Real Gold: A Story of Adventure

Half an hour later, the little caravan was in motion, and, for the first time the preparations were delightfully easy. Eager to be of some service, and to try to make up for wha...

"Go and do it at once, and mind how you give it; the fellow's as wild as a hawk. I thought he was going to spring over the precipice as soon as I touched him."

Two boys sitting in a boat half a mile from the shore, and sheltered by a ridge of rocks from the tremendous swell of the vast Pacific Ocean, which to north and south curled ove...

The mules were laden after a good deal of squealing and kicking, and, during the process, John Manning shook his head, and confided to Perry that the big leading mule with the b...

There was a dead silence; and as Perry looked at his companion, he saw that his brow was full of deep lines, and that the boy's face looked hard and set, the eyes fixed, and the...

The guide came to the colonel smiling as soon as he saw him seated, and pointed to; the other side of the fire, as he spoke words which evidently announced the coming of the pro...

"Awake, Cil?" whispered Perry, just as daylight was making its way down into the depths of the valley, and a faint glow became visible on one of the snow peaks.

They were by this time close up in front of the huts of the bark gatherers, when all at once one of the huge condors came swooping along overhead, looking gigantic up against th...

When Cyril opened his eyes and began to look about, his head was aching violently, and a swimming sensation made everything near him look misty and indistinct. But he was consci...

"No, it ain't," said a gruff voice in an ill-used tone. "How's a man to get a good sleep before he relieves the colonel, if you two young gents keep on twisting about and talking?"

As the men in charge of the llamas came in sight of the colonel and his party, they waited for more and more to join them, and it soon became plain that they expected or meditat...

"I'll go down again, sir," said Cyril, when the colonel had turned back, and he had tried to make him understand the nature of the place, as far as he had been able to make out.

Those were very encouraging words, and they seemed to tingle in the boys' ears as the colonel followed his servant's example, rolled a blanket about his shoulders, and lay down...

For the mountain peaks were beginning to glow, and the clouds which hung round the highest showed tints that were quite crimson, while the light was now slowly stealing down int...

There must have been something wonderfully lulling in the roar of that fall, and a feeling of great confidence in the fact that the colonel would keep watch over them half the n...

"I say, Cil, I don't quite know what to make of it," said Perry, a few days later. "These people are as civil and amiable as can be; they surely won't try to stop us when we wan...

No time was lost. The two boys were posted at the cavern entrance, one to try to check any advance from the valley, the other to guard against the escape of the mules, and stay...

As John Manning afterwards said, those were hours to make a man's hair turn grey, and to Cyril every minute seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, as he stood till he felt his kne...

As soon as they were outside, Cyril looked round for the birds, expecting to see them swooping about in all directions, but there was nothing visible between him and the stars;...

"I haven't slept long," thought Cyril as he woke with a start to see the colonel seated as he had left him when sleep came. He did not appear to have moved, and all was perfectl...

"No, I'm warm enough now," said Perry, "for my clothes have got dry; but it makes me shiver as soon as I think about it, and I feel as if I always shall. It's a thing I shall dr...

"We used to set night lines in the lake at school," said Cyril. "We threw the bait out ever so far, and tied the other end to a brick sunk in the water."

John Manning's curious remark sent a thrill through Cyril, and, trying hard not to appear as if watching, he strained his eyes in the direction indicated, but the gloom had incr...

He stopped short, and his teeth made a grating sound as he seized Perry by the shoulder. "Can you fight?" he whispered. "I--I don't half know," groaned Perry. "I'll try."

The boys were heartily glad when, just before nightfall--night, which fell much sooner, shut in there in the deep valleys of the Andes--the colonel snatched at a suggestion made...

"No, my lad," said the colonel, "we shall do nothing by hurrying. Our retreat must be carried out slowly. We can get on no faster than the mules will walk. Keep on as we are."

Dinner was over at Captain Norton's. Mrs Norton had left the dining-room, after begging her son and his visitor not to go out in the broiling heat. The boy had promised that he...

At the first spot which gave him an opportunity to examine the gorge, the colonel mounted to a narrow shelf and made good use of his glass, descending at last to say: "They have...

To have attempted to escape, the colonel said, would be madness, for it would have suggested fear of the approaching Indians, and made them think at once that the visit to their...

Nature must be satisfied at whatever cost, and, as soon as possible, the provisions were unpacked, while a fire, which had been lit with the scraps of wood collected as they ret...

Hungry and faint, it was a dreary time passed during that halt; but in spite of all, it was restful, though the stones were hard, and there were moments when Cyril felt as if he...