Part 26 (1/2)

The strip of forest was passed, and the hbouring heights stirred the green patches of corn A scout came back, and whispered that the as clear The band e looht was visible, but a thin column of smoke from the communal fire rose above the walls and bent away before the wind

The adventurers ithin gunshot of the gate The big gun was silently fitted to its carriage, loaded and shotted; and the native allies ran back into the corn and hid the with terror

There was a flash of red fla thunder froate

The villagers started from sleep, and looked around in dis of strange thunder Then a shout in a strange tongue: ”For England! Mother England!” The children of the sun, the wielders of the thunder and lightning, were through the broken gate

Then arose a mad stampede of terror The arquebusiers ithin the rampart, and death-fire and nauseous smoke spurted from a dozen different places With squeals and shrieks, as from a mob of terrified brutes, men, women, and children dashed for the walls and the farther outlets in ht for the hills

”Make for the chief's house Kill noband soon surrounded the great house in the centre of the village Solare shot up to the blue sky The cries and screarew fainter and fainter But the sturdy headman was not with them

Spear in hand, and alone, he faced his terrible foes, eyes and teeth fiercely gleaed at the foremost man, and Master Jeffreys knocked hian and three or four others threw themselves upon him He writhed and twisted like a limbed snake, and bit and tore with teeth and hands

But the odds were hopelessly against him; a rope in a sailor's practised hands wound about his body, and he lay, a panting prisoner, across his own threshold A few others of the villagers were seized, the rest of the roofs were fired, and the adventurers marched back to the river No spoil was taken

[Illustration: The odds were hopelessly against hi the rank and file of the prisoners were set at liberty A present was given to each one, and it was iers bore thee if its inhabitants conducted themselves with due deference and friendliness They had punished theht of doing theiven them The men departed, astonished at the cle the day the ers came back fro their homes

One of the released prisoners ventured to co per

He was quickly told that the river and its rushes were as free to him as ever they had been; and some of the adventurers cut rushes themselves, and told the fellow to let the people know that a supply awaited them

These wise measures went far to conciliate the natives They had learned that they ers, but they also were fairly assured that the white men were not the robbers and destroyers that rumour had represented theh into the caaudy trinkets; but, to the intense disappoint about the ”Gilded One” or the marvellous city in which he dwelt

The expeditionthe way The heat was intense; and when at ti marches were necessary, in order to avoid obstacles in the river, the labour of tugging the boats was alike heartbreaking and li the river andoverland was discussed But the river was at least a sure path, according to all reports It led to Lake Parirew feverish and unbalanced with anxiety and disappointed hopes Night after night they were to be found in groups, listening to Yacamo or the Indians from the delta as they retold for the thousandth time the story of ”El Dorado;” others would sit beside Master Jeffreys whilst he read and translated Dan's papers; and any words that fell from the Johnsons, and others who had sailed the Spanish Main before, and heard the Spanish stories of fabulous Indian treasures, were stored up as precious oracles

And yet the ion never seemed to come nearer; rather it receded as the adventurers advanced, a yelloill-o'-the-wisp that had led theled forest and pestilential swarew fiercer and th of the way--their river hoe faces peered out froed, dispirited old and jewels, and jumped into a whirlpool to seek both Two others--one a Cornish squire who had sold his little all to join the expedition--were stricken by the sun, and dropped dead as they were pulling at the boat ropes A jaguar pounced upon another et water from a streaue, fevers, bruises, and the endless racking of lith of the aunt, hollow-eyed, tattered, unshorn, uncombed, unkempt, yet they toiled on, silent--save when they cursed and railed at fate--dogged, fiercely purposeful, resolved to die rather than turn back Song and jest were rarely heard in any boat; haggard fellows tugged at the oars, or lay drea the sail as it filled with the welco sapped by disappointer the kindly ”white brother” to the Indians; they estranged their friends and -place

One e the chief of that place had been dragged along with the expedition by way of punished at his oar, carried his load, or pulled at his rope; he neither forgot anything nor forgave anything

He rarely spoke to the Indians from the delta and the plain, and when he did his words were full of conteed on the land in a cleft of the mountains, he disappeared The natives who slept on either side of hiht still further dulled the spirits of all

Chapter xxxVII

COUNCIL FIRES IN TWO PLACES

The rising sun flashed spears of light on a rocky spur that stretched out froure stood silhouetted against a background of sun-bathed cliff Higher above hiue, and stretched upwards foot after foot to the eternal snows and the eternal heavens Below hiiant range, and through a gap in thedown to the sweltering plains and a feeder of the Orinoco

The man stoodso beyond the line of trees Presently he turned sharply about, cah the trees, and stood in a little pool-filled hollow Almost immediately he was joined by about twoscore men, all armed with spear and bow and arrow, and, like himself, brown-skinned and stalwart The newcoround andsavage drew in a deep breath, expanding his broad chest, and his eyes flashed with pride and power

”Arise, my sons,” he said; ”the Gods that make men and unmake them shall reward you Ye have been faithful to him whom the Gods have set over you To the brave shall be the spoils; my sons shall lade themselves with all their hearts may desire Now tell me what you have done”