Part 13 (1/2)
”Desiree! I had forgotten, Desiree!”
”She is probably better off than we are,” I assured hiaze--I could not see it--and I continued:
”Wesquarely like ether, Harry; as for Desiree, let us hope that she is dead It's the best thing that could happen to her”
”Then we are--no, it isn't possible”
”Harry boy, we're buried alive! There! That's the worst of it
Anything better than that is velvet”
”But there must be a way out, Paul! And Desiree--Desiree--”
His voice faltered I clapped hihly on the shoulder
”Keep your nerve As for a way out--at the rate that stream descends it must have carried us thousands of feet beneath the mountain There is probably a mile of solid rock between us and the sunshi+ne You felt the strength of that current; you ara”
”But there must be an outlet at the other end”
”Yes, and most probably forty or fifty miles away--that's the distance to the western slope Besides, how can we find it? And there radually absorbed by the porous formation of the rocks, and that is what causes this lake”
”But why isn't it known? Felipe said that the cave had been explored
Why didn't they discover the strea; at least, it kept Harry from his childish cries for Desiree So I explained that the precipice over which we had fallen was presuically the Andes are yet in a chaotic and fore slides of Silurian slates and diorite are of frequent occurrence
A ridge of one of these softer stones had ranite for many centuries; then, loosened by water or by time, had crumbled and slid into the stream below
”And,” I finished, ”we followed it”
”Then we reed that it was possible Then he burst out:
”In the naet out till we try Come! And who knoe may find Desiree”
Then I decided it was best to tell hiht had not entered his ripped his hand tighter as I said:
”Nothing so pleasant, Harry Because we're going to starve to death”
”Starve to death?” he exclaimed Then he added siht of that”
After that we lay silent for hts and memories came and went in otten presented themselves; an endless, ju man reviews his past life in the space of a few seconds; it took h one Nor did I find itin retrospect than it had been in reality
I closed h then to comprehend the hysterics of the blind and sympathize with theritout into curses; I could lie still no longer, exhausted as I was, and Harry, too I turned on him: