I cannot understand how, after having fallen into
the river, you escaped being dashed to pieces upon the many rocks among
which it flows, nor how, having escaped that death, you afterwards
escaped drowning in the deep water, for you must have been swept along
quite a mile after issuing from the _quebrada_. It is true that when
Yupanqui found you, you were lying upon your back; so that, I suppose,
is the reason why the river did not suffocate you. Your hurts are doing
famously, _Senor Ingles_, thanks to my knowledge of simples. There is
only one--this in your head--which is likely to give trouble; but we
will soon mend that, if you can prevail upon yourself to lie still and
not disturb the bandage."

"Oh!" answered Harry; "I will do that all right, now that my senses have
come back to me, don't you fear; for I must get well quickly, and return
to my work as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Mother, where is your son?
I should like to send him with a message to the engineer's camp, if he
will go, to let them know that I am alive."

"Assuredly, assuredly," assented the queer old creature, as she
assiduously bathed the wound in Harry's head with a hot fomentation
which she had specially prepared. "He is out hunting, now, but the
evening is drawing in and I expect him back ere long. When he returns
we will hear what he has to say about it. Doubtless he will willingly
go; but if your camp is near the spot where I think you must have
fallen, it will take him quite half a day to reach it."

"Half a day!" echoed Harry, aghast. "How is that? I should have
thought that half an hour would have been nearer the mark."

"Nay, my son," answered the old woman, "he will have to travel fast to
do it in half a day. You do not know how difficult it is to travel from
place to place among these mountains, even when one knows the way. He
will have to go a long way round to reach the spot of which I am
thinking, for there are many impassable precipices in his course, to say
nothing of bogs in which, if one be not very careful, one can disappear,
leaving no trace behind."

Harry could understand this, now that it had been explained to him, for
he had already had experience of the impassable precipices and
bottomless morasses spoken of by his companion. But it was
disconcerting, to say the least of it, that it would occupy so long to
send a message to camp; for, taking into consideration the fact that he
had already been two days abs