clouds to die slowly for lack of food. And there was a certain fitness
in our having made our way so far among the dead only ourselves to die
that added sombre fancies to our environment of sombre realities. Yet
there was a heartiness in Young's resolutely expressed determination to
search for a way out of our difficulties before at all yielding to them
that insensibly cheered me. His words had a plucky ring to them; and
bravery is as catching as is fear. Our empty water-kegs were at the
bottom of the pyramid, and when we reached the fountain on our downward
way we waited there while Pablo went on with El Sabio and fetched them
up to us. There was at least solid comfort in knowing, as we went on
downward with the kegs all filled, that, whatever other death might come
to us, at least we could not die of thirst. At the bottom of the pyramid
we left Fray Antonio and Pablo, with El Sabio and the packs, and the
three of us set out to explore the three sides of the mountain-top that
were unknown to us in search of a downward path. A heavy mass of clouds
had drifted over the mountain again, so thick that at a rod away all was
white mist around us; and the light was growing faint, for the day had
come nearly to an end. Indeed, had we been upon the lower levels of the
earth night would have been al
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