CHAPTER XVI
THE SEARCH BEGINS
In a few minutes all were ready to go on again. Harry had asked Mariaif she would like to go down the ladder and wait till they returned.
"No, senor, I should not like it at all. I don't care how full of batsthe rooms are, now that I know what they are. As for Dias, I have nodoubt that the first time he heard them he was just as frightened."
"No, I was not; but I dare say I should have been if the man I waswith--I was then only about Jose's age--had not told me that the cavernwas full of bats. There was a great storm coming on, and he proposedthat we should take shelter there. We brought the mules into the mouthof the cave, and he said, 'Now, we will light a torch and go in a bitfarther, and then you will be astonished. It is a bat cavern, and Ihave no doubt there are thousands of them here. They won't hurt us,though they may knock out our torch, and the noise they make is enoughto scare one out of one's senses, if one does not know what it is.'Though I did know, I own I was frightened a bit; but since then I havebeen into several such caves, so I knew in a moment what it was. Iought to have warned the senors, for an old house like this, wherethere is very little light, is just the place for them."
"But there were birds too, Dias."
"Yes, I expect they were nearer. Perhaps some of them were in the otherrooms, where they would be close to the openings. But they wereprobably scared too by the noise of the bats, and as the windows behindwere too small for them all to fly out together, they made for thelight instead."
"Well, now, let us start," Harry said, getting up. They again littheir torches, and this time found everything perfectly quiet in thepassage. Two or three yards beyond the spot at which they had beforearrived they saw a staircase to the left. It was faintly lighted fromabove, and, mounting it, they found themselves in a room extending overthe whole width and depth of the house. The roof at the eastern end wasnot supported by pillars, but by walls three feet wide and seven oreight feet apart. The first line of these was evidently over the wallof the room they had left. There were four lines of similar supportserected, they had no doubt, over the walls of rooms below. The lightfrom the four windows in front, and from an irregular opening at theother end some three feet high and six inches wide, afforded sufficientlight for them to move about without difficulty. There were many signsof human habitation here. Along the sides were the remains of mats,which had apparently divided spaces six feet wide into smallapartments. Turning these over they found many trifles--arrow-heads,bead-necklaces, fragments of pots, and even a child's doll.
"I expect this is the room where the married troops lived and slept,"Harry said; "there is not much to see here."
The two stories above were exactly similar, except that there were noremains of dividing mats nor of female ornaments. They walked to thenarrow end. Here the opening for light was of a different shape fromthose in the rooms below. It had apparently been originally of the sameshape, but had been altered. In the middle it was, like the others,three feet high and six inches wide, but a foot from the bottom therewas a wide cut, a foot high and three feet wide. As they approached itDias gave an exclamation of surprise. Two skeletons lay below it. "Theymust have been on watch here, senor, when they died," he said as theycame up to them.
"It is a rum place to watch," Bertie said, "for you cannot see out."
"You are right, Bertie, it is a curious hole."
The wall was over two feet thick; all the other openings had beendriven straight through it, and, as they had noticed, were doubtlessmade in the stones before they were placed there, for inside they werecleanly cut, and it was only within three inches of the outer face thatthe edges had been left rough. This opening was of quite a differentcharacter. It sloped at a sharp angle, and no view of the open seacould be obtained, but only one of the line of rocks at the foot of thecliffs. It was roughly made, and by the marks of tools, probably ofhardened copper, it had evidently been cut from the inside.
Harry stood looking for some time. "I cannot understand their cuttingthe hole like this. It could not be noticed from the sea that there wasan opening at all; that is plain enough. But why make the hole at allwhen you can see nothing from it? And yet a watch has been placed here,while there was none at the other places where they could make out anypassing ship."
"Perhaps," Bertie said, "it was done in order that if from the otherplaces boats were seen approaching, they could chuck big stones downfrom here and sink any boat that might row inside the rocks into theentrance to the passage, which, as this is in the middle of the room,must be just under us."
"In that case they would have kept a supply of big stones here. I haveno doubt whatever that it was made some time after the castle wasbuilt, and I should say, judging by its unfinished state, the work wasdone in haste. But what for, goodness only knows. Well now, having madeno discoveries whatever on the upper floor, we will go down. It iscertain that there can be no great treasure hidden under any of thesefloors, there is not depth enough for hiding-places. I counted thesteps as we came upstairs, and there cannot be much more than two feetbetween the floor of one room and the ceiling in the next. I fancy thatthis is of single stones, each the flooring length of the space betweenthe half-walls. You see that there is a long beam of stone running onthe top of the dividing wall, and the ends of these stones appear torest on it. It is below that we must look for hiding-places."
They descended to the first floor. They found that the space behind thegreat room was divided into a number of chambers. All of these, withthe exception of the small one on the sea-face, were necessarily inabsolute darkness, and in all were brackets for torches, similar tothose in the principal chamber. Bertie counted them, and found that,including those first met with, they numbered one hundred andtwenty-three.
"How much do you think they weigh apiece?" he asked Harry when the tourwas finished.
"I have not the slightest idea, Bertie. I should think about fifteenpounds, but it may be five pounds less than that. They would certainlygive a very nasty knock on the head."
"Oh, I was not thinking of knocks on the head. If there are a hundredbars at fifteen pounds apiece, it is a big amount of silver; if theyare only ten pounds each--and really I think that is nearer themark--they weigh a thousand pounds. What is silver worth a pound?"
"It varies. You can put it at five shillings an ounce; that would bethree pounds sterling for one of silver--three thousand pounds in arough calculation for the lot."
"Well, that is not a bad beginning, Harry; it would pay all theexpenses and leave a couple of thousand over."
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "A drop in the ocean as far as I amconcerned, Bertie. Still, it is a beginning; and you may be sure thatthey did not take all this trouble to guard this castle for the sake ofthree thousand pounds' worth of silver."
They now went down to the next floor. Here there were two staircases,and the space was divided into two parts by a wall along the centre.There were no openings whatever for light. One half had evidently beendevoted to arms. Here still lay hundreds of spear-shafts, tens ofthousands of arrows, piles of hide shields, and caps of the samematerial.
"This store must have been larger than was required for the garrison ofthe place," Harry said, "it must have been a reserve for re-arming awhole tribe."
Besides the arms there were great bales of rough cloth and piles ofskins, all in a marvellous state of preservation owing to the drynessof the air. After thoroughly examining the room they went up the stairsleading into it and descended those into the adjoining chamber. Thiswas divided into compartments by transverse walls four feet shorterthan the width, thereby leaving a passage through from end to end. Herein confusion--for the most part turned inside out--were sacks ofmatting and bags of leather. One of the compartments was filled withgreat jars arranged in tiers. Some of the compartments were quite empty.
"I think, senor, that these were stores of loose grain, probably maize.I do not see a single grain left."
They looked carefully round with t
he torches. "This carries out ouridea, Dias, that the people upstairs died of hunger. I have no doubt,as you say, that the sacks did contain grain. If these had been clearedin the ordinary way there would certainly remain a good deal looselyscattered about. They might have been full or half-full at the time theplace was left as we found it. Possibly, instead of ten men, thegarrison may have been ten times as strong at first, but in the fiftyor hundred years before the last survivors died they may have dwindledto a tenth of that number. However, it is plain that, as you say, thestore of food was not carried away, but was consumed to the last grain.In the same way you can see, by the way the sacks and bags are tumbledabout and turned inside out, how careful was the search for any remnantthat might have been overlooked when they were first emptied. It allpoints to starvation."
Three of the largest divisions bore evident traces that at some time orother, animals, probably llamas or vicunas, had been closely pennedthere. Another had been occupied by a store of hay, some of which stillremained. When they had thoroughly examined this room, Harry looked athis watch and said, "It is late in the afternoon--our torches arenearly finished; however, there is time for a casual look round at thecellars below. To-morrow we will begin a regular search there."
They descended by the staircase to the basement.
"How narrow this place is!" Bertie exclaimed. "It is not much more thanhalf the width of the room above."
"Of course it is not; the two rooms above occupied the whole width ofthe house, these only occupy the width between the passage and therock-wall on each side. You see, the tunnel is twelve feet wide, and wemay take it that these walls are at least three feet thick--it is notas if they had been built of brick, or even of stones cut to shape.They knew nothing of the arch, and, as you saw outside, this came upnearly to a point. The stones were longer and longer with each course,each projecting over the one below it, until, when they were within twofeet of joining, a very long slab was laid across them. The stones maybe three feet wide at the bottom and ten feet at the top, and you seethe wall extends over here in the same way--as of course it must havedone, otherwise the whole thing would have overbalanced and fallen inbefore that slab at the top was added. So, you see, there is the widthof the tunnel, twelve feet, and the two walls, say six feet more, to betaken off the fifty feet. So the cellars by the side of the passage canonly be about sixteen feet and a half at this end, which is what theyseem to be, and will go away to nothing at the other end, as we shallsee presently."
The first thing they saw was a sunken tank in the floor. This was fullof water. It was about four feet square, and on sounding it with one ofthe ramrods, they found it was about the same in depth, the watercoming to within a foot of the top. It was against the wall facing theravine.
"This must have some connection with the stream. Otherwise it wouldhave been dry long ago."
"We did not see any hole when we went down the passage," Bertie said.
"No. Most likely a hole something like this was cut in the rockoutside, and a pipe driven to the bottom of this cistern. They wouldonly have to fill the one in the tunnel with cut blocks to within afoot of the surface, and with smaller stones to the same level as thebed of the stream; then the water in the cistern would always be levelwith that outside. They put it in this end so as to be well out ofreach of the salt water farther in. They were no fools who built thisplace. However closely they were besieged, and even if the enemyoccupied the space in front of the house, their water-supply wassecure."
"But in time of floods, Harry, if the water rose a foot in thepassage--and we saw it did more than that--it would flood the whole ofthis basement."
"That is so, Bertie; but you may be sure that there was some provisionagainst that. They would have some valve that they could shut, orpossibly there was a block of wood covered with leather that they couldpush into the pipe at the bottom of this cistern."
Beyond a considerable store of firewood, in large and small blocks,nothing could be seen in the chamber.
"I expect these two places were used as prisons," Harry said, "thoughin case a very large force were assembled some may have slept here. Atordinary times the upper rooms would be quite sufficient. But you seethey had to build the whole height of the rocky arch, and they wantedthe entrance to the place to be so far above the ground-level that itwould be extremely difficult for an enemy to climb into it. A hostileforce could only have come in at that entrance, and a small body ofdetermined men might have held it against a host. These lower chamberswere simply cellars; the store-rooms were above them, and the habitablepart of the castle. Now let us look at the chamber on the other side;no doubt we shall find it just like this."
This proved to be the case. There were another cistern and more pilesof firewood, otherwise it was empty. After a short survey they returnedto the main chamber, bringing up with them two of the empty leatherbags. In these they placed the bones of the dead, the remains allcrumbling when touched, as the first skeleton had done. The bags werelowered to the ground, and the four searchers descended and carriedthem to the mouth of the ravine. In a spare bag which they brought withthem they placed the bones of the two skeletons on the steps, and thencarried them all out to the open valley.
"We will bury them when we move the camp down here to-morrow morning,"Harry said. "We forgot the two up at that window. That is no matter, wecan throw them out to-morrow; they will lie as well at the bottom ofthe sea as in the earth here."
Not much was said as they returned to the castle. They had been a verysilent party all day. The gloom and darkness, the way in which theirvoices echoed in the empty hall, had exercised a depressing effect onthem; and Donna Maria, generally the most talkative of the party, hadnot quite recovered from the shock which the exit of the bats had givenher. It was not until she had cooked a meal, and they all sat down toit, that they quite recovered their spirits. They had found Joseawaiting their return. He had a blazing fire, having brought down asmuch firewood as he could carry, and Dias had briefly told him theresult of their explorations.
"Well, Harry, what do you think altogether?" Bertie asked after themeal was over.
"I think we ought to be very well satisfied," he replied. "Everythinghas borne out the ideas we had. The castle may have been built as afortress by some great chief, certainly before the time of the Incas,or it may have been used for a prison. The ornaments and things wefound showed that it was known to the Incas. They would have had nooccasion to use it when they were undisputed masters of the country,but when the troubles came with the Spaniards a garrison was placedhere, and possibly some of their chiefs took refuge in the place. Thencame the time when all opposition to the invaders ceased, and only asmall body of men were left here to guard the secret, and the treasureif there were any. Generations may have passed before the last of thegarrison died of hunger, and probably all others who were in the secretfell in some insurrection or died in the mines. All this seems plainenough, except that possibly there was no treasure. That left by theChimoos may have been discovered by the Incas. I should think itextremely likely that the ship Dias mentioned as setting out with alarge amount of treasure was intended to land its stores here.
"It may have done so, or it may have sunk at sea. I am inclined tothink that it was lost, because the traditions concerning these hiddentreasures seem to be extremely accurate; and yet, as Dias says, nonetell of any Inca treasure being concealed here. However, it is quitepossible that the treasure did come here and was landed, and that theship was then broken up, so that it might be supposed she was lost atsea, and that this was kept so profound a secret by the men here, thatthe news was never generally known even among the natives. So far oursearch to-day has been successful, but I see that a hunt for thetreasure will be a very difficult one. Certainly in the upper chambersthere doesn't appear any possibility of such a hiding-place existing.The whole space is accounted for. The walls are all of solid stone, andhave no special thickness. If the roofs had been arched there might beempty spaces on each side of the spring of t
he arch, but they aresupported by pillars or walls, with only just space between the floorsfor the beams of solid stone. Of course it is in the lowest room thatone would expect to find hiding-places like those we saw atPachacamac." He paused.
"Well, why should they not be there, Harry?"
"Because, as we saw, the floor is at most twelve inches above thewater-level. How is it possible that they could have constructedchambers below that level, that is in the bed of a torrent? It isprobable that the solid rock lies many feet below the bed of thestream. A portion of that great arch must from time to time have falleninto it; and it may be that the river once ran forty or fifty feetbelow its present level. In all the places that we have seen thesetreasure chambers were formed in solid adobe foundations, as thetemples always stood on artificial terraces. With all our appliances atthe present time it would be next to impossible to sink in a stratum ofgreat rock fragments below the water level, and I do not believe thatthe old people here could have done so even had it been a solid rock.The difficulties of excavating chambers in it would have been enormous.They could split rocks with the grain, and all the stone walls we haveseen were made of regular pieces, and evidently formed of stone sosplit. They were able to give them a sort of facing with great labour,but the tools they had were not made of material hard enough to work insolid rock, and the labour of excavating such chambers would have beenstupendous. Therefore I am at a loss to imagine where any such chamberscan be in that castle."
Dias nodded gravely. He had been with travellers who had done a greatdeal of excavation, and he was able to understand Harry's argument.Maria, who was listening attentively, also understood it. Jose simplyrolled cigarettes and smoked them. It was a matter for his elders, andhe did not even try to follow what Harry was saying. There was someminutes' silence, and then Bertie said, "But the floors are all even."
"What do you mean, Bertie?" Harry asked in a puzzled tone.
"I mean, Harry, that they run straight along. There is no dip in them."
"Of course there isn't. Who ever heard of building floors on the slope?"
"Yes, that is what I mean. We know that the tunnel slopes down its ownheight. It is twelve feet high at the entrance, and at the lower end itis some inches below the level, so it falls twelve feet at least. Atthe end where the cistern is, the floor of the basement is only a fewinches above the bottom of the passage; therefore at the other end itmust be twelve feet above the water-level."
"You are right, Bertie!" Harry exclaimed. "What a fool I was not tothink of it! There must be a space underneath it a hundred feet long,sloping from nothing down to twelve feet. There is room for a dozenchambers such as those we saw on each side of the tunnel. Well done,Bertie! you have given me fresh hope. It would be a splendidhiding-place, for any searchers who came down and saw the water in thecistern would believe at once that, as neither the Chimoos nor theIncas could have known how to build under water, there was no use insearching for hidden chambers under this floor. You see, neither ofthem had any knowledge of cement or mortar. All their bricks and stonesare laid without anything of the sort; and whatever amount of labourwas available no chamber could be made under water, for as fast asholes were dug the water would come in, and even if they could line itwith stone-work the water would penetrate through the cracks. Now,Dias, that we see with certainty where we have to dig, we can make ourpreparations. I will write down a list of the things we decided theother day we should want:--Six kegs of powder, two hundred feet offuse, four boring-tools, six steel wedges, the smallest smith's fireyou can buy--for we shall have to sharpen the tools,--six borers, alarge bundle of torches, four sledge-hammers--we have enough pickaxesand shovels,--and another fifty fathoms, that is a hundred yards, ofrope. I don't know anything else that we shall want in the mining way.
"You and your wife had better settle what provisions you must get. Weshall certainly need a good supply of flour--a couple of sacks, Ishould think--tea, coffee, and sugar, dried or salted meat. And youmight get a supply of smoked fish. I have no doubt that we shall catchfresh fish here in the sea, but we shall all be too busy to spend muchtime on that. You had better get three or four gallons of pulque; onecannot be always drinking coffee. We have still got a good stock ofwhisky and brandy. Your wife will certainly want a good supply of redpepper and other things for her stews. It would not be a bad thing tohave a couple of crates of poultry. Don't pack them too closely, orhalf of them will be smothered before you get them here. Dead meatwould be of no use, for it won't keep in this heat. We can turn themall out in the courtyard in front of the castle, and they can pick uptheir living there among the lower slopes of the cliffs. We can givethem a few handfuls of grain a day. Don't get too many cocks, and letthe hens be young ones. They ought to supply us with plenty of eggs andsome broods of chickens. You must calculate what the weight will be,and take the mules accordingly."
"Very well, senor. I need not be away more than three days at most. Itis only about twenty miles to Ancon."
"You might take the two llamas down with you and sell them there. Theyhave done good work, and I should not like to kill and eat them. Somind you sell them to someone who wants them for carriage work. Weshall not require them any more for that purpose. Will you want to takeJose with you?"
"I think not, senor, for I should say that four baggage mules will beample, and I can lead them myself; and certainly you will find Joseuseful here."
Dias and his wife then withdrew a short distance from the fire, andengaged in an animated conversation as to the things she required.
"Don't stint matters," Harry said, raising his voice. "We may be herefor the next two or three months, and the less frequently you have togo down to buy things the better. It would be easy to account for yourfirst purchases by saying that you were going on an expedition to themountains, but you could not go to the place with the same story again."
"There are other places I can go to, senor; but I will get a good storeof everything this time."
Dias started at daybreak with four mules and the two llamas. The othersrolled up the tent-beds and the remaining stores, loaded up the othermules, and moved down to the mouth of the ravine. Here they pitched thelittle tents again.
"They will form a central point for the mules to come to," Harry said."We will leave the sacks of maize here, but give the animals a goodfeed now. They will be sure to keep close to the spot. All the otherthings we will carry into the castle; but before we start we will burythese bags of bones."
When this was done, and the saddles taken off and piled togetheragainst the rocks, the other things were made up in portable packets,and they started up the ravine. They made three journeys beforeeverything was brought to the foot of the ladder leading up to thewindow. Then the two brothers mounted, and hauled the things up with arope which Jose, who remained below, fastened to them. When the lastwas up he went to the foot of the rock and brought several armfuls ofthe wood he had thrown down on the previous day. This was also hauledup.
"You had better fetch some more, Jose. We mean to keep a big fireburning here night and day; it will make the place cheerful. I willhave a fire also burning where we are at work below. Now, senora, wewill rig up some blankets on a line between the pillars at the end ofthe room opposite to that in which we found the skeletons, so as tomake a special apartment for you and Dias. We will spread our beds atnight near the fire."
The screen was soon made. A cord was run from the wall to the pillarnext to it, some five feet above the floor, and three blankets weresufficient to fill the space.
Harry was about to make another line from the pillar, when Maria said:
"I would rather not, senor; I am not a bit afraid. This screen is quitelarge enough, and it will be more cheerful not to be shut upaltogether, as then, when I am lying down, I can see the reflection ofthe fire on the walls, and it will be much more cheerful."
Then a blazing fire was lit. The wood was almost as dry as tinder, andburnt without smoke. It was built almost touching the back wall, inwhich,
some five feet above the fire, Harry with a pick made a holefour inches deep.
While he was doing this, Jose went down and cut a sapling four inchesin diameter, growing in a cleft on the rock, and from this cut off twosix-foot lengths and brought them up. One end of the thickest of thesewas driven into the hole and tightly wedged in there, the other end waslashed securely to an upright beam.
"There, Maria," he said when it was finished, "you will be able to hangyour pots and kettles from that at any height you like above the fire.Now, you can set to work as soon as you like, to get breakfast for us.We have been at work for four or five hours, and have good appetites."
"I have the cakes ready to bake, senor, and I sha'n't be long before Iget an olla ready for you."
"Well, Jose, what do you think of the place?" Harry asked.
"I should like it better if it were not so big," the lad said. "I shallwant a broom, senor, to sweep out the dust."
"It is three inches deep," Maria said.
"I should not bother about that, Maria; it would be a tremendous job tosweep such a big room, and the dust is so fine that it would settleagain and cover everything. Besides, it will be a good deal softer tolay our beds on than the stones would be, so I think you had better letit remain as it is, especially as you are fond of going about withoutyour shoes. I think I will rig up a blanket against the doorway. Itwill make the place look a good deal more snug, and will keep the batsfrom returning."
"I am not afraid of the bats, now I know what they are; but I should beconstantly expecting them to rush out again."
"I expect a good many went back last night," Harry said. "We won't putthe blankets up till after dark. They are sure to come out again; then,as soon as they have gone, we will close it, and they won't be able toget in when they come back before daybreak."
Harry's expectations were fulfilled. At dusk a stream of bats rushedout again, but this time quite noiselessly. The rush lasted for threeor four minutes. As soon as they had gone, the blankets were hung up,and fastened across the doorway.
"They will be puzzled when they come back."
"Yes, senor," Maria said; "but when they find that they can't get inhere, they will come in through the openings above."
"So they will; I did not think of that. But when they once find thatthey cannot get out here in the evening, they will go out where theycame in, and we shall have no more trouble with them. I don't knowwhether they are good to eat?"
Maria gave a little cry of horror.
"Oh, senor! I could not eat such horrible things!"
"Their appearance is against them, Maria; but when people eatalligators, frogs, snakes, and even rats, I don't see why a bat shouldbe bad. However, we won't touch them unless we are threatened bystarvation."
"I should indeed be starving before I could touch bats' flesh, senor."
"Well," Harry said, "if people eat monkeys, rats, and squirrels--and itseems to me that a bat is something of a mixture of the three--onemight certainly eat bats, and if we are driven to it I should not mindtrying; but I promise you that I won't ask you to cook them."
They chatted for another hour, and then Maria went off to her corner.The brothers spread their beds by the fire, and Jose had his blanketand poncho, and it was arranged that any of them who woke should putfresh logs on the fire.
They were all roused just before dawn by a squeaking and twitteringnoise. They threw on fresh logs, and as these blazed up they could seea cloud of bats flying overhead. They kept on going to the doorway, andwhen they found they could not get through they retired with angrysqueaks. The light was gradually breaking, and in a few minutes all hadflown out through the opening. Harry and his brother followed them, andcould see them flitting about the upper windows. Presently, as if by acommon impulse, they poured in through the various openings.
"I don't suppose we shall see any more of them," Harry said, "and I ownthat I shall be glad. There is something very weird in their noiselessflitting about, and in the shadows the fire casts on the ceiling."
"They are a great deal larger than any bats I have seen," Bertie said.
"I have seen as large, or larger, at Bombay and some of the towns onthe coast."
"They bite people's toes when they are asleep, don't they?"
"Yes, the great vampire bat does, but I have never heard of any othersdoing so. They live on insects, and some of them are, I believe,vegetarian."
"Are vampire bats found here?"
"I do not think so; I fancy that they inhabit Java and other islands inthe Malay Archipelago. However, they are certainly rare, wherever theycome from, and you can dismiss them altogether from your mind."
"I was glad when I heard your voices, senors," Maria said when sheappeared a quarter of an hour later. "I knew they would not hurt me;but I was horribly frightened, and wrapped myself up in my blanket andlay there till I heard you talking, and I heard the logs thrown on thefire; then I felt that it was all right."
"I don't suppose they will come again, Maria."
After drinking a cup of coffee, with a small piece of maize cake,Bertie said:
"What is the programme for to-day?"
"We can't do much till Dias comes back. We may as well go down and havea look at the lower rooms. I don't think there is much dust on thefloor there, but while Jose is away looking after the mules we will cutenough bushes to make a couple of brooms. We shall want the place sweptas clean as possible, so that we can look about, but I don't thinkthere is the least chance of our being able to move the stones. Beforewe do anything we will go down to the pool and have a swim, and diveout through the entrance and have a look at those rocks."
"That is right," Bertie said. "I was longing for one yesterday morning,but of course the first thing to be done was to examine this place."
"Would it be safe for me to bathe, senor?"
"Quite safe, Maria; the slope is very gradual, and you need have nofear of getting out of your depth suddenly. We will be off at once,Bertie."