CHAPTER XLI.
LA BARRANCA.
As soon as Valentine was suspended from the abrupt edge of theprecipice, and obliged to ascertain carefully where to place his foot,his excitement was dispersed to give place to the cool and luciddetermination of the brave man. The task he had undertaken was not aneasy one. In his perilous descent his eyes became useless to him; hishands and feet were his only guides. Often did he feel the stone uponwhich he thought he had placed his foot firmly crumble as he began totrust his weight to it, and the branch he had seized break in his grasp.
But firm in his resolution, he kept descending, following as far aswas possible the track of his dog, who at a short distance beneath himstopped, from time to time, to guide him by his yelpings.
Presently he stopped to take breath, still continuing to repeat to hisdog the words he had never ceased to cry from the commencement of hisdescent--
"Find her, Caesar, find her!"
Suddenly the dog was mute. Much alarmed, Valentine renewed his call. Itthen appeared to him that, at about twenty feet below the spot wherehe then was, he could perceive a white form; but its outlines wereso vague and indistinct that he thought he must be the sport of anillusion, and he ventured to lean still further over, to assure himselfthat he was not deceived.
At this moment, he felt himself strongly pulled back. Like a mandelivered from a frightful nightmare, he took a confused glance aroundhim. Caesar with his forepaws firmly fixed upon the rock, was holdingthe end of his poncho in his clenched teeth.
"Can you reply to me now?" the Linda said.
"Perfectly, senorita," he replied.
"You will help me to save my daughter?"
"It was in search of her that I descended."
"Thanks, caballero!" she said, fervently; "she is close by."
Dona Rosario was lying insensible caught in some thick bushes hangingover an abyss of more than a thousand feet in depth! On perceivingher, Valentine's first impression was a feeling of wild terror. But assoon as the first moment was past, and he could look at her coolly, hebecame satisfied that she was in perfect safety.
All this had required much time, and the storm had subsided by degrees;the mist was clearing off and the sun had reappeared. Valentine thenbecame aware of all the horror of the situation which the darkness hadtill then concealed from him.
To reascend was impossible; to descend was still worse. From the clumpof myrtles near which they were, the walls of the precipice descendedin a plumb line, without any salient point upon which a foot could beplaced. One step forward was death.
The Linda saw nothing, thought of nothing, for she had her daughter tolook at. In vain Valentine racked his brains to discover some means ofovercoming this apparently insuperable difficulty. A bark from Caesarmade him raise his head. Louis had found the means which Valentine haddespaired of finding. Collecting the lassos which Chilian horsemenalways have suspended from their saddles, he had fastened them tightlytogether and had formed two ropes, which he let down the precipice.
Valentine uttered a cry of joy. Rosario was saved! As soon as thelassos were within his reach he seized them and quickly constructed achair; but here a new difficulty presented itself; how was it possibleto get the insensible girl from amidst the tangled growth?
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Linda, and bounding like a panther, shesprang into the centre of the tangled mass, which bent under her feet,took her daughter in her arms, and with a spring as sure and as rapidas the first, regained the edge of the precipice.
The young man then tied Dona Rosario in the chair, and then made asignal for hoisting it. The Aucas warriors, directed by Louis, drewthe lassos gently and firmly upwards, whilst Valentine and the Linda,clinging as well as they could to points of rocks and bushes, kept theyoung lady steady, and secured her from collision with the sharp stonesthat might have wounded her.
As soon as Don Tadeo perceived his daughter, he rushed towards her witha hoarse articulate cry, and pressing her to his panting breast hesobbed aloud, shedding a flood of tears.
"Oh!" cried the girl, clinging with childish terror to her father, andclasping her arms round his neck, "father! father! I thought I musthave died!"
"My child," said Don Tadeo, "your mother was the first to fly to yourassistance."
The Linda's face glowed with happiness, and she held out her arms toher daughter, with a supplicating look. Rosario looked at her witha mixture of fear and tenderness, and made a motion as if to throwherself into the arms that were open to her; but she suddenly checkedherself.
"Oh I cannot! I cannot!"
The Linda heaved a heavy sigh, wiped the tears which inundated hercheeks, and retired on one side.
The two Frenchmen inwardly enjoyed the sight of the happiness of DonTadeo, happiness which in part he owed to them. The Chilian approachedthem, pressed their hands warmly, and then turning to Rosario, said--
"My child, love these two gentlemen, you never can discharge your debtto them."
Both the young men blushed.
"Come, come, Don Tadeo," cried Valentine, "we have lost too much timealready. To horse, and let us be gone!"
In spite of the roughness of this reply, Dona Rosario, who comprehendedthe delicacy that had dictated it, gave the young man a look ofineffable sweetness.
The party resumed their march. The Linda was henceforward treated withrespect by all. The pardon of Don Tadeo, a pardon so nobly granted,had reinstated her in their eyes. Dona Rosario herself sometimesunconsciously smiled upon her, although she could not yet feel courageenough to respond to her caresses.
At the expiration of an hour they reached the "Sorcerer's Leap."At this place the mountain was divided in two by a fissure ofinconceivable depth, and about twenty-five feet wide.
This difficult passage has been thus named by the Aucas because,according to the legend, at the period when the conquest of Araucaniawas attempted, a Huiliche sorcerer, being closely pursued by Castiliansoldiers, leaped without hesitation over the chasm, sustained in hisperilous passage by the genii of the air. Whatever be the truth of thislegend, a bridge exists now, and our travellers passed over it withoutaccident.
"Ah!" Trangoil-Lanec exclaimed, "now we have room before us, we aresafe!"
"Not yet," Curumilla replied, pointing with his finger to a thin columnof blue smoke, which curled up towards the heavens.
"Ooch!" replied the chief, "Can that be the Black Serpents again? Canthey have preceded instead of pursuing us? How does it happen that theyventure in this manner upon the Chilian territory? We had better retirefor the night."