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The Englishman had found the time hanging somewhat heavily on his hands up there in that lonely mountain fortress; and therefore, having nothing better to do, he had brought out the roll of parchment which he had found in the tunnel at Sorata, and had set himself to the task of deciphering its meaning.
Thus exhorted, Jim dived into the chest which he had brought with him to accommodate his belongings, and produced the little images which he had found in the tunnel at Sorata. Jose fell upon his knees before them in a perfect ecstasy of mingled reverence and delight, turning them over and over in his hands, and speaking to them as though they were, in very truth, alive.
Andres besieged the city of Sorata, in which all the white families of the vicinity had taken refuge with their treasures. The artillery of the fortifications seemed an invulnerable defence against the poorly armed besiegers, but Andres succeeded in making a breach by turning the mountain streams against the walls.
When the young Englishman had finished his report, which he did in the course of about an hour, Riveros suddenly said: "Then I may take it, Senor el Teniente, that you are pretty well acquainted with the country about Sorata? Did you, by any chance, see or hear anything of a village called Coroico during your captivity, or while you were escaping?"
It was at the foot of this giant among mountains that the village of Sorata was situated, and Jim realised that their long journey of seven hundred miles was nearly ended. It was exactly one month after the tragedy of Cuzco that the way-worn troop marched into the village; and a fearful-looking lot of scarecrows the prisoners were by that time, in truth.
There, before them, lying at a slightly lower level than the surrounding country, lay the blue waters of the lake, shimmering in the sun, whose beams had already gilded the snowy summit of Mount Sorata, which lay a little to the south-eastward.
They were now nearing Cuzco, having travelled nearly half the distance to Sorata, and the weary men hoped to sleep that very night in the ancient capital of the Incas.
This range of lofty snow-peaks of surpassing beauty culminates in Mt. Sorata, 21,520 feet high. To the worshipers of the sun and moon, who came to the sacred islands for some of their most elaborate religious ceremonies, the sight of those heavenly luminaries, rising over the majestic snow mountains, their glories reflected in the shining waters of the lake, must have been a sublime spectacle.
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