190 THE ADVENTURES OF 



louder and louder. I called Sumichrast and TEncuerado ; the 

 latter at once shouted out in horror — 



" The torrent ! " 



Seizing Lucien, I carried him in my arms, whilst the Indian 

 hastily gathered together all our travelling gear that lay scattered 

 around. With powerful efforts I soon reached the top of the steep 

 bank, followed by my companions and Gringalet. Lucien, sud- 

 denly disturbed in his sleep, scarcely had time to know what had 

 happened. A furious uproar perfectly deafened us, and a flood 

 of yellowish water came rushing by ; I saw one of our coverings 

 float off on its surface, and almost immediately, as if impelled 

 by some superhuman force, the rocks came rolling down, dashing 

 together under the force of the liquid avalanche. 



One minute more and it would have been all over with us, 

 or, at the very least, we should have lost all our baggage and 

 Aveapons, without which our position must have been truly critical. 

 As it was, our hats only had sailed off in company with our cover- 

 ing ; this loss much vexed us, for none of us except I'Encuerado 

 could walk with a bare head under the rays of a tropical sun. 

 We should have been somewhat consoled by meeting with a palm- 

 tree ; but in the meantime, the Mistec, like all his countrymen, 

 knew well how to meet such an emergency. So we covered our 

 heads with the leaves of the water-lily, often used by the Indian 

 women for a parasol. 



We knew by experience the rapidity with which these moun- 

 tain torrents will overflow. If it had been a month later during 

 the rainy period, of course we should not have exposed our- 

 selves to the peril of camping in the bed of a stream. For 

 we had remarked the evening before, that the sky was ob- 

 scured by gray clouds, and this ought to have put us on our 

 guard. 



The furious waves continued to bear down with them, without 

 any effort, immense masses of rock ; but the body of the water, 

 which did not increase, showed us that it would ebb as rapidly 

 as it had swollen. L'Encuerado was obliged to content himself 

 with some muddy water for making our coffee ; but if we had pre- 

 tended to preserve all the prejudices of civilised life, adieu to 



