Under the Andes

by Rex Stout

  Chapter XX.

  AN INCA SPEAR.

  Here I might most appropriately insert a paragraph on the vanity ofhuman wishes and endeavor. But events, they say, speak for themselves;and still, for my own part, I prefer the philosopher to the historian.Mental digestion is a wearisome task; you are welcome to it.

  To the story. As I have said, we missed the wall of the tunnel by ascant ten feet, and we kept on missing it. Once under the arch, ourraft developed a most stubborn inclination to bump up against the rockybanks instead of staying properly in the middle of the current, as itshould.

  First to one side, then to the other, it swung, while Harry and I keptit off with our oars, often missing a collision by inches. But atleast the banks were smooth and level, and as long as the stream itselfremained clear of obstruction there was but little real danger.

  The current was not nearly so swift as I had expected it would be. Inthe semidarkness it was difficult to calculate our rate of speed, but Ijudged that we were moving at about six or seven miles an hour.

  We had gone perhaps three miles when we came to a sharp bend in thestream, to the left, almost at a right angle. Harry, at the bow, wassupposed to be on the lookout, but he failed to see it until we werealready caught in its whirl.

  Then he gave a cry of alarm, and together we swung the raft to theleft, avoiding the right bank of the curve by less than a foot. Oncesafely past, I sent Harry to the stern and took the bow myself, whichbrought down upon him a deal of keen banter from Desiree.

  There the tunnel widened, and the raft began to glide easily onward,without any of its sudden dashes to right or left. I rested on my oar,gazing intently ahead; at the best I could make out the walls a hundredyards ahead, and but dimly. All was silence, save the gentle swish ofthe water against the sides of the raft and the patter of Harry's oardipping idly on one side or the other.

  Suddenly Desiree's voice came through the silence, soft and very low:

  "Pendant une anne' toute entiere, Le regiment na Pas r'paru. Au Ministere de la Guerre On le r'porta comme perdu.

  "On se r'noncait a r'trouver sa trace, Quand un matin subitement, On le vit r'paraitre sur la place, L'Colonel toujours en avant."

  I waited until the last note had died away in the darkness.

  "Are those your thoughts?" I asked then, half turning.

  "No," said Desiree, "but I want to kill my thoughts. As for them--"

  She hesitated, and after a short pause her voice again broke intomelody:

  "Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail That brings our friends up from the underworld; Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more."

  Her voice, subdued and low, breathed a sweetness that seemed almost tobe of another world. My ear quivered with the vibrations, and longafter she was silent the last mellow note floated through my brain.

  Suddenly I became conscious of another sound, scarcely less musical.It, too, was low; so low and faint that at first I thought my eardeceived me, or that some distant echo was returning Desiree's songdown the dark tunnel.

  Gradually, very gradually, it became louder and clearer, until atlength I recognized it. It was the rush of water, unbroken, still lowand at a great distance. I turned to remark on it to Harry, butDesiree took the words from my mouth.

  "I seem to hear something--like the surf," she said. "That isn'tpossible, is it?"

  I could have smiled but for the deep note of hope in her voice.

  "Hardly," I answered. "I have heard it for several minutes. It isprobably some shallows. We must look sharp."

  Another fifteen minutes, and I began to notice that the speed of thecurrent was increasing. The sound of the rushing water, too, was quitedistinct. Still the raft moved more and more swiftly, till I began tofeel alarmed. I turned to Harry:

  "That begins to sound like rapids. See that the spears are fastenedsecurely, and stand ready with your oar. Sit tight, Desiree."

  One thing was certain: there was nothing to do but go ahead. On bothsides the walls of the tunnel rose straight up from the surface of thewater; there was nowhere room for a landing-place--not even a foot fora purchase to stay our flight. To go back was impossible; at the ratethe current was now carrying us we could not have held the raft evenfor a moment without oars.

  Soon we were gliding forward so swiftly that the raft trembled underus; from the darkness ahead came the sound of the rapids, now increasedto a roar that filled the tunnel and deafened us. I heard Harryshouting something, but could not make out the words; we were shootingforward with the speed of an express train and the air about us wasfull of flying water.

  The roar of the rapids became louder and louder. I turned for aninstant, shouting at the top of my voice: "Flat on your faces, and holdon for dear life!" Then I dropped down with my oar under me, passing myfeet under two of the straps and clinging to two others with my hands.

  Another few seconds passed that seemed an hour. The raft was swayingand lurching with the mad force of the current. I called out again toHarry and Desiree, but my words were completely drowned by thedeafening, stunning roar of the water. All was darkness and confusion.I kept asking myself: "Why doesn't it come?" It seemed an age since Ihad thrown myself on my face.

  Suddenly the raft leaped up under me and away. It seemed as thoughsome giant hand had grasped it from beneath and jerked it down withtremendous force. The air was filled with water, lashing my face andbody furiously. The raft whirled about like a cork. I gripped thestraps with all the strength that was in me. Down, down we went intothe darkness; my breath was gone and my brain whirled dizzily.

  There was a sudden sharp lurch, a jerk upward, and I felt the surfaceof the water close over me. Blinded and dazed, I clung to my holddesperately, struggling with the instinct to free myself. For severalseconds the roar of the cataract sounded in my ears with a furiousfaintness, as though it were at a great distance; then I felt the airagain and a sudden cessation of motion.

  I opened my eyes, choking and sputtering. For a time I could seenothing; then I made out Desiree's form, and Harry's, stretched behindme on the raft. At the same instant Harry's voice came:

  "Paul! Ah, Desiree!"

  In another moment we were at her side. Her hands held to the straps oneach side with a grip as of death; we had to pry off each of herfingers separately to loosen them. Then we bent her over Harry's kneeand worked her arms up and down, and soon her chest heaved convulsivelyand her lungs freed themselves of the water they had taken. Presentlyshe turned about; her eyes opened and she pressed her hands to her head.

  "Don't say 'Where am I?'" said Harry, "because we don't know. How doyou feel?"

  "I don't know," she answered, still gasping for breath. "What was it?What did we do?"

  I left them then, turning to survey the extent of our damage. Therewas absolutely none; we were as intact as when we started. Theprovisions and spears remained under their straps; my oar lay where Ihad fallen on it. The raft appeared to be floating easily as before,without a scratch.

  The water about us was churned into foam, though we had already beencarried so far from the cataract that it was lost behind us in thedarkness; only its roar reached our ears. To this day I haven't thefaintest idea of its height; it may have been ten feet or two hundred.Harry says a thousand.

  We were moving slowly along on the surface of what appeared to be alake, still carried forward by the force of the falls behind us. Formy part, I found its roar bewildering and confusing, and I picked up myoar and commenced to paddle away from it; at least, so I judged.

  Harry's voice came from behind:

  "In the name of goodness, where did you get that oar?"

  I turned.

  "Young man, a good sailor never loses an oar. How do you feel,Desiree?"

  "Like a drowned rat," she answered, but with a laugh in her voice."I'm faint and sick and wet, and
my throat is ready to burst, but Iwouldn't have missed that for anything. It was glorious! I'd like todo it again."

  "Yes, you would," said Harry skeptically. "You're welcome, thank you.But what I want to know is, where did that oar come from?"

  I explained that I had taken the precaution to fall on it.

  "Do you never lose your head?" asked Desiree.

  "No, merely my heart."

  "Oh, as for that," she retorted, with a lightness that still had asting, "my good friend, you never had any."

  Whereupon I returned to my paddling in haste.

  Soon I discovered that though, as I have said, we appeared to be in alake--for I could see no bank on either side--there was still acurrent. We drifted slowly, but our movement was plainly perceptible,and I rested on my oar.

  Presently a wall loomed up ahead of us and I saw that the stream againnarrowed down as it entered the tunnel, much lower than the one abovethe cataract. The current became swifter as we were carried toward itsmouth, and I called to Harry to get his spear to keep us off from thewalls if it should prove necessary. But we entered exactly in thecenter and were swept forward with a rush.

  The ceiling of the tunnel was so low that we could not stand upright onthe raft, and the stream was not more than forty feet wide. That wasanything but promising; if the stream really ran through to the westernslope, its volume of water should have been increasing instead ofdiminishing. I said nothing of that to Harry or Desiree.

  We had sailed along thus without incident for upward of half an hour,when my carelessness, or the darkness, nearly brought us to grief.Suddenly, without warning, there was a violent jar and the raftrebounded with a force that all but threw us into the water. Coming toa bend in the stream, the current had dashed us against the other bank.

  But, owing to the flexibility of its sides, the raft escaped damage. Ihad my oar against the wall instantly, shoving off, and we swung roundand caught the current again round the curve.

  But that bend was to the left, as the other had been, which meant thatwe were now going in exactly the opposite direction of that in which wehad started! Which, in turn, meant the death of hope; we were merelywinding in and out in a circle and getting nowhere. Harry and Desireehad apparently not noticed the fact, and I said nothing of it. Timeenough when they should find out for themselves; and besides, there wasstill a chance, though a slim one.

  Soon the bed of the stream became nearly level, for we barely moved.The roof of the tunnel was very low--but a scant foot above our headsas we sat or crouched on the raft. It was necessary to keep a sharplookout ahead; a rock projecting from above would have swept us intothe water.

  The air, too, was close and foul; our breath became labored anddifficult; and Desiree, half stifled and drowsy, passed into a fitfuland broken sleep, stirring restlessly and panting for air. Harry hadtaken the bow and I lay across the stern. Suddenly his voice came,announcing that we had left the tunnel.

  I sat up quickly and looked round. The walls were no longer to beseen; we had evidently entered a cavern similar to the one in which wehad embarked.

  "Shall we lay off?" I asked, stepping across to Harry's side.

  He assented, and I took the oar and worked the raft over to the left.There was but little current and she went well in. In a few minutes wewere in shallow water, and Harry and I jumped off and shoved her to thebank.

  Desiree sat up, rubbing her eyes.

  "Where are we?" she asked.

  Harry explained while we beached the raft. Then we broke out ourprovisions and partook of them.

  "But why do we stop?" asked Desiree.

  The words "Because we are not getting anywhere" rose to my lips, but Ikept them back.

  "For a rest and some air," I answered.

  Desiree exclaimed: "But I want to go on!"

  So as soon as we had eaten our fill we loaded the stuff again andprepared to shove off. By that time I think Harry, too, had realizedthe hopelessness of our expedition, for he had lost all his enthusiasm;but he said nothing, nor did I. We secured Desiree on her pile ofskins and again pushed out into the current.

  The cavern was not large, for we had been under way but a few minuteswhen its wall loomed up ahead and the stream again entered a tunnel, solow and narrow that I hesitated about entering at all. I consultedHarry.

  "Take a chance," he advised. "Why not? As well that as anything."

  We slipped through the entrance.

  The current was extremely sluggish, and we barely seemed to move.Still we went forward.

  "If we only had a little speed we could stand it," Harry grumbled.

  Which shows that a man does not always appreciate a blessing. It wasnot long before we were offering up thanks that our speed had been soslight.

  To be exact, about an hour, as well as I could measure time, whichpassed slowly; for not only were the minutes tedious, but the foulnessof the air made them also extremely uncomfortable. Desiree was againlying down, half-unconscious but not asleep, for now and then she spokedrowsily. Harry complained of a dizziness in the head, and my ownseemed ready to burst through my temples. The soroche of the mountainswas agreeable compared to that.

  Suddenly the swiftness of the current increased appreciably on theinstant; there was a swift jerk as we were carried forward. I rose tomy knees--the tunnel was too low to permit of standing--and gazedintently ahead. I could see nothing save that the stream had narrowedto half its former width, and was still becoming narrower.

  We went faster and faster, and the stream narrowed until the bank wasbut a few feet away on either side.

  "Watch the stern!" I called to Harry. "Keep her off with your spear!"

  Then a wall loomed up directly ahead. I thought it meant another bendin the stream, and I strained my eyes intently in the effort todiscover its direction, but I could see nothing save the black wall.We approached closer; I shouted to Harry and Desiree to bracethemselves for a shock, praying that the raft would meet the rocksquarely and not on a corner.

  I had barely had time to set myself and grasp the straps behind when westruck with terrific force. The raft rebounded several feet, tremblingand shaking violently. The water was rushing past us with noisyimpetuosity.

  There was a cry from Desiree, and from Harry, "All right!" I crawled tothe bow. Along the top the hide covering had been split open forseveral feet, but the water did not quite reach the opening.

  And we had reached the end of our ambitious journey. For that blackwall marked the finish of the tunnel; the stream entered it through anarrow hole, which accounted for the sudden, swift rush of the current.Above the upper rim of the hole the surface of the water whirled aboutin a widening circle; to this had we been led by the stream that was tohave carried us to the land of sunshine.

  When I told Desiree she stared at me in silence! I had not realizedbefore the strength of her hope. Speechless with disappointment, shemerely sat and stared straight ahead at the black, unyielding rock.Harry knelt beside her with his arm across her shoulders.

  I roused him with a jerk of the arm.

  "Come--get busy! A few hours in this hole and we'd suffocate. Do yourealize that we've got to pull this raft back against the current?"

  First it was necessary to repair the rent in the hide covering. Thiswe did with strips of hide; and barely in time, for it was becomingwider every minute, and the water was beginning to creep in over theedge. But we soon had the ends sewed firmly together and turned ourhands to the main task.

  It appeared to be not only difficult, but actually impossible to forcethe raft back up-stream against the swift current. We were jammedagainst the rock with all the force of many tons of water. The oar wasuseless.

  Getting a purchase on the wall with our hands, we shoved the raft toone side; but as soon as we got to the wall on the left the whirlingstream turned us around again, and we found ourselves back in ouroriginal position, only with a different side of the raft against therock. That happened three times.r />
  Then we tried working to the right instead of the left, but with nobetter success. The force of the current, coming with all its speedagainst the unwieldy raft, was irresistible. Time and again we shovedround and started upstream, after incredible labor, only to be dashedback again against the rock.

  We tried our spears, but their shafts were so slender that they wereuseless. We took the oar and, placing its end against the wall, shovedwith all our strength. The oar snapped in two and we fell forwardagainst the wall. We tore off some of the strips of hide from the raftand tried to fasten them to the wall on either side, but there was noprotuberance that would hold them. Nothing remained to be done.

  Harry and I held a consultation then and agreed on the only possiblemeans of escape. I turned to Desiree:

  "Can you swim?"

  "Parfaitement," she replied. "But against that"--pointing to thewhirling water--"I do not know. I can try."

  I, who remember the black fury of that stream as it swept past us, canappreciate the courage of her.

  We lost no time, for the foulness of the air was weakening us withevery breath we took. Our preparations were few.

  The two spears and about half of the provisions we strapped to ourbacks--an inconsiderable load which would hamper us but little. Wediscarded all our clothing, which was very little. I took the heavyskin which Desiree had worn and began to strap it also on top of mybundle, but she refused to allow it.

  "I will not permit you to be handicapped with my modesty," she observed.

  Then, with Desiree between us, we stepped to the edge of the raft anddived off together.

  Driven as we were by necessity, we would have hesitated longer if wehad known the full force of the undercurrent that seized us frombeneath. Desiree would have disappeared without a struggle if it hadnot been for the support which Harry and I rendered her on either side.

  But we kept on top--most of the time--and fought our way forward byinches. The black walls frowning at us from either side appeared to meto remain exactly the same, stationary, after a long and desperatestruggle; but when I gave a quick glance behind I saw that we hadpulled so far away from the raft that it was no longer in sight. Thatgave me renewed strength, and, shouting assurance to Harry and Desiree,I redoubled my efforts. Desiree was by now almost able to hold herown, but we still supported her.

  Every stroke made the next one easier, carrying us away from thewhirlpool, and soon we swam smoothly. Less and less strong became theresistance of the current, until finally it was possible to floateasily on our backs and rest.

  "How far is it to the cavern?" Harry panted.

  "Somewhere between one and ten miles," was my answer. "How the deuceshould I know? But we'll make it now, I think. Can you hold out,Desiree?"

  "Easily," she answered. "If only I could get some air! Just one good,long breath."

  There was the danger, and on that account no time was to be lost.Again we struck out into the blackness ahead. I felt myself no longerfresh, and began to doubt seriously if we should reach our goal.

  But we reached it. No need to recount our struggles, which toward theend were inspired by suffering amounting to agony as we choked andgasped for sufficient air to keep us up.

  Another hundred yards would have been too much for us; but it is enoughthat finally we staggered onto the bank at the entrance to the cavernin which we had previously rested, panting, dizzy, and completelyexhausted.

  But an hour in the cavern, with its supply of air, revived us; and thenwe sat up and asked ourselves: "What for?"

  "And all that brings us--to this," said Harry, with a sweeping gestureround the cavern.

  "At least, it is a better tomb," I retorted. "And it was a good fight.We still have something in us. Desiree, a good man was lost in you."

  Harry rose to his feet.

  "I'm going to look round," he announced. "We've got to do something.Gad, and it took us a month to build that raft!"

  "The vanity of human endeavor," said I, loosening the strap round myshoulders and dropping my bundle to the ground. "Wait a minute; I'mgoing with you. Are you coming, Desiree?"

  But she was too tired to rise to her feet, and we left her behind,arranging what few skins we had as well as possible to protect her fromthe hard rock.

  "Rest your weary bones," said Harry, stooping to kiss her. "There'smeat here if you want it. We'll be back soon."

  So we left her, with her white body stretched out at its full length onthe rude mat.

  Bearing off to the left, we soon discovered that we would have nodifficulty to leave the cavern; we had only to choose our way. Therewas scarcely any wall at all, so broken was it by lanes and passagesleading in all directions.

  We followed some of them for a distance, but found none that gave anyparticular promise. Most of them were choked with rocks and bouldersthrough which it was difficult to force a passage. We spent an hour ormore in these futile explorations, then followed the wall some distanceto the right.

  Gradually the exits became less numerous. High on a boulder near theentrance of one we saw the head of some animal peering down at us. Wehurled our spears at it, but missed; then were forced to climb up thesteep side of the boulder to recover our weapons.

  "We'd better go back to Desiree," said Harry when we reached the groundagain. "She'll wonder what's become of us. We've been gone nearly twohours."

  After fifteen minutes' search we found the stream, and followed it tothe left. We had gone farther than we thought, and we were looking forthe end, where we had left Desiree, long before we reached it. Severaltimes we called her name, but there was no answer.

  "She's probably asleep," said Harry. And a minute later: "There's thewall at last! But where is she?"

  My foot struck something on the ground, and I stooped over to examineit.

  It was the pile of skins on which Desiree had lain!

  I called to Harry, and at the same instant heard his shout ofconsternation as he came running toward me, holding something in hishand.

  "They've got her! Look! Look at this! I found it on the ground overthere."

  He held the thing in his hand out before me.

  It was an Inca spear.