I write this from day to day, but I trust that before I come tothe end of it, I may be able to say that the light shines, atlast, through our clouds. We are held here with no clear meansof making our escape, and bitterly we chafe against it. Yet, Ican well imagine that the day may come when we may be glad thatwe were kept, against our will, to see something more of thewonders of this singular place, and of the creatures who inhabit it.

The victory of the Indians and the annihilation of the ape-men,marked the turning point of our fortunes. From then onwards, wewere in truth masters of the plateau, for the natives looked upon uswith a mixture of fear and gratitude, since by our strange powerswe had aided them to destroy their hereditary foe. For their ownsakes they would, perhaps, be glad to see the departure of suchformidable and incalculable people, but they have not themselvessuggested any way by which we may reach the plains below. There had been, so far as we could follow their signs, atunnel by which the place could be approached, the lower exit ofwhich we had seen from below. By this, no doubt, both ape-menand Indians had at different epochs reached the top, and MapleWhite with his companion had taken the same way. Only the yearbefore, however, there had been a terrific earthquake, and theupper end of the tunnel had fallen in and completely disappeared. The Indians now could only shake their heads and shrug theirshoulders when we expressed by signs our desire to descend. It may be that they cannot, but it may also be that they willnot, help us to get away.

At the end of the victorious campaign the surviving ape-folk weredriven across the plateau (their wailings were horrible) andestablished in the neighborhood of the Indian caves, where theywould, from now onwards, be a servile race under the eyes oftheir masters. It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jewsin Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt. At night we could hearfrom amid the trees the long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekielmourned for fallen greatness and recalled the departed glories ofApe Town. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, such were theyfrom now onwards.

We had returned across the plateau with our allies two days afterthe battle, and made our camp at the foot of their cliffs. They wouldhave had us share their caves with them, but Lord John would byno means consent to it considering that to do so would put us intheir power if they were treacherously disposed. We kept ourindependence, therefore, and had our weapons ready for anyemergency, while preserving the most friendly relations. We alsocontinually visited their caves, which were most remarkableplaces, though whether made by man or by Nature we have neverbeen able to determine. They were all on the one stratum,hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanicbasalt forming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granitewhich formed their base.

The openings were about eighty feet above the ground, and wereled up to by long stone stairs, so narrow and steep that no largeanimal could mount them. Inside they were warm and dry, runningin straight passages of varying length into the side of the hill,with smooth gray walls decorated with many excellent picturesdone with charred sticks and representing the various animals ofthe plateau. If every living thing were swept from the countrythe future explorer would find upon the walls of these cavesample evidence of the strange fauna--the dinosaurs, iguanodons,and fish lizards--which had lived so recently upon earth.

Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tameherds by their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we hadconceived that man, even with his primitive weapons, had establishedhis ascendancy upon the plateau. We were soon to discover that itwas not so, and that he was still there upon tolerance.

It was on the third day after our forming our camp near theIndian caves that the tragedy occurred. Challenger and Summerleehad gone off together that day to the lake where some of thenatives, under their direction, were engaged in harpooningspecimens of the great lizards. Lord John and I had remained inour camp, while a number of the Indians were scattered about uponthe grassy slope in front of the caves engaged in different ways. Suddenly there was a shrill cry of alarm, with the word "Stoa"resounding from a hundred tongues. From every side men, women,and children were rushing wildly for shelter, swarming up thestaircases and into the caves in a mad stampede.

Looking up, we could see them waving their arms from the rocksabove and beckoning to us to join them in their refuge. We hadboth seized our magazine rifles and ran out to see what thedanger could be. Suddenly from the near belt of trees therebroke forth a group of twelve or fifteen Indians, running fortheir lives, and at their very heels two of those frightfulmonsters which had disturbed our camp and pursued me upon mysolitary journey. In shape they were like horrible toads, andmoved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of anincredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant. We had neverbefore seen them save at night, and indeed they are nocturnalanimals save when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been. We now stood amazed at the sight, for their blotched and wartyskins were of a curious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlightstruck them with an ever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved.

We had little time to watch them, however, for in an instant theyhad overtaken the fugitives and were making a dire slaughteramong them. Their method was to fall forward with their fullweight upon each in turn, leaving him crushed and mangled, tobound on after the others. The wretched Indians screamed withterror, but were helpless, run as they would, before therelentless purpose and horrible activity of these monstrous creatures. One after another they went down, and there were not half-a-dozensurviving by the time my companion and I could come to their help. But our aid was of little avail and only involved us in the same peril. At the range of a couple of hundred yards we emptied our magazines,firing bullet after bullet into the beasts, but with no more effectthan if we were pelting them with pellets of paper. Their slowreptilian natures cared nothing for wounds, and the springs oftheir lives, with no special brain center but scattered throughouttheir spinal cords, could not be tapped by any modern weapons. The most that we could do was to check their progress bydistracting their attention with the flash and roar of our guns,and so to give both the natives and ourselves time to reach thesteps which led to safety. But where the conical explosivebullets of the twentieth century were of no avail, the poisonedarrows of the natives, dipped in the juice of strophanthus andsteeped afterwards in decayed carrion, could succeed. Such arrowswere of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, becausetheir action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before itspowers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant. But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of thestairs, a drift of darts came whistling from every chink in thecliff above them. In a minute they were feathered with them,and yet with no sign of pain they clawed and slobbered withimpotent rage at the steps which would lead them to their victims,mounting clumsily up for a few yards and then sliding down againto the ground. But at last the poison worked. One of them gavea deep rumbling groan and dropped his huge squat head on to the earth. The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailingcries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes beforeit also stiffened and lay still. With yells of triumph the Indianscame flocking down from their caves and danced a frenzied danceof victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that two more of themost dangerous of all their enemies had been slain. That nightthey cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poisonwas still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence. The great reptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushion,still lay there, beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle riseand fall, in horrible independent life. It was only upon the thirdday that the ganglia ran down and the dreadful things were still.

Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and morehelpful tools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tatterednote-book, I will write some fuller account of the AccalaIndians--of our life amongst them, and of the glimpses which wehad of the strange conditions of wondrous Maple White Land. Memory, at least, will never fail me, for so long as the breathof life is in me, every hour and every action of that period willstand out as hard and clear as do the first strange happenings ofour childhood. No new impressions could efface those which areso deeply cut. When the time comes I will describe that wondrousmoonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus--astrange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, withbone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eyefixed upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net,and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the samenight that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes andcarried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe. I will tell, too, of the great nocturnal white thing--to this daywe do not know whether it was beast or reptile--which lived in avile swamp to the east of the lake, and flitted about with afaint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness. The Indians wereso terrified at it that they would not go near the place, and,though we twice made expeditions and saw it each time, we couldnot make our way through the deep marsh in which it lived. I canonly say that it seemed to be larger than a cow and had thestrangest musky odor. I will tell also of the huge bird whichchased Challenger to the shelter of the rocks one day--a greatrunning bird, far taller than an ostrich, with a vulture-likeneck and cruel head which made it a walking death. As Challengerclimbed to safety one dart of that savage curving beak shore off theheel of his boot as if it had been cut with a chisel. This timeat least modern weapons prevailed and the great creature, twelvefeet from head to foot--phororachus its name, according to ourpanting but exultant Professor--went down before Lord Roxton'srifle in a flurry of waving feathers and kicking limbs, with tworemorseless yellow eyes glaring up from the midst of it. May Ilive to see that flattened vicious skull in its own niche amidthe trophies of the Albany. Finally, I will assuredly give someaccount of the toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, withprojecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the grayof the morning by the side of the lake.

All this I shall some day write at fuller length, and amidstthese more stirring days I would tenderly sketch in these lovelysummer evenings, when with the deep blue sky above us we lay ingood comradeship among the long grasses by the wood and marveledat the strange fowl that swept over us and the quaint newcreatures which crept from their burrows to watch us, while aboveus the boughs of the bushes were heavy with luscious fruit, andbelow us strange and lovely flowers peeped at us from among theherbage; or those long moonlit nights when we lay out upon theshimmering surface of the great lake and watched with wonder andawe the huge circles rippling out from the sudden splash of somefantastic monster; or the greenish gleam, far down in the deepwater, of some strange creature upon the confines of darkness. These are the scenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon inevery detail at some future day.

But, you will ask, why these experiences and why this delay, whenyou and your comrades should have been occupied day and night in thedevising of some means by which you could return to the outer world? My answer is, that there was not one of us who was not working forthis end, but that our work had been in vain. One fact we hadvery speedily discovered: The Indians would do nothing to help us. In every other way they were our friends--one might almost say ourdevoted slaves--but when it was suggested that they should help usto make and carry a plank which would bridge the chasm, or when wewished to get from them thongs of leather or liana to weave ropeswhich might help us, we were met by a good-humored, but aninvincible, refusal. They would smile, twinkle their eyes, shaketheir heads, and there was the end of it. Even the old chief metus with the same obstinate denial, and it was only Maretas, theyoungster whom we had saved, who looked wistfully at us and toldus by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes. Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape-men they lookedupon us as supermen, who bore victory in the tubes of strangeweapons, and they believed that so long as we remained with themgood fortune would be theirs. A little red-skinned wife and acave of our own were freely offered to each of us if we would butforget our own people and dwell forever upon the plateau. So farall had been kindly, however far apart our desires might be; butwe felt well assured that our actual plans of a descent must bekept secret, for we had reason to fear that at the last they mighttry to hold us by force.

In spite of the danger from dinosaurs (which is not great save atnight, for, as I may have said before, they are mostly nocturnalin their habits) I have twice in the last three weeks been overto our old camp in order to see our negro who still kept watchand ward below the cliff. My eyes strained eagerly across thegreat plain in the hope of seeing afar off the help for which wehad prayed. But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretchedaway, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake.

"They will soon come now, Massa Malone. Before another week passIndian come back and bring rope and fetch you down." Such was thecheery cry of our excellent Zambo.

I had one strange experience as I came from this second visitwhich had involved my being away for a night from my companions. I was returning along the well-remembered route, and had reacheda spot within a mile or so of the marsh of the pterodactyls, whenI saw an extraordinary object approaching me. It was a man whowalked inside a framework made of bent canes so that he wasenclosed on all sides in a bell-shaped cage. As I drew nearer Iwas more amazed still to see that it was Lord John Roxton. When hesaw me he slipped from under his curious protection and came towardsme laughing, and yet, as I thought, with some confusion in his manner.

"Well, young fellah," said he, "who would have thought of meetin'you up here?"

"What in the world are you doing?" I asked.

"Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls," said he.

"But why?"

"Interestin' beasts, don't you think? But unsociable! Nasty rude ways with strangers, as you may remember. So Irigged this framework which keeps them from bein' too pressin'in their attentions."

"But what do you want in the swamp?"

He looked at me with a very questioning eye, and I readhesitation in his face.

"Don't you think other people besides Professors can want toknow things?" he said at last. "I'm studyin' the pretty dears. That's enough for you."

"No offense," said I.

His good-humor returned and he laughed.

"No offense, young fellah. I'm goin' to get a young devilchick for Challenger. That's one of my jobs. No, I don't wantyour company. I'm safe in this cage, and you are not. So long,and I'll be back in camp by night-fall."

He turned away and I left him wandering on through the wood withhis extraordinary cage around him.

If Lord John's behavior at this time was strange, that ofChallenger was more so. I may say that he seemed to possess anextraordinary fascination for the Indian women, and that healways carried a large spreading palm branch with which he beatthem off as if they were flies, when their attentions becametoo pressing. To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, withthis badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristlingin front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train ofwide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender draperyof bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictureswhich I will carry back with me. As to Summerlee, he wasabsorbed in the insect and bird life of the plateau, and spenthis whole time (save that considerable portion which was devotedto abusing Challenger for not getting us out of our difficulties)in cleaning and mounting his specimens.

Challenger had been in the habit of walking off by himself everymorning and returning from time to time with looks of portentoussolemnity, as one who bears the full weight of a great enterpriseupon his shoulders. One day, palm branch in hand, and his crowdof adoring devotees behind him, he led us down to his hiddenwork-shop and took us into the secret of his plans.

The place was a small clearing in the center of a palm grove. In this was one of those boiling mud geysers which I havealready described. Around its edge were scattered a number ofleathern thongs cut from iguanodon hide, and a large collapsedmembrane which proved to be the dried and scraped stomach of oneof the great fish lizards from the lake. This huge sack had beensewn up at one end and only a small orifice left at the other. Into this opening several bamboo canes had been inserted and theother ends of these canes were in contact with conical clayfunnels which collected the gas bubbling up through the mud ofthe geyser. Soon the flaccid organ began to slowly expand andshow such a tendency to upward movements that Challenger fastenedthe cords which held it to the trunks of the surrounding trees. In half an hour a good-sized gas-bag had been formed, and thejerking and straining upon the thongs showed that it was capableof considerable lift. Challenger, like a glad father in thepresence of his first-born, stood smiling and stroking his beard,in silent, self-satisfied content as he gazed at the creation ofhis brain. It was Summerlee who first broke the silence.

"You don't mean us to go up in that thing, Challenger?" said he,in an acid voice.

"I mean, my dear Summerlee, to give you such a demonstration ofits powers that after seeing it you will, I am sure, have nohesitation in trusting yourself to it."

"You can put it right out of your head now, at once," saidSummerlee with decision, "nothing on earth would induce me tocommit such a folly. Lord John, I trust that you will notcountenance such madness?"

"Dooced ingenious, I call it," said our peer. "I'd like to seehow it works."

"So you shall," said Challenger. "For some days I have exertedmy whole brain force upon the problem of how we shall descendfrom these cliffs. We have satisfied ourselves that we cannotclimb down and that there is no tunnel. We are also unable toconstruct any kind of bridge which may take us back to thepinnacle from which we came. How then shall I find a means toconvey us? Some little time ago I had remarked to our youngfriend here that free hydrogen was evolved from the geyser. The idea of a balloon naturally followed. I was, I will admit,somewhat baffled by the difficulty of discovering an envelope tocontain the gas, but the contemplation of the immense entrails ofthese reptiles supplied me with a solution to the problem. Behold the result!"

He put one hand in the front of his ragged jacket and pointedproudly with the other.

By this time the gas-bag had swollen to a goodly rotundity andwas jerking strongly upon its lashings.

"Midsummer madness!" snorted Summerlee.

Lord John was delighted with the whole idea. "Clever old dear,ain't he?" he whispered to me, and then louder to Challenger. "What about a car?"

"The car will be my next care. I have already planned how it isto be made and attached. Meanwhile I will simply show you howcapable my apparatus is of supporting the weight of each of us."

"All of us, surely?"

"No, it is part of my plan that each in turn shall descend as ina parachute, and the balloon be drawn back by means which I shallhave no difficulty in perfecting. If it will support the weightof one and let him gently down, it will have done all that isrequired of it. I will now show you its capacity in that direction."

He brought out a lump of basalt of a considerable size,constructed in the middle so that a cord could be easily attachedto it. This cord was the one which we had brought with us on tothe plateau after we had used it for climbing the pinnacle. It was over a hundred feet long, and though it was thin it wasvery strong. He had prepared a sort of collar of leather with manystraps depending from it. This collar was placed over the domeof the balloon, and the hanging thongs were gathered togetherbelow, so that the pressure of any weight would be diffused overa considerable surface. Then the lump of basalt was fastened tothe thongs, and the rope was allowed to hang from the end of it,being passed three times round the Professor's arm.

"I will now," said Challenger, with a smile of pleasedanticipation, "demonstrate the carrying power of my balloon." Ashe said so he cut with a knife the various lashings that held it.

Never was our expedition in more imminent danger of completeannihilation. The inflated membrane shot up with frightfulvelocity into the air. In an instant Challenger was pulled offhis feet and dragged after it. I had just time to throw my armsround his ascending waist when I was myself whipped up into the air. Lord John had me with a rat-trap grip round the legs, but I feltthat he also was coming off the ground. For a moment I had avision of four adventurers floating like a string of sausagesover the land that they had explored. But, happily, there werelimits to the strain which the rope would stand, though noneapparently to the lifting powers of this infernal machine. There wasa sharp crack, and we were in a heap upon the ground with coils ofrope all over us. When we were able to stagger to our feet we sawfar off in the deep blue sky one dark spot where the lump ofbasalt was speeding upon its way.

"Splendid!" cried the undaunted Challenger, rubbing his injured arm. "A most thorough and satisfactory demonstration! I could not haveanticipated such a success. Within a week, gentlemen, I promisethat a second balloon will be prepared, and that you can count upontaking in safety and comfort the first stage of our homeward journey." So far I have written each of the foregoing events as it occurred. Now I am rounding off my narrative from the old camp, where Zambohas waited so long, with all our difficulties and dangers left likea dream behind us upon the summit of those vast ruddy crags whichtower above our heads. We have descended in safety, though in amost unexpected fashion, and all is well with us. In six weeksor two months we shall be in London, and it is possible that thisletter may not reach you much earlier than we do ourselves. Already our hearts yearn and our spirits fly towards the greatmother city which holds so much that is dear to us.

It was on the very evening of our perilous adventure withChallenger's home-made balloon that the change came in our fortunes. I have said that the one person from whom we had had some sign ofsympathy in our attempts to get away was the young chief whom wehad rescued. He alone had no desire to hold us against our willin a strange land. He had told us as much by his expressivelanguage of signs. That evening, after dusk, he came down to ourlittle camp, handed me (for some reason he had always shown hisattentions to me, perhaps because I was the one who was nearesthis age) a small roll of the bark of a tree, and then pointingsolemnly up at the row of caves above him, he had put his fingerto his lips as a sign of secrecy and had stolen back again tohis people.

I took the slip of bark to the firelight and we examined it together. It was about a foot square, and on the inner side there was asingular arrangement of lines, which I here reproduce:

They were neatly done in charcoal upon the white surface, andlooked to me at first sight like some sort of rough musical score.

"Whatever it is, I can swear that it is of importance to us,"said I. "I could read that on his face as he gave it."

"Unless we have come upon a primitive practical joker," Summerleesuggested, "which I should think would be one of the mostelementary developments of man."

"It is clearly some sort of script," said Challenger.

"Looks like a guinea puzzle competition," remarked Lord John,craning his neck to have a look at it. Then suddenly hestretched out his hand and seized the puzzle.

"By George!" he cried, "I believe I've got it. The boy guessedright the very first time. See here! How many marks are on thatpaper? Eighteen. Well, if you come to think of it there areeighteen cave openings on the hill-side above us."

"He pointed up to the caves when he gave it to me," said I.

"Well, that settles it. This is a chart of the caves. What! Eighteen of them all in a row, some short, some deep, somebranching, same as we saw them. It's a map, and here's a crosson it. What's the cross for? It is placed to mark one that ismuch deeper than the others."

"One that goes through," I cried.

"I believe our young friend has read the riddle," said Challenger. "If the cave does not go through I do not understand why thisperson, who has every reason to mean us well, should have drawnour attention to it. But if it does go through and comes out atthe corresponding point on the other side, we should not have morethan a hundred feet to descend."

"A hundred feet!" grumbled Summerlee.

"Well, our rope is still more than a hundred feet long," I cried. "Surely we could get down."

"How about the Indians in the cave?" Summerlee objected.

"There are no Indians in any of the caves above our heads," said I. "They are all used as barns and store-houses. Why should we notgo up now at once and spy out the land?"

There is a dry bituminous wood upon the plateau--a species ofaraucaria, according to our botanist--which is always used by theIndians for torches. Each of us picked up a faggot of this, andwe made our way up weed-covered steps to the particular cavewhich was marked in the drawing. It was, as I had said, empty,save for a great number of enormous bats, which flapped round ourheads as we advanced into it. As we had no desire to draw theattention of the Indians to our proceedings, we stumbled along inthe dark until we had gone round several curves and penetrated aconsiderable distance into the cavern. Then, at last, we litour torches. It was a beautiful dry tunnel with smooth gray wallscovered with native symbols, a curved roof which arched over ourheads, and white glistening sand beneath our feet. We hurriedeagerly along it until, with a deep groan of bitterdisappointment, we were brought to a halt. A sheer wall of rockhad appeared before us, with no chink through which a mouse couldhave slipped. There was no escape for us there.

We stood with bitter hearts staring at this unexpected obstacle. It was not the result of any convulsion, as in the case of theascending tunnel. The end wall was exactly like the side ones. It was, and had always been, a cul-de-sac.

"Never mind, my friends," said the indomitable Challenger. "You have still my firm promise of a balloon."

Summerlee groaned.

"Can we be in the wrong cave?" I suggested.

"No use, young fellah," said Lord John, with his finger on the chart. "Seventeen from the right and second from the left. This is thecave sure enough."

I looked at the mark to which his finger pointed, and I gave asudden cry of joy.

"I believe I have it! Follow me! Follow me!"

I hurried back along the way we had come, my torch in my hand. "Here," said I, pointing to some matches upon the ground, "iswhere we lit up."

"Exactly."

"Well, it is marked as a forked cave, and in the darkness wepassed the fork before the torches were lit. On the right sideas we go out we should find the longer arm."

It was as I had said. We had not gone thirty yards before agreat black opening loomed in the wall. We turned into it tofind that we were in a much larger passage than before. Along itwe hurried in breathless impatience for many hundreds of yards. Then, suddenly, in the black darkness of the arch in front of uswe saw a gleam of dark red light. We stared in amazement. A sheet of steady flame seemed to cross the passage and to barour way. We hastened towards it. No sound, no heat, no movementcame from it, but still the great luminous curtain glowed before us,silvering all the cave and turning the sand to powdered jewels,until as we drew closer it discovered a circular edge.

"The moon, by George!" cried Lord John. "We are through, boys!We are through!"

It was indeed the full moon which shone straight down theaperture which opened upon the cliffs. It was a small rift, notlarger than a window, but it was enough for all our purposes. As we craned our necks through it we could see that the descent wasnot a very difficult one, and that the level ground was no verygreat way below us. It was no wonder that from below we had notobserved the place, as the cliffs curved overhead and an ascentat the spot would have seemed so impossible as to discourageclose inspection. We satisfied ourselves that with the help ofour rope we could find our way down, and then returned, rejoicing,to our camp to make our preparations for the next evening.

What we did we had to do quickly and secretly, since even at thislast hour the Indians might hold us back. Our stores we wouldleave behind us, save only our guns and cartridges. But Challengerhad some unwieldy stuff which he ardently desired to take with him,and one particular package, of which I may not speak, which gaveus more labor than any. Slowly the day passed, but when thedarkness fell we were ready for our departure. With much laborwe got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took onelast long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized,the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamlandof glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, sufferedmuch, and learned much--OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it. Along upon our left the neighboring caves each threw out its ruddycheery firelight into the gloom. From the slope below us rose thevoices of the Indians as they laughed and sang. Beyond was thelong sweep of the woods, and in the center, shimmering vaguelythrough the gloom, was the great lake, the mother of strange monsters. Even as we looked a high whickering cry, the call of some weirdanimal, rang clear out of the darkness. It was the very voice ofMaple White Land bidding us good-bye. We turned and plunged intothe cave which led to home.

Two hours later, we, our packages, and all we owned, were at thefoot of the cliff. Save for Challenger's luggage we had nevera difficulty. Leaving it all where we descended, we started atonce for Zambo's camp. In the early morning we approached it,but only to find, to our amazement, not one fire but a dozen uponthe plain. The rescue party had arrived. There were twentyIndians from the river, with stakes, ropes, and all that could beuseful for bridging the chasm. At least we shall have nodifficulty now in carrying our packages, when to-morrow we beginto make our way back to the Amazon.

And so, in humble and thankful mood, I close this account. Our eyes have seen great wonders and our souls are chastenedby what we have endured. Each is in his own way a better anddeeper man. It may be that when we reach Para we shall stopto refit. If we do, this letter will be a mail ahead. If not,it will reach London on the very day that I do. In either case,my dear Mr. McArdle, I hope very soon to shake you by the hand.