ould be just the stuff, and we could get a piece as big as we
wanted."

I shook my head.

"I thought of that. But we have absolutely nothing to hold it. There
wasn't a bone in his body; you know that."

But the idea was peculiarly tempting, and we spent an hour discussing
it. Desiree was asleep on her pile of skins. We sat side by side on
the ground some distance away, talking in low tones.

Suddenly there was a loud splash in the stream, which was quite close
to us.

"By gad!" exclaimed Harry, springing to his feet. "Did you hear that?
It sounded like--remember the fish we pulled in from the Inca's raft?"

"Which has nothing to do with this," I answered. "It's nothing but the
water-pigs. I've heard 'em a thousand times in the last few days. And
the Lord knows we have enough of them."

But Harry protested that the splash was much too loud to have been
caused by any water-pig and waded into the stream to investigate. I
rose to my feet and followed him leisurely, for no reason in
particular, but was suddenly startled by an excited cry from his lips:

"Paul--the spear! Quick! It's a whale!"

I ran as swiftly as I could to the shore and returned with our spears,
but when I reached Harry he greeted me with an oath of disappointment
and the information that the "whale" had disappeared. He was greatly
excited.

"I tell you he was twenty feet long! A big black devil, with a head
like a cow."

"You're sure it wasn't like a pig?" I asked skeptically.

Harry looked at me.

"I have drunk nothing but water for a month," he said dryly. "It was a
fish, and some fish."

"Well, there's probably more like him," I observed. "But they can
wait. Come on and get some sleep, and then--we'll see."

Some hours afterward, having filled ourselves with sleep and food (I
had decided, after mature deliberation, not to change my hotel), we
started out, armed with our spears. Desiree accompanied us. Harry
told her bluntly that she would be in the way, but she refused to stay
behind.

We turned upstream, thinking our chances better in that direction than
toward the swifter current, and were surprised to find that the cavern
was much larger than any we had before seen. In something over a mile
we had not yet reached the farther wall, for we walked at a brisk pace
for a quarter of an hour or more.

At this point the stream was considerably wider than it was below, and
there was very little current. Desiree stood