o the general discomfort, the
wind brought with it a dank, chilling fog, thick as a blanket, that
penetrated everywhere and left on everything great beads of icy moisture
like copious dew. But Escombe was too unutterably weary to let any of
these things trouble him. Sleep was what every fibre of his body was
crying aloud for; and he had no sooner finished his meal than, leaving
all responsibility for the safety and welfare of the party in the hands
of the two priests, he hurriedly divested himself of his clothing, and
snuggling into his warm and comfortable bed-litter, instantly sank into
absolute unconsciousness, his last coherent thought being a vague wonder
how he would fare in such a place and on such a night if, instead of
being under the care and protection of the Indians, he had chanced to be
a lonely and houseless fugitive from them.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE VALLEY OF MYSTERY.

When young Escombe next morning awoke from the soundest sleep that he
had ever enjoyed in his life he at once became aware, from the motion of
the litter, that his Indian friends were already on the move; and when,
in obedience to his command, they halted to enable him to dress and
partake of breakfast, a single glance, as he stepped forth from the
litter into the keen air, sufficed to assure him that they must have
been in motion for at least three or four hours, for the sun had already
topped the peaks of the Andes, and the aspect of the landscape
surrounding him was entirely unfamiliar. Not a trace of the spot where
they had camped during the preceding night was to be seen, and there was
no indication of the direction in which it lay; which fact tended still
further to drive home to the young man a conviction of the folly of
attempting to find his way back to the survey party alone and unaided.

The journey that day was in all essential respects a counterpart of that
of the day before. Tiahuana, who was evidently the leader of the
expedition in a double sense, chose his own route, making use of the
regular roads only at very infrequent intervals, and then for
comparatively short distances, soon abandoning them again for long
stretches across country where no semblance of a path of any description
was to be found. As on the preceding day, he skirted, climbed, or
descended precipices without hesitation, crossing ravines, ascending
gorges, and, in fact, he took the country pretty much as it came,
guiding the party apparently by mea