4 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
doors and windows; except where some gleam 
of light fell 
across the road, 
quivering in the 
puddles, and 
making an arch¬ 
way or building 
leap suddenly 
out of the dark¬ 
ness. Knots of 
men stood talk¬ 
ing in liquid 
Spanish. 
Exultantly 
we felt we were 
in a strange 
land, on the eve 
of adventure. 
And perhaps 
the rain, at which we had grumbled, had helped 
to heighten this mood. Only the walls of our 
railway compartment stood between us and a 
new world. Our lit compartment, strewn with 
fishing rods, guns, ammunition and stores of 
every kind. 
On the morrow we were to start. Somewhere 
out in the darkness lay the great river we were 
to explore. And Posadas, poor, meretricious 
Posadas, had decked herself in beauty to greet 
us. 
