24 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



so in the end was obliged to tie his horse to a 

 bush and lie down to wait for morning. 



For me night came only too soon. I had no 

 candle, and the closed, windowless cabin was in- 

 tensely dark. My wounded leg had become in- 

 flamed and pained a great deal, but the bleeding 

 continued until the handkerchiefs we had bound 

 round it were saturated. I was fully dressed, and 

 as the night grew chilly I pulled my big cloth 

 poncho, that had a soft fluffy lining, over me for 

 warmth. I soon gave up expecting my friend, 

 and knew that there would be no relief until morn- 

 ing. But I could neither doze nor think, and could 

 only listen. From my experience during those 

 black anxious hours I can imagine how much the 

 sense of hearing must be to the blind and to ani- 

 mals that exist in dark caves. At length, about 

 midnight, I was startled by a slight curious sound 

 in the intense silence and darkness. It was in the 

 cabin and close to me. I thought at first it was like 

 the sound made by a rope drawn slowly over the 

 clay floor. I lighted a wax match, but the sound 

 had ceased, and I saw nothing. After awhile I 

 heard it again, but it now seemed to be out of 

 doors and going round the hut, and I paid little 

 attention to it. It soon ceased, and I heard it 

 no more. So silent and dark was it thereafter that 

 the hut I reposed in might have been a roomy cof- 

 fin in which I had been buried a hundred feet be- 

 neath the surface of the earth. Yet I was no 

 longer alone, if I had only known it, but had now 



