Part 5 (2/2)

With a deft touch and no apparent violence the Indian succeeded in getting the locked jaws apart, and Esob promptly availed himself of the opportunity to pour about a tablespoonful of spirits into the partially open h and a splutter on the part of the sickits way down his throat, and, with another groan, the patient le to his feet But the atteth had already been spent, and, sighing heavily, Butler subsided back upon the supporting ar vacantly at the rich sapphire sky that arched above hi hinition from him, but all in vain

The utmost that he could accoless, incoherentsave the fact that the speaker's th, convinced that he could do no ot his patient settled in camp, he called upon Arima to help him, and between the two they soon had the unfortunate man comfortably stretched upon a blanket under the lee of an enorranite rock, which would at least partially shi+eld hiht Then, with the help of a few stout saplings cut fro a small, makeshi+ft kind of tent over the upper half of his body, as a further protection frohted their caentle touch, cut away the soiled rags of clothing from the wasted body and li, Esob unsaddled and hobbled the horse and raze Next he unpacked the saddle bags and cae, and proceeded to prepare a s soup, which, with infinite difficulty, he at length induced his patient to s, a few drops at a time; and finally, with a ently laid down in a co sleep The weary pair seized the opportunity thus afforded the needs; but neither of theht, for they had scarcely finished their supper when Butler awoke and again de care and attention, as he evinced great uneasiness and perturbation of mind which speedily developed into a state of such violent delirium, that it was only with the utmost difficulty the combined efforts of the pair were able to restrain hi either himself or them some serious injury

For more than forty hours did that dreadful deliriu alth suddenly collapsed, leaving him weak as an infant and in an aly, so profound that it ith great difficulty that his two nurses were able to arouse him sufficiently to administer small quantities of liquid nourishment It was by this time evident, even to Harry's inexperienced eye, that Butler's condition was desperate, even if not altogether hopeless, and he consulted Ari the services of a qualified physician; but the Indian had no encouragement to offer

Cerro de Pasco, the nearest town in which one ht hope to find a doctor, was some fifty miles distant, as the crow flies, but the difficulties of the ere such that, using the uter at least four days to reach the place, and as er were fortunate enough to find a doctor who could be persuaded to set out forthwith--by which ti past all huer to send, save Arima; and, in view of the possible recurrence of deliriu the Indian away While the tere still engaged in debating the question of as best to be done under the distressing circu his last, crossing the borderland between life and death without a struggle, and without recovering consciousness Indeed so perfectly quiet and peaceful was the end that it was so Esob could convince hith there could no longer be any question as to the fact, the body was at once wrapped in the waterproof sheet which had formed a makeshi+ft tent for the shelter of the sick man, and packed, with as much reverence as the circumstances would allow, upon the deceased man's horse, for conveyance back to ca with therave Moreover, Harry considered that, taking the somewhat peculiar circumstances of the case into consideration, it was very desirable that the body should be seen and identified by the other members of the survey party before burial took place

This event occurred on the evening of the third day after death, Esob hi the burial service; and he afterwards fashi+oned with his own hands, and placed at the head of the grave, a wooden cross, upon which he roughly but deeply cut with his pocket knife the name of the dead man and the date of his death He also, as a matter of precaution, took a very careful set of astronomical observations for the deter the result in his diary at the end of the long entry detailing all the circumstances connected with the sad event

Esob now suddenly found his young shoulders burdened with a heavy load of responsibility, for not only did Butler's death leave the lad in sole charge of the survey party, with the task of carrying on unaided the exceedingly ied, until assistance could be sent out to hiland; but it also became his immediate duty to report all the circumstances of the death of his leader to the British Consul at Lima--ould doubtless put in motion the necessary machinery for the capture and punishment of the ht about Butler's death-- and also to Sir Philip Swinburne, ould, of course, in turn, coence to the deceased man's family And there were also all Butler's private effects to be packed up and sent ho into consideration, the death of his chief was a relief rather than otherwise to the lad, unfeeling though the statement may appear at the first blush Butler was a man for whom it was quite i; Harry therefore felt that when he had committed his chief's body to the earth with as much respectful observance as the circumstances perether and dispatched to England all the dead s, and had taken such steps as were possible for the capture and punishment of the men ere pri that a strict sense of duty clain and outwardly manifest a sorrohich had no place in his heart Besides, he was now the responsible head of the survey party; upon him depended-- for at least the next three hly scientific operation; and upon the manner in which he conducted it depended very serious issues involving the expenditure of exceedingly large sums of money This was his opportunity to demonstrate to all concerned the stuff of which he wasfellow of his age would cheerfully give half a dozen years of his life to obtain such another; for Harry fully realised that if he could carry his task to a successful conclusion his fortune, from the professional point of vieas made And he felt that he could--ay, and would--do this The experience which he had already gained since his arrival in Peru had been of inestimable value to him, and he had made the very utmost of it; he therefore felt confident of his ability to carry through his task to the satisfaction of his employers and with credit to himself, and he entered upon it with avidity and keen enjoyment Moreover, he was tactful, and possessed the happy knack ofthose under him in such a way that he was able to extract the very last ounce of work fro the undue demands upon thealling irritation of Butler's presence and influence reress, the party arriving at Cerro de Pasco in a trifle under six weeks fro the second section of the survey The third section was very er and more difficult in every respect than either of the two completed, since it extended from Nanucaca--already connected by rail with Cerro de Pasco--along the shore of Lake Chinchaycocha to Ayacucho and Cuzco, and thence on to Santa Rosa, the distance being some four hundred and seventy miles as the crow flies, while the difficulties of the route ht possibly increase that distance by nearly one-third But Esob was by no means dismayed by the formidable character of the obstacles that lay before him; he had come to realise that, to the man ould achieve success, obstacles exist only that theyexperience daily in the overco of obstacles He therefore attacked this third and very formidable section, not only without any anxiety or fear, but with a keen zest that instantly co the whole

It ht, however, that Esob allowed himself to become so co else

On the contrary, he understood perfectly theitself He knew that nohimself out, and he looked upon recreation as--what its na of those forces, mental and physical, which labour wears away, and valued it accordingly, taking it whenever he felt that he really needed it, even as he took food orwas one of Esob's favourite recreations; and no sooner had he started the third section of the survey--which began by skirting the eastern shore of Lake Chinchaycocha--than hewhenever the opportunity offered It was this practice that led to an occurrence which was destined to cul and extraordinary as to be scarcely credible in these prosaic twentieth- century days

It happened on a Saturday afternoon

On the day in question, the survey party being then encamped on the shore of Lake Chinchaycocha, as soon as he had squared up his week's work, and snatched a hasty luncheon, the young English aboard a balsa, or light raft, which Arima had constructed for him, proceeded to paddle some distance out from the shore to a spot which he had already ascertained afforded him a fair prospect of sport Arrived there he dropped his keeleg--a large stone serving the purpose of an anchor--overboard and settled down comfortably to enjoy his favourite pastily welcome addition to the somewhat monotonous fare of caood as Harry had expected, and it was draell on toward evening before the fish began to bite at all freely--he was trying especially for a certain particularly delicious kind of fish, so between a trout and athe hook to rest at the very botto at his line and at once began to haul it in, but he had scarcely got it fairly taut when the tremulous jerk which denoted the presence of a fish at the other end was exchanged for a steady strain, and it soon becaled in so tackle was of exceedingly modest proportions, so much so, indeed, that the loss of even a solitary hook was a matter not to be conteht all his skill to bear upon the delicate task of releasing the hook frolement

But at the end of half an hour he was no nearer to success than at the beginning of his endeavours, while the sun ithin a hand's breadth of the horizon, and he had no fancy for being caught by the darkness while on the lake, therefore he adopted other tactics, and strove to bring the object, whatever it erously powerful strain Ah, that was better! At the very first tug Esob felt the resistance yield by the merest hairs-breadth, and presently a faint jerk told hiained another fraction of an inch, which success was repeated every few seconds until he was able to lift and drop the line a clear foot Then the sun's lower lie of the Western Cordilleras before it began to sink behind theetic ood two miles from the shore, and it would take him the best part of an hour to paddle his clumsy craft that distance Therefore he steadily increased the strain upon his line, deterh at the cost of a hook But it proved unnecessary for hireat a sacrifice, it was the unknown object that yielded, with littleresistance until it finally let go its hold of the bottoled with the hook Upon its eazed at his catch in astonished branch of a tree, a bunch of weed, or so with sandy ooze in the last rays of the setting sun, certain ruddy-yellow gleams that flashed fro metallic from the bottoed in disentangling his find fro so the youngdiscovery that he had been fortunate enough to retrieve a old and emerald collar, from the depths of the lake

Methodical even in thelishled his hook and line from the jewel, neatly wound up the former, and then proceeded patiently to wash away fro done which he found himself in possession of an ornament so massive in material and so elaborate and unique in workmanshi+p that he felt certain it must be worth quite a little fortune to any curio collector It was, or appeared to be, a collar or necklace, a trifle over two feet in length, the ends united by aa medallion The links, so to speak, of the necklace consisted of twelve raved upon one side with certain cabalistic characters, the uess at, and upon the other with a symbol which was easily identifiable as that of the sun; these emeralds were massively set-- framed would be almost the old, and joined together by heavy gold links also very elaborately cut The pendant was likewise composed of a superb eold frame, chiselled to represent the rays of the sun, the eraved with the representation of a hunised, even at the first glance, to be extraordinarily, astoundingly like his own This was a find worth having, the young ht prove worth several hundreds of pounds if judiciously advertised and offered for sale at Christie's upon his return home; for safety's sake, therefore, he put it round his neck, tucking it inside his shi+rt, snugly out of sight, and, heaving up his keeleg, proceeded to paddle thoughtfully back to the shore

It was some threeEsob had pushed forward the survey so rapidly, despite all difficulties, that he had covered more than half the distance between Nanucaca and Ayacucho--when, as he returned to cae ed froh deeply tanned by the sun, was une, rather above h resolute expression sta Harry, he held out his hand and sly remarked:

”Mr Esob, I presume My name is Bannister--John Bannister--and I coue in the coed These,”--producing a packet of papers--”are lance at the nificent scenery amid which the cah bits of work, even before reaching this spot”

”You are right, we have,” answered Harry as he cordially returned Bannister's grasp ”I alad to see you, and to bid you welcome to our caent help lately These fellows,”--indicating the native helpers ere now scattered about the cah in their way, and since poor Butler's death I havelike decent, useful shape; but I have often been badly hampered for the want of another surveyor who could ithsome of the especially bad places Now that you have coet ahead nearly twice as fast I suppose you ca in the dear old country?”

Harry led the new arrival into his tent, and proceeded forthwith to discard his working clothes and divest himself of the stains of his day's toil as he chatted ani questions for the most part, as is the wont of the old hand--and Esob had by this tiathers with so arrived at the caed; he therefore had nothing to do but to sit still and answer Harry's questions, jerking in one or two hier ether By the time that the meal was over each felt perfectly satisfied that he would be able to get on ith the other, and was looking forward to a quite pleasant ti the stupendousthat he had coht that the new arrival had been dispatched to fill the position of chief of the survey party, rendered vacant by the death of the unfortunate Butler; but upon opening the credentials which Bannister had presented, he found that it was actually as the bearer had stated, that he and Harry were to act as colleagues, not as chief and subordinate, in the co the pair jointly responsible for the work, while they would share equally the credit upon its coether, chatting mostly over the work that still lay before the what had already been done, while Bannister sat listening gravely to the recital of sundry hairbreadth escapes from death in the execution of duty, and of the manner in which a few of the more than ordinarily difficult bits of work had been accoether, twenty-four hours later, at the end of their first day together, each felt absolutely satisfied with the coht hireeable circureater rapidity than ever, the two English with plenty of thrilling adventures in the process, until in the fullness of time they reached first Ayacucho and then Cuzco, when the worst of their troubles were over For there was a road--of sorts--between the ancient capital and Santa Rosa, and the two Englishreed that, for a considerable part of the way at least, the best route for a railould be found contiguous to the highroad, by follohich the surveyors would derivea comparatively easy route to survey

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE ABDUCTION

The survey party had traversed about half the distance between Cuzco and Santa Rosa when the two English in a swim as often as opportunity afforded, made their way, at the end of a hard day's work, to a most romantic spot which they had encountered Here a sranite ledge on to a large flat slab of rock some nine feet below, from which in turn it poured into a noble basin almost perfectly circular in shape, about twenty feet deep, and nearly or quite a hundred feet in diameter, ere it continued its course down the ravine To stand on the slab of rock beneath the fall was to enjoy an ideal shower bath; and to dive from that same slab into the deep, pellucid pool and thereafter swim across the pool and back three or four ti several miles to enjoy; slishmen resolved to make the most of their opportunity, and continue to use this perfect natural swi as their work kept them within reach of it

The camp was situated soued with a long day's work, decided to ride to and fro, and Arima, the Indian--who had by this time constituted himself Esob's especial henchman--was directed to accompany the their dip

Arrived at the pool, the two friends dismounted and proceeded to undress on a srass in close proxi upon his heels and holding the horses'

bridles while the anirazed