At sight of him I started, crying to Harry and Desiree. They
turned.
"The king!" I shouted; and I saw a shudder of terror run over
Desiree's face as she, too, recognized the black form below. At
the same instant the spear darted forward from the hand of the
Child of the Sun, but it landed harmlessly against the rock
several feet away.
The next moment the Inca king had bounded across the rock toward
us, followed by a score of others.
I was minded to try my luck with his own weapon, but we had no
spears to waste, and Harry was dragging Desiree forward and
shouting to me to follow. I turned and ran after them, and just
as we let ourselves down into a narrow crevice below the Incas
appeared over the edge of the rock behind.
Somehow we scrambled forward, with the Incas at our heels. Sharp
corners of projecting rocks bruised our faces and bodies; once my
leg bent double under me as I fell from a ledge onto a boulder
below, and I thought it was broken; but Harry jerked me to my
feet and I struggled on.
Harry seemed possessed of the strength of ten men and the heart
of a thousand. He pulled Desiree and me up and over boulders and
rocks as though we had been feathers; the Lord knows how he got
there himself! Half of the time he carried Desiree; the other
half he supported me.
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