"Eat," said Trangoil-Lanec, laconically; "but, above all, eat quickly!" Without asking the chief for any explanation, the hungry travellers sat down in a circle, and vigorously attacked the provisions.
"Bah!" said Valentine, gaily; "after us the end of the world--let us eat while we can! Here is a roast joint that appears to me to be tolerably well cooked!"
At these words of the spahi Doña Rosario looked a little surprised; the young man was struck dumb, blushing at his rudeness, and began to eat without venturing another word.
As soon as breakfast was over; Trangoil-Lanec, assisted by Curumilla, employed himself in preparing one of those canoes, made of buffalo hides sewn together, which are employed by the Indians to cross the rivers in the desert. After placing it in the water, the chief requested the three Spaniards to take their seats in it. The Indians afterwards entered it for the purpose of steering it; whilst the two Frenchmen, still in the water, led the horses by their bridles. The passage was not long; at the end of an hour they landed, and they continued their journey by land.
For some hours past, as it often happens in that country, the weather had completely changed. The sun had assumed a red tint, and appeared to swim in an ocean of vapour, which intercepted its warm rays.
"What do you think of this weather, chief?" the count asked anxiously to Trangoil-Lanec.
"Bad--very bad," the latter replied, "unless we could possibly pass the Sorcerer's Leap."
"Hum! that is not very comforting," said Valentine. "Do you think, then, that the peril is so great?"
"Much greater than I can tell my brother. Do you think it possible to resist the hurricane, here?"
"That is true," Valentine muttered, hanging his head. "May Heaven preserve us!"
In fact the situation of the travellers appeared desperate. They were following one of those roads cut in the living rock which wind round the Andes, a road of scarcely four feet in its greatest width, which on one side was bordered by a wall of granite more than a thousand feet high, and on the other by precipices of incalculable depth, at the bottom of which invisible waters coursed with dull, mysterious murmurs. In such a spot all hope of safety seemed little short of madness. And yet the travellers proceeded, advancing in Indian file--that is, one after the other, silent and gloomy.
