ves."

"How would it do to hide ourselves as we best can by day, and to go
forward by night?" said I.

"'Tis a good notion, master, and we will try it," he answered. "But I
fear me there is little in which we can hide, and as for food, I do not
see how we are to manage. Howbeit, we will not despair yet awhile,
having managed so far."

That night we accordingly made our way across the wide and lonely plain,
having for our guide the constellation Virgo, which Pharaoh Nanjulian
knew and pointed out to me with some learning.

"Them that go down to the sea in ships," said he, "must needs learn a
good deal if they would prosper. I have studied the heavens somewhat,
because more than once it has been my lot to find myself at sea without
a compass, and in a plight like that a knowledge of the stars and
planets is a good thing for a man to have at his command. Now, if we do
but set our faces to yonder constellation we shall keep in a straight
line for Acapulco--and God send we may land there safely!"

We made fairly good progress across the plain, but when morning broke
from the eastern horizon we were still many a long mile from the great
terrace of mountainous land which divides Mexico from Oaxaca and the
Pacific coast. Therefore we had to cast about us for some shelter. This
we had great difficulty in securing, for the plain at that part was
entirely barren of shrub or tree, and there was not even a water-course
at which we could slack our parched throats. But coming upon a
half-ruined hut, which had evidently been the home of some Mexican
Indian, tending his sheep in those wild parts, we took refuge in it and
lay down to sleep, hoping that no one passing that way would feel
curious enough to stop and examine our shelter.

This sort of life continued to be our lot for another day and night,
during which we had scarcely anything in the way of food, and also
suffered severely from thirst. And what with this, and with our fear of
meeting Indians and Spaniards materially increased, our condition was by
no means a happy one. But we still continued to hope, and to cheer each
other onward.

CHAPTER IX.

AN ADVENTURE OF SOME IMPORTANCE.

We traveled in this fashion, sleeping in the daytime and pressing
forward during the night, until the sixth day after our departure from
the ship. By that time we were both considerably changed in health and
appearance. Our clothes were torn to rags, our feet and arms were torn
an