Part 9 (2/2)
Chapter V
THE CAVE OF THE DEVIL
Youthe difficulty of the ascent of Pike's Peak Well, that isconstitutional compared to the paths we found ourselves coreat Cordillera
Nor was it perer; we had not been two hours out of Cerro de Pasobfore we found ourselves creeping along a ledge so narrow there was scarcely rooether, over a precipice three thousand feet in the air--straight And, added to this was the disco at times to positive pain, caused by the soroche
Hardly ever did we find ground sufficiently broad for a breathing space, save when our arriero led us, alht We would ascend the side of a narrow valley; on one hand roared a torrent so wall of rock So narroould be the track that as I sat astrideover the abyss
But the grandeur, the novelty, and the variety of the scenery repaid us; and Le Mire loved the danger for its own sake Tiain she swayed far out of her saddle until her body was literally suspended in the air above soaily at Harry and irth should break!”
”Oh, but it won't”
”But if it should?”
”Tra-la-la! Coe her mule into a trot--a futile effort, since the beast had a ard for his skin than she had for hers; and the mule of the arriero was but a few feet ahead
Thus we continued day after day, I can't say howthat was irresistible However high the peak we had ascended, another could be seen still higher, and that, too, must be scaled
The infinite variety of the trail, its surprises, its new dangers, its apparent vanishi+ngs into thin air, only to be found, after an all but impossible curve, up the side of another cliff, coaxed us on and on; and when or where ould have been able to say, ”thus far and no farther” is an undecided problem to this day
About three o'clock one afternoon we ca at the end of a narrow valley Our arriero, halting us at that early hour, had explained that there was no other caround within six hours'
march, and no hacienda or pueblo within fifty miles We received his explanation with the indifference of those to whom one day is like every other day, and as while he prepared the evening ed the camp beds
Back of us lay the trail by which we had approached--a narrow, sinuous ribbon clinging to the side of the huge cliffs like a snake fastened to a rock On the left side, imht; on the right a series of ranite,
There were three, I reiant brothers; then two or three sed in a ether that they appeared to be jostling one another out of the way
For several days we had been in the region of perpetual snow; and soon we gathered about the fire which the arriero had kindled for our caarments and heavy ponchos
The histled ominously; a weird, senseless sound that smote the ear with ray of the rocks were totally unrelieved by any touch of green or play of water; a spot lonely as the huone to exa the afternoon; Le Mire and I sat side by side near the fire, gazing at the play of the flames For some minutes we had been silent
”In Paris, perhaps--” she began suddenly, then stopped short and beca into melancholy and wanted to hear her voice, and I said:
”Well? In Paris--”
She looked at me, her eyes curiously so, Desiree, in Paris--”