coast to Callao."

"If we can get 'em," I observed. "But two would do. We could make it
a triangle."

Harry looked at me.

"Paul, you're an absolute genius. But would it be big enough to hold
us?"

We discussed that question on our way back to camp, whither we carried
the backbone of our fish, together with some of the meat. Then, after
a hearty meal, we slept. After seven hours of the hardest kind of work
we were ready for it.

That was our program for the time that followed--time that stretched
into many weary hours, for, once started, we worked feverishly, so
impatient had we become by dint of that faint glimmer of hope. We were
going to try to build a raft, on which we were going to try to embark
on the stream, by which we were going to try to find our way out of the
mountain. The prospect made us positively hilarious, so slender is the
thread by which hope jerks us about.

The first part of our task was the most strenuous. We waited and waded
round many hours before another fish appeared, and then he got away
from us. Another attempt was crowned with success after a hard fight.
The second one was even larger than the first.

The next two were too small to be of use in the raft, but we saved them
for another purpose. Then, after another long search, lasting many
hours, we ran into half a dozen of them at once.

By that time we were fairly expert with our spears, besides having
discovered their vulnerable spot--the throat, just forward from the
gills. To this day I don't know whether or not they were man-eaters.
Their jaws were roomy and strong as those of any shark; but they never
closed on us.

Thus we had four of the large backbones and two smaller ones. Next we
wanted a covering, and for that purpose we visited the remains of the
reptile which had first led us into the cavern.

Its hide was half an inch thick and tough as the toughest leather.
There was no difficulty in loosening it, for by that time the flesh was
so decayed and sunken that it literally fell off. That job was the
worst of all.

Time and again, after cutting away with the points of our spears--our
only tools--until we could stand it no longer, we staggered off to the
stream like drunken men, sick and faint with the sight and smell of the
mess.

But that, too, came to an end, and finally we marched off to the camp,
which we had removed a half-mile upstream, dragging after us a piece of
the hide about thirty feet long