He suggested that they should boldly pull a quarter of a mile or so
against the tide and then try their luck. Their progress, of course,
became slower than ever, and Elsie began to despair that they would
ever find the mouth of the stream which ran through the cleft in the
hill, when she suddenly saw the luminous crescents which heralded the
sunrise over the inner mountain range. They could not be visible
unless there was a break in the cliffs in that locality.
"Pull in now," she whispered tensely, and, with a little further
effort, they found that the boat was traveling not against but with the
tide, which was flooding a small offshoot of the main estuary.
Precaution became not only useless but impossible. They were all worn
out. Nothing but the most inflexible determination on the part of
Elsie and Gray, eked out by a certain desponding fear of both of them
felt by Suarez, had sustained them thus far. They went on, and on;
they swept rapidly into the jaws of a precipitous defile, the lofty
crests on either hand coming momentarily nearer against the brightening
sky. It did not seem credible that this sheer cut through the heart of
a gigantic hill could continue for more than a few yards, nor that
anything save a bird could find foothold on its steep sides.
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