had no one to talk to for many days, and she was a woman.
She found in Harry a perfect audience.

Her experience had been much the same as our own. She, too, had fallen
down the unseen precipice into the torrent beneath.

She asserted that she had been carried along by its force scarcely more
than a quarter of an hour, and had been violently thrown upon a ledge
of rock. It was evident that this must have been long before the
stream reached the lake where Harry and I had found each other, for we
had been in the water hardly short of an hour.

She had been found on the ledge by our hairy friends, who had carried
her on their backs for many hours. I remembered the sensations of
Harry and myself, who were men, and together, and gave a shudder of
sympathy as Desiree described her own horror and fear, and her one
attempt to escape.

Still the brutes had shown her no great violence, evidently recognizing
the preciousness of their burden. They had carried her as gently as
possible, but had absolutely refused to allow her to walk. At regular
intervals they gave her an opportunity to rest, and food and water.

"Dried fish?" I asked hopefully.

Desiree nodded, with a most expressive grimace, and Harry burst into
laughter.

Then of the elevation to her evident authority. Brought before the
king, she had inspired the most profound wonder and curiosity. Easy,
indeed, to understand how the whiteness of her skin and the beauty of
her form and face had awakened the keenest admiration in the breast of
that black and hairy monarch. He had shown her the most perfect
respect; and she had played up to the role of goddess by displaying to
the utmost her indifferent contempt for royalty and its favors.

Here her remarks grew general and evasive, and when pressed with
questions she refused details. She declared that nothing had happened;
she had been fed and fawned upon, nor been annoyed by any violence or
unwelcome attentions.

"That is really too bad," said I, with a smile. "I was, then, mistaken
when I said 'your majesty'?"

"Faugh!" said Desiree. "That is hardly witty. For a time I was
amused, but I am becoming bored. And yet--"

"Well?"

"I--don't--know. They are mine, if you know what I mean. Eh, bien,
since you ask me--for I see the question in your eye, friend Paul--I am
content. If the world is behind me forever, so be it. Yes, they are
unattractive to the eye, but they have power. And they worship me.