Year: 1875

or whether he was Just tlred and dizzy
like the rest of us, can't say-but down
he went, and we never saw him more. So
now we were cut down to five, and had
lost our guide into the bargain.


"That's bad job, says Seth; "but
never mind, boys-we must jest steer by
the light of natur' now. Whar thar's a
bridge like that thar oughter be trail
somewhar."


Sure enough there was q trail, and we
tried to follow it, but we soon lost it
again, and tramped on all day at hap
hazard, trying to steer by the sun.


Toward evening we halted to eat, and
then pushed on again hot foot; for that
was the last of our provisions.


Just AZ the moon rose we came upon q
gully with bridge across it, and there
we all stopped dead and looked at each
other-a look | shall never forget 1t
was the same bridge that we had crossed
twelve hours before


That minutes one of the things never
like to think of. There we were, lost in
tropical forest, our guide gone, every
man of us as weak as child, and not a
morsel of food left


"Well, boys" says old Seth (who was
our mainstay throughout, "we're in a
kind of fix, thar amt no denyin' it.
Naow, / calc'late this bridge amt bin
long built by the look of it, and so, in
stead o. goin' losin ourselves outer
everybody's way, / guess we'll jest stick
here till some party picks us up it won't
be long, l reckin. That's my idee; how
does it strike yew?"


oil ~
were too far gone now for any more
marching. So we sat down there for
three days, bearing it as well as we could,
and trying to shoot game between whiles.
But our eyes were too dim and our hands
too shaky for that; and the birds and
monkeys scurried past, chattering and
screaming as f in mockery. And at last
we couldn't keep it off any longer, and it
came.


The Spaniards died first, and no Won
der, poor fellows for though some of
them are as brave men as ever stepped,
they haven't the pith and fiber of an
Englishman. The Portuguese held out
longer, for he had the heart of lion; but
at last he went too, and old Seth and
were left alone.





fellows while we can; for if they're left
lying here, and our hunger gets worse,
we might be driven to-you know! !"


So we wrapped the poor fellows in their
blankets, with heavy stone in each, and
rolled them over the edge of the ravine
down into the water. We buried the
gold, too, and marked the spot, in case
anything should turn up to save us at
the last; and then we lay down again, as
if we had nothing left to do but to die.


And after that everything seems
blurred and hazy, like an ugly dream.
The trees and the rocks and the sky
seemed to go round and round in a whirl,
and old Seth stood up as tall as steeple,
and great black things came out of the
bushes and made faces at me; and then
/ was sitting under the old tree in the
churchyard at home, and heard my old
mothers voice (who's been dead this five
and twenty years. as plain as print; till
all at once there were mems faces and
mems voices all around us, and / felt
somebody lifting my head and pouring
something into my mouth, and then l
tainted right off.


We had been picked up by a party
coming back from the mines, and they
carried us down with them to africa; and
when we got round again we went back
and dug up the gold, and gave a Jumping
lot of it to the wives and children of the
poor fellows that had died for us.


But when ] got back after that last
weeks work my hair was quite gray-as
gray as you see it now. And that's all
the story.