“‘Nobody in this small town,’” she read on, “’was willing to join Burke and Shirley in their proposed expedition, and no wonder; for crossing those deserts is a dangerous thing, and most people said it would be useless anyway, as it would be easier for us to get away by sea than by land.  At this time Burke was taken sick, and for a week or two Shirley thought he was going to die.  Of course, they had to stay where they were, and it was a long time before Burke was able to move about.  Then they might have gone into the interior until they came to a railroad, and so have got away, for they had money with them, but Shirley told me they could not bear to do that without knowing what had become of us.  They did not believe there was any hope for us, unless the mate had come back with assistance, and they had not much faith in that, for if a storm had come up, such as had wrecked the Castor, it would be all over with Mr. Rynders’s boat.

“’But even if we had perished on that desolate coast, they wanted to know it and carry the news to our friends, and so they both determined, if the thing could be done, to get back to the coast and find out what had become of us.  They went again to the little village where they had been taken by the natives who found them, and there, by promises of big pay,—­at least, large for those poor Peruvians,—­they induced six of them to join in an expedition to the caves.  They did not think they had any reason to suppose they would find any one alive, but still, besides the provisions necessary for the party there and back, they carried something extra.

“’Well, they journeyed for two days, and then there came up a wind-storm, hot and dry, filling the air with sand and dust, so that they could not see where they were going, and the natives said they ought all to go back, for it was dangerous to try to keep on in such a storm.  But our two men would not give up so soon, and they made a camp in a sheltered place, and determined to press on in the morning, when they might expect the storm to be over.  But in the morning they found that every native had deserted them.  The wind had gone down, and the fellows must have started back before it was light.  Then Shirley and Burke did not know what to do.  They believed that they were nearer the coast than the mountains, and as they had plenty of provisions,—­for the natives had left them nearly everything,—­they thought they would try to push on, for a while at least.

“’There was a bit of rising ground to the east, and they thought if they could get on the top of that they might get a sight of the ocean, and then discover how far away it was.  They reached the top of the rising ground, and they did not see the ocean, but a little ahead of them, in a smooth stretch of sand, was something which amazed them a good deal more than if it had been the sea.  It was a pair of shoes sticking up out of the sand.  They were an old pair, and appeared to have legs to