Under the Andes

ver know. Hurtling headlong through space, a man c

ighteous indignation; my memory is th

we were but slightly stunned by the impact. To this Harry has since agreed; he

attempt to swim-or, rather, to keep afloat-and was overjoy

it that I first became aware of the fact that the water was a stream, and a moving one-moving with incredible swiftness, smooth and all but silent. As so

times. The reverberations throughout the cave were as th

d impenetrable night, while I battled with the strong suction of the unseen curre

nly see!" and strained my eyes in the effort till I was forced to close them from the dizzy pain.

old and black; it pressed with tremendous power against me; now and then I was

ilent fury of the stream and the awful blackness maddened me; I plunged and struggled desperate

. Then a reaction of despair seized me; I tried to strangle hope and resign myself to t

maller outlet which acted as a dam? Or was it merely a lessening of the in

ight angle and began to swim. My weariness left me as by magic, and I struck out with bold and sweeping strokes; and by t

kes, searching for the wall. It was not there, and I had no idea of its direction. But I had now learned caution; and by sw

made firm by despair, and concentrating every ounce of strength in one final ef

eral hours, but it may have been merely as many minutes. Then I felt life stir within me; I stretched my arms and legs and sat up. Gradually

ld have escaped that fearful torrent; stupendous luck alone had saved me from bei

h but little regard for what it held; nothing had been sacred to me; no affection ha

ar to me; a keen, intense pain contracted my chest at the thought of having

arry, lad

floating through black space with a curious tremor, and finally died a

ern, the tone could not be recognized. But

ning. Out of the blackness surrounding me came the

ul, where

" I breathed;

arry boy

whe

of rock at the edge of t

Which side

That is to say, the outside. If it weren't for this inf

judge of distance by sound. We tried it over and over; sometimes it

ly black as that cavern; we had had several hours, presumably, for our eyes to adjust themselves to the phenomenon; b

eclared finally. "We m

es

ully along the edge. I'll turn to my

of the ground. The surface was wet and slippery, and in places sloped at an

ainfully slow progress, it was half an hour or more before we discovere

zed! I steadied him as well as I could with word of encouragement, and instructed him to

course, was the entrance of the stream which had carried us, and at some other point there was almost certainly an outlet; but we

cross to Harry, counting on his voice as a guide; but the conflicting e

ack void; it was hard to appreciate reality in such a nightmare. On the one side, nameless dangers; on the other, the unseen, botto

ar

es

ead

along. I say, we'

. His voice began to reach me almost in natural tones, which meant that we wer

diately afterward I heard his low gasp of terror and the sound of his wild scrambling to regain

to him to throw himself flat on his face. How my eyes strained despairingly as I c

! All right! Gad

le, and we lay flat on our backs. For many minutes we lay silently gripping hands; H

probably have long before succumbed to the strain of our horrible

ly he

name, where a

makes it impossible even to guess at anything. Accord

at happened? My head

ped hi

us a mountain four miles high, beneath us a bottomless lake, round us darkness. Not a very cheerful prospect, Hal; b

om Harry's lips-a c

had forgotte

etter off than we

could not see it

urself together, Harry; as for Desiree, let us hope that

-no, it isn'

here! That's the worst of it. Any

a way out, Paul! An

I clapped him roug

housands of feet beneath the mountain. There is probably a mile of solid rock between us and

be an outlet a

ope. Besides, how can we find it? And there may be none. The water is most probably gra

d that the cave had been explored.

Harry from his childish cries for Desiree. So I explained that the

are of frequent occurrence. A ridge of one of these softer stones had most probably been encased in the surround

ished, "we f

d another," said

was possible. T

ool! We can't get out till we try. Co

ught had not entered his mind, and it was best for him to

arry. Because we're goi

he added simply, with an oddly pathe

long forgotten presented themselves; an endless, jumbled panorama. They say that a drowning man reviews his past life in the space of a few seconds;

he blind and sympathize with them. It finally reached a point where I was forced to grit my teeth to keep fr

Hal; let

ked in a tone

e must dry out our clothing; no use dying

slippery incline. Soon we had reached dry ground and stood u

drink any of

wered:

may be our last drink, H

elf as firmly as possible, I held Harry's hand while he lowered himself carefully into the water. He was unable t

it taste

ust be clear as a bell. Lord. I

ealthful, possibly poisoned, what with the tertiary deposits of copper ores in the rock-

f I soon found that there was no danger-or chance.

he wet ledge, and once

rectly away from the lake. But when, about a hundred yards off, we suddenly bumpe

along the wall, which was smooth as glass and higher than my best reach. It

more, advancing cautiously, when we came to a break

unnel," s

he could not see me

," he answered, and w

void colliding with the walls. The ground was strewn with fragments of rock, and a hasty step

m the struggle with the torrent; also, we began to feel the want of food. Harry was

asked anxiously,

ut I'm tired-tired to de

m some impulse I know not what. For what was the use? On

so it seemed; the walls abruptly parted to the right and left.

on-moss, reeds, anything. We found none, of course; but even the hard, unyielding rock was grateful to

seemed to me that I had barely dozed of

nt reason. Then I reflected that nothing is dangerous to a man who faces death, and I laughed aloud-then tremb

, long forgotten, quivered within me, telling me that

ting like a pulse. What could it be? Again I sat up, listening and peering into th

w feet from me on every side, sinister and menacing. It was the silent, suppre

ar, thank Heaven, did not strike me! I could hear no footstep; no sound of any kind but that

ally I felt the hot, fetid breath in my very face.

h a desperate cry to Ha

of feet, nothing; but I felt my thro

ushed to the ground by the overpowering wei

ned; my arms relaxed, my brai