elf. At first there appeared to be none, but at length
I found a small crevice between two boulders in the rear. Into this I
squeezed my body with some difficulty.

The rock pressed tightly against me on both sides, and the sharp
corners bruised my body, but I wormed my way through for a distance of
fifteen or twenty feet. Then the crevice opened abruptly, and I found
myself on a broad ledge ending apparently in space. I advanced
cautiously to its edge, but intervening boulders shut off the light,
and I could see no ground below.

Throwing prudence to the winds, I let myself over the outermost corner,
hung for a moment by my hands, and dropped. My feet touched ground
almost instantly--the supposedly perilous fall amounted to something
like twelve inches.

I turned round, feeling a little foolish, and saw that from where I
stood the ledge and part of the lake were in full view. I could see
the spears still lying where they had been thrown down.

But as I looked the two Incas emerged from the passage. They picked up
the spears, walked to the raft, and again launched it and paddled
toward the center of the lake.

I thought, "Here is my chance; I must make that ledge before they
return," and I started forward so precipitately that I ran head on into
a massive boulder and got badly stunned for my pains. Half dazed, I
went on, groping my way through the semidarkness.

The trail was one to try a llama. I climbed boulders and leaped across
chasms and clung to narrow, slippery edges with my finger-nails.
Several times I narrowly escaped dumping myself into the lake, and half
the time I was in plain view of the Incas on the raft.

My hands and feet were bruised and bleeding, and I had bumped into
walls and boulders so often that I was surprised when I took a step
without getting a blow. I wanted those spears.

I found myself finally within a few yards of my destination. A narrow
crevice led from where I stood directly to the ledge from which the
Incas had embarked. It was now necessary to wait till they returned to
the shore, and I drew back into the darkness of a near-by corner and
stood motionless.

They were still on the raft in the middle of the lake, waiting, spear
in hand. I watched them in furious impatience, on the border of mania.

Suddenly I saw a dark, crouching form outlined against a boulder not
ten feet away from where I stood. The form was human, but in some way
unlike the Incas I had seen