Part 29 (2/2)

Desiree--the dagger!”

What followed came to me as in a dream; my eyes were dim with the exhaustion that had overcome my body Desiree's face disappeared from before h from a distance:

”Harry--come! I can't find it! I dropped it when I ran across--it must be here--on the floor--”

And then another sound ca, pattering feet

I think I tried to rise toin a frenzy: ”Quick--here they co cry of despair fro oath from Harry, and the next instant I found ht of a score of bodies

Chapter XIII

INTO THE WHIRLPOOL

I hardly knohat happened after that I was barely conscious that there wastightly bound Harry told me afterward that he made one last desperate stand, and was halted by a cry fro hier

He wheeled about and raised it to strike; then his arm dropped, unable to obey for the brutal horror of it In another instant he and Desiree, too, had been overpowered and carried to the floor by the savage rush

This he told me as we lay side by side in a dark cavern, whither we had been carried by the victorious Incas I had expected instant death; the fact that our lives had been spared could have but one e of death was to be added the vindictiveness of torture

We knew nothing of Desiree's fate Harry had not seen her since he had been crushed to the floor by that last assault And instead of fearing for her life, ere convinced that a still more horrible doom was to be hers, and hoped only that she would find the means to avoid it by the only possible course

I have said that we again found ourselves in darkness, but it was much less profound than it had been before We could distinctly see the four walls of the cavern in which we lay; it was about twelve feet by twenty, and the ceiling was very low The ground was damp and cold, and we had neither ponchos nor jackets to protect us

A description of our state of htly that any movement was impossible, would seem to betray a weakness Perhaps it was so; but we prayed for the end--Harry with curses and oaths, myself in silence There is a time when misery becoives no thought to the radually it lessened And when, after we had lain unconscious for many hours (we can hardly be said to have slept) they ca us food and drink, the water was actually grateful to our hot, suffering flesh, and we ate alain bound our wrists firhtened the cords on our ankles

If they meditated punishment they certainly seemed to be in no hurry about it The hours passed endlessly by We were cared for as tenderly as though we had been wounded coh ere allowed to reradually recovered frole in the doorway, and our suffering bodies began to feel co for?” Harry growled, after one of their visits with food and water ”Why don't they end it?”

”Most likely because a well man can appreciate torture better than a sick one,” I answered, not having seen fit to speak of it before ”Youto us”

”But ill they do?”

”Heaven knows They are capable of anything We'll get the worst”

There was a silence; then Harry said slowly, hesitating:

”Paul--do you think--Desiree--”