ll directions, my lad. I want to think."

The dismissal was imperative, and after sweeping the edge of the forest
and gazing for a long time up and down the river again and again with
his glass, Brace stopped beside the American, who was seated on the
bulwark with one arm holding on by the shrouds and his rifle across his
knees, silent and watchful in the extreme.

"Seen anything?" whispered Brace.

"A few fireflies; and I've heard a splash or two: that's all," was the
reply.

"Think we shall be attacked to-night?"

"Likely enough. If we are it will be by canoes dropping down from that
projecting part of the bank yonder. The enemy will come upon us quietly
in the darkness, and we shall only know they are here when they begin
swarming over the side."

"And then?" said Brace, as he stood with his eyes fixed upon the
dimly-seen point a hundred yards above, where a faint spark of light
glimmered out from time to time as if a party of savages were gathered
there, and were passing the time in smoking before the attack was made.

"Well, then," said Briscoe coolly, "we shall have to shoot some, and
knock the rest back into their canoes or the river, I suppose."

"That sounds pleasant," said Brace.

"Yes, but we must take the rough with the smooth. One can't expect
everything to go right. But don't let's meet trouble half-way. Just as
likely as not we may go on for a month now and see no more of the enemy.
I wonder whether this river leads up to the old golden city."

"Which old golden city are you speaking of?" asked Brace wonderingly.

"The old one the Spaniards and the early English voyagers were always
seeking."

"But that was only an old fable."

"I don't know," said Briscoe thoughtfully. "They had it, I suppose,
from native reports, and they never found it."

"Of course not. It _was_ only a travellers' tale."

"Perhaps so, but the wealth of Mexico and of Peru did not turn out to be
a travellers' tale."

"Well, no," said Brace slowly.

"And there is plenty of room out here in the mountains or beyond the
forest for such a golden city."

"Oh, yes, plenty of room," said Brace.

"There is gold in the upper waters of the rivers, for I have found it.
We shall find some in this, I'll be bound--some day when we've sailed up
as far as we can, and then pushed on up the shallows in a boat right
away towards the mountains."

"What mountains?" asked Brace.

"The unexplored mountains from which these gr