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Updated: June 7, 2025
We crossed as rapidly as we could to the other side of the oasis, where Ithulpo produced a skin full of clear water from one of the saddle-bags. "We must not disappoint our poor beasts," he observed, as he gave them to drink. Just then the horse my father rode gave a neigh.
Ithulpo at once enticed them to him by the offer of water, which they drank eagerly; and having secured them, after allowing them to crop a little of the grass which grew beneath the shade of the trees, we mounted, and prepared to recommence our journey.
The officer, when he saw the flask, would have seized it, and drained off the whole of its contents; but I held it back, and pouring out a few drops in the cover, let them trickle down his throat. I thought of what Ithulpo had said of water being of more value often than gold. Truly those drops were more precious to the dying man; they had the effect of instantly reviving him.
They had apparently forgotten us and their other prisoners; for though by the light of their fires we could clearly see them, sitting as we were under the shadow of a wall, we were no longer visible to them. Ithulpo came and sat himself down beside me. "Could we not manage to get away from these people?" I asked in a whisper. "Not now," he answered.
My mother, whom he had warned of what was about to occur, though alarmed for the safety of her children, did not lose her presence of mind, but went round encouraging the servants to remain firm and obey their orders. Ithulpo hurried here and there, directing and aiding the other men in preparing for a defence should the house be attacked.
As we left the now polluted oasis, Ithulpo looked carefully round to examine the traces on the sand, and declared that of all those who had reached the spot, not one had left it. "A just vengeance has overtaken the tyrants who yesterday so cruelly ill-treated us, Senores," he remarked. "I knew it would be so. We may now, without fear, proceed to Lima."
The heat of the weather, the exertion he had undergone, and the wine he had drunk, were quite enough to account for this. I also at last fell asleep. My eyes had been closed for about a couple of hours, when I was awakened by Ithulpo touching my shoulder. I sat up, and observed that he had the wine-skins emptied by the soldiers hanging on his arm. "Follow me," he whispered.
Ithulpo had taken the precaution to tether the animals, so that they could not escape; and as he sat by us, distributing the food, he informed us of what he had done after we had lost sight of him in the sand-storm. "You must know, Senores," he began, "I was so busy in liberating my poor countrymen from the ropes which bound them, that I did not observe which way you were taking.
Ithulpo had at the same time observed it. "Muffle up your heads in your ponchos, and push on for the love of life," he exclaimed. "It is the sand-drift swept before a whirlwind. On! on! or it will overwhelm us!" It was indeed an object to appal the stoutest heart. On it came, like a black wall, rising higher and higher, and curling over our heads, till the sky and the sun himself were obscured.
What was our surprise, however, to find, that instead of proceeding along the road over the mountains, the advanced guard began to mount the path leading to the height on which our house stood! At the same instant, happening to turn my head towards the mountain, I saw descending it, at a rapid pace, a person whom I recognised as Ithulpo.
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