, fatigue, fevers, bruises, and the endless racking
of limbs and brains, reduced the spirits and strength of the men. They
became gaunt, hollow-eyed, tattered, unshorn, uncombed, unkempt, yet
they toiled on, silent--save when they cursed and railed at
fate--dogged, fiercely purposeful, resolved to die rather than turn
back. Song and jest were rarely heard in any boat; haggard fellows
tugged at the oars, or lay dreamily watching the sail as it filled with
the welcome breeze. Their patience being sapped by disappointment and
privation, they were no longer the kindly "white brother" to the
Indians; they estranged their friends and made foes at every
halting-place.

One man saw this. Since the attack on the hill village the chief of
that place had been dragged along with the expedition by way of
punishment. Sullenly he had tugged at his oar, carried his load, or
pulled at his rope; he neither forgot anything nor forgave anything.
He rarely spoke to the Indians from the delta and the plain, and when
he did his words were full of contempt. One night, when the
adventurers were lodged on the land in a cleft of the mountains, he
disappeared. The natives who slept on either side of him as guard were
both stabbed to the heart. The sight still further dulled the spi