g from their hands.

I leaped aside; something struck my leg; I stooped swiftly and grasped
the spear-thong before there was time for the Inca to recover and jerk
it out of my reach. The other end was fastened about his waist; I had
him, and giving an instant for a glance at Harry, saw that he had
adopted the same tactics as myself.

Seeing that escape was impossible, they dashed straight at us.

It wasn't much of a fight. One came at me with his head lowered like a
charging bull; I sidestepped easily and floored him with a single blow.
He scrambled to his feet, but by that time I had recovered the spear
and had it ready for him.

I waited until he was quite close, then let him have it full in the
chest. The fool literally ran himself through, hurling himself on the
sharp point in a brutal frenzy. He lay on his back, quite still, with
the spear-head buried in his chest and the shaft sticking straight up
in the air.

I turned to Harry, and in spite of myself smiled at what I saw. He
stood with his right arm upraised, holding his spear ready. His left
foot was placed well and gracefully forward, and his body bent to one
side like the classic javelin-thrower. And ten feet in front of him
the other Inca had fallen flat on his face on the ground with arms
extended in mute supplication for quarter.

"What shall I do?" asked Harry. "Let him have it?"

"Can you?"

"The fact is, no. Look at the poor beggar--scared silly. But we can't
let him go."

It was really a question. Mercy and murder were alike impossible. We
finally compromised by binding his wrists and ankles and trussing him
up behind, using a portion of one of the spear-thongs for the purpose,
and gagging him. Then we carried him behind a large boulder some
distance from the ledge and tucked him away in a dark corner.

"And when we get back--if we ever do--we can turn him loose," said
Harry.

"In that case I wouldn't give much for his chances of a happy
existence," I observed.

We wasted no time after that, for we wanted no more interruptions.
Some fifteen precious minutes we lost trying to withdraw the spear I
had buried in the body of the Inca, but the thing had become wedged
between two ribs and refused to come out. Finally we gave it up and
threw the corpse in the lake.

We then removed the oars and spears and raft--which had floated so near
to the ledge that we had no difficulty in recovering it--to our
hiding-place, and last we tac