We’ll go to sleep.”
Each one, thereupon, wrapped himself up in his poncho, and the fire was made up for the night.
But Glenarvan could not sleep. Secret uneasiness kept him in a continual state of wakefulness. They could not be pursued by wild beasts, for at such an elevation there were almost none to be met with. Glenarvan felt approaching danger. He got up and went out to see.
The moon was rising. The atmosphere was pure and calm. Not a cloud visible either above or below. He looked at his watch and found the time was about two in the morning. As he had no certainty, however, of any immediate danger, he did not wake his companions, who were sleeping soundly after their fatigue, and after a little slept himself heavily for some hours.
All of a sudden[61] a violent crash made him start to his feet. A deafening noise fell on his ear like the roar of artillery. He shouted to his companions, but they were already awake.
“An earthquake!” exclaimed Paganel. He was not mistaken. It was one of those cataclysms frequent in Chili.
The plateau to which the seven men were clinging, holding on by tufts of lichen, was rushing down the declivity with the swiftness of an express, at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Sometimes they went perfectly smoothly along without jolts or jerks, and sometimes on the contrary, the plateau would reel and roll like a ship in a storm.
How long this indescribable descent lasted, no one could calculate. None of the party knew whether the rest were still alive. Almost breathless, frozen with the cold air, which pierced them through, and blinded with the whirling snow, they gasped for breath, and became exhausted and nearly inanimate. Suddenly a tremendous shock sent them rolling to the very foot of the mountain. The plateau had stopped.
For some minutes no one stirred. At last one of the party stood on his feet, stunned by the shock, but still firm on his legs. This was the Major. He shook off the blinding snow and looked around him. His companions lay in a close circle like the shots from a gun.
The Major counted them. All were there except one—that one was Robert Grant.
Chapter XIV. Providentially Rescued
The eastern side of the Cordilleras of the Andes consists of a succession of lengthened declivities. The soil is carpeted with rich herbage, and adorned with magnificent trees, among which, in great numbers, were apple-trees.
Lord Glenarvan and his companions were gradually restored to life by the Major’s efforts. The descent of the Cordilleras was accomplished; but the feeblest and youngest, the child of the party, was missing.
The brave boy was beloved by everybody. Paganel was particularly attached to him, and so was the Major, with all his apparent coldness. As for Glenarvan, he was in absolute despair when he heard of his disappearance.
“We must go and look for him, and look till we find him,” he exclaimed. “We cannot leave him to his fate. Every valley and precipice and abyss must be searched through and through. I will have a rope fastened round my waist, and go down myself. I insist upon it, you understand? I insist upon it. If we lose the boy, how could we ever dare to meet the father? What right have we to save the captain at the cost of his son’s life?”
Glenarvan’s companions heard him in silence. At last he said: “Well, you hear what I say, but you make no response. Do you mean to tell me that you have no hope—not the slightest?”
Again there was silence, till McNabbs asked: “Which of you can recollect when Robert disappeared?”
No one could say.
“Well, then,” resumed the Major, “who was near the child during our descent of the Cordilleras?”
“Me,” replied Wilson. “All that I can recollect is that Robert Grant was still by my side, holding fast by lichen, less than two minutes before the shock which finished our descent.”
“Less than two minutes? Are you sure you are not making a mistake?”
“I don’t think I am. No; it was just about two minutes, as I tell you.”
“Very well, then; and was Robert on your right or left?”
“On my left. I remember that his poncho brushed past my face.”
“Then Robert must have disappeared on this side,” said the Major, turning toward the mountain and pointing toward the right.
Not another word was spoken. The six men commenced their explorations, examining closely every fissure, and going into the very depths of the abysses. For many long hours these brave fellows continued their search without dreaming of taking rest. But all in vain.
About one o’clock, Glenarvan and his companions met again in the valley. Glenarvan was completely crushed with grief. He scarcely spoke.
“Let us wait,” said Paganel to the Major and Tom Austin. “We will take a little rest, and recruit our strength. We need it anyway. Poor Robert!”
So the day passed, and night came on, calm and peaceful as the preceding had been.
Day dawned. The poor Lord’s despair was terrible. But there were strong reasons to continue the route as soon as possible.
McNabbs shook Lord Glenarvan’s head, and said, almost inaudibly: “We must start.”
“Wait longer.”
“Yes, we’ll wait,” replied the Major.
So the day passed on till it was almost noon. McNabbs hesitated now no longer, but told his cousin that they must start, for all their lives depended on prompt action.
“Yes, yes!” replied Glenarvan. “Let us start, let us start!”
But he spoke without looking at McNabbs. His gaze was fixed intently on a certain dark speck in the heavens. Suddenly he exclaimed, extending his arm:
“There! There! Look! Look!”
All eyes turned immediately in the direction indicated so imperiously. The dark speck was increasing visibly. It was evidently some bird hovering above them.
“A condor,” said Paganel.
“Yes, a condor,” replied Glenarvan. “Who knows? It is coming down—it is gradually getting lower! Let us wait.”
Paganel was not mistaken, it was a condor. This magnificent bird is the king of the Southern Andes, and was formerly worshiped by the Incas[62]. It seizes sheep, and kids, and young calves, browsing on the plains, and carries them off to inaccessible heights.
The Major and Wilson had seized their carbines, but Glenarvan stopped them by a gesture. The condor was encircling in his flight an inaccessible plateau. It wheeled round and round, opening and shutting his formidable claws.
“It is there, there!” exclaimed Glenarvan.
A sudden thought flashed across his mind, and with a terrible cry, he called out, “Fire! Fire! Oh, suppose Robert were still alive! That bird.”
Only a second passed, a second that seemed an age, and the enormous bird reappeared, carrying a heavy load and flying at a slow rate. It was a human body the condor had in his, and apparently lifeless—it was Robert Grant. The bird had seized him by his clothes, and had him hanging already at least one hundred and fifty feet in the air.
“Let me do it,” said the Major. And with a calm eye, and sure hands and motionless body, he aimed at the bird, now three hundred feet above him in the air.
But before he had pulled the trigger the report of a gun resounded from the bottom of the valley. A white smoke rose from between two masses of basalt, and the condor, shot in the head, began to fall, supported by his great wings spread out like a parachute. It had not thrown his prey, but gently sank down with it on the ground, about ten paces from the stream.
“We’ve got him, we’ve got him,” shouted Glenarvan; and he rushed toward the condor, followed by his companions.
When