Part 59 (1/2)
I tried to shout, to cry aloud to the heavens, but a great lu dizzily
Harry, atdown his face, as together we staggered forth fro sunshi+ne of the Andes
Chapter XXIV
CONCLUSION
Never, I believe, were led in the huazing speechlessly at the world that had so long been hidden froht, but had lost Desiree We were alive, but so near to death that our first breath of the mountain air was like to be our last
The details of our painful journey down thetorrents that more than once swept us from our feet, cannot be written, for I do not know theht
But the blind luck that see mantle at the death of Desiree stayed with us; and after endless hours of incredible toil and labor, we cales to our course
Night was ready to fall over the bleak and barrensince overtaken us,at a distance a large clearing, in the e house whose dim and shadowy outline appeared to us surrounded by a halo of peace
But ere nearly forced to fight for it The proprietor of the hacienda hientle knock at the door, and he had no sooner caught sight of us than he let out a yell as though he had seen the devil in person, and slammed the door violently in our faces Indeed, ere hardly recognizable as , covered with hair on our faces and parts of our bodies--rowth, stubby and stiff--our appearance would have justified alain on the door, and I set forth our pedigree and plight in as feords as possible Reassured, perhaps, by ue of the devil--and convinced by our pitiable condition of our inability to do hiave us ad his suspicions concerning our identity--though I was careful not to alar the cave of the devil, which, I thought, was probably well known to hi in soave them ample instructions, withside by side in his own bed--a rude affair, but infinitely better than granite--refreshed, bandaged, and as comfortable as their kindly ministrations could make us
The old Spaniard was a direct descendant of the good Saht difference in nationality For many weeks he nursed us and fed us and coaxed back the spark of life in our exhausted and wounded bodies
Our last ounce of strength seele down the side of the mountain; for many days we lay on our backs absolutely unable to move a muscle and barely conscious of life
But the spark revived and fluttered The day came e could hobble, with his assistance, to the door of the hacienda and sit for hours in the invigorating sunshi+ne; and thenceforward our convalescence proceeded rapidly Color caht to our eyes; and one sunny afternoon it was decided that we should set out for Cerro de Pasco on the following day
Harry proposed a postpone that he wished to make an excursion up the mountain I understood him at once
”It would be useless,” I declared ”You would find nothing”
”But she ith us e fell,” he persisted, not bothering to pretend that he did not understand me ”She came--it must be near where we landed”
”That isn't it,” I explained ”Have you forgotten that we have been here for over a ht his face hite and he was silent So on the followingwe departed
Our host furnished us with food, clothing, mules, and an arriero, not toFrom the door of the hacienda he waved his sombrero as we disappeared around a bend in the mountain-pass; we had, perhaps, been a welcome interruption in the monotony of his lonely existence
We were led upward for ion of perpetual snow There we set our faces to the south From the arriero we tried to learn how far we then were from the cave of the devil, but to our surprise were infor
We could see that the question made hiht hi us askance with so terror
We journeyed southward for eleven days; on the oal Six hours later we had entered the sah which we had passed forayest of all we had left behind us, stilled forever, somewhere beneath the mountain of stone which she had herself chosen for her tomb