d the death that
seemed to be in store for us was less merciful than that which had come
to them. Theirs had been a short struggle, and then a gentle ending as
the waters closed over them. But our ending was like to be a lingering
one and miserable--by starvation.

With the loss of our mules and horses we had been compelled to leave
behind us the greater portion of our stores; and for our protection
against savages, and in the belief that in the mountains we should meet
with an abundance of game, we had left almost all of our provisions, and
made our lading mainly of ammunition and arms. But in this valley, so
smiling and so beautiful, there was no live thing except ourselves. Not
a beast, not a bird had we seen since we entered it; and in the lake, as
we found presently, there were no fish; the only sign that animal life
ever had existed here was that dried and withered remnant of a woman
that we had found in the deserted house, and the bones which we had seen
gleaming below us in the lake. This was, in truth, as we came thus to
call it, the Valley of Death.

While we worked at building the raft we had not thought to be sparing in
our eating--for building that raft was hungry work--and now that
consideration of the matter was forced upon us, we found that we had
with us food barely sufficient for three days. We could, of course, eat
El Sabio--though such was our feeling towards that excellent animal that
eating him would be almost like eating one of ourselves; and Pablo, we
knew, would regard eating this dear friend of his as neither more nor
less than sheer cannibalism. And even if we did eat El Sabio, the meat
of his little body would but prolong our lives for a week, or possibly
for two weeks more. And what then?

Had there been room in our souls for yet more sorrow, we could have had
it in the thought that in all that we had set out to do we had
completely failed. If this Valley of Death were indeed the place that we
had been seeking, little good came to us from finding it. Of the souls
which Fray Antonio had come forth to save, here there were none. Of
archaeological discovery, truly, I had something to make me glad; yet
little compared to what was hidden beneath the waters; and even this
little, since knowledge of what I had found soon must die with me, was
of no avail. As for Rayburn and Young, the treasure which they sought
might or might not be near at hand; but they certainly could no more
come at it than,