“To do that, cara mia, would require another Abbe Balthazar and sixty years of life.  And to what end?  Sooner or later our work would be destroyed as his has been, even if we were allowed to begin it.  The volcano may be active for ages.  We must go.”

“Whither?”

“Back to the world, that in new scenes and occupation we may perchance forget this crowning calamity.”

“It is something to have been happy so long.”

“It is much; it is almost everything.  Whatever the future may have in store for us, darling, nothing can deprive us of the sunny memories of the past, and the happiness we have enjoyed at Quipai.”

“True, and if this misfortune were not so terrible—­But God knows best.  It ill becomes me, who never knew sorrow before, to repine.—­Yes, let us go.  But how?”

“By sea.  I fear you would never survive the hazards and hardships of a journey over the Cordillera, and dearly as I love you—­because I love you—­I would rather have you die than be captured by Indians and made the wife of some savage cacique.  Yes, we must go by sea, in the sloop built by these two castaways.  Yet, even in that there will be a serious risk; for if they suspect I have the diamonds in my possession—­and I am afraid the suspicion is inevitable—­they will probably—­”

“What?”

“Try to murder us.”

“Murder us!  For the diamonds?”

“Yes, my Angela, for the diamonds.  In the world which you have never seen men commit horrible crimes for insignificant gains, and I have here in my pocket the value of a king’s ransom.  Even the average man could hardly withstand so great a temptation, and all we know of these sailors is that one of them is a thief.”

“What will you do then?”

“First of all, I must find a safer hiding-place for our wealth than my pockets; and we must be ever on our guard.  The voyage will not be long, and we shall be three against two.”

“Three!  You will take Ramon, then?”

“Certainly—­if he will go with us.”

“Of course he will.  Ramon would follow you to the world’s end.  And the other sailor—­Yawl—­may have been drowned in the flood.”

“I don’t think so.  The flood did not go much farther than this, and Yawl was busy with his boat.  But we shall soon know; the cliffs are in sight.”

CHAPTER XXXI.

NORTH BY WEST.

Besides Yawl and his helpers, we found on the beach about thirty men and women, the saved of two thousand.  Among them was one of the priests ordained by the abbe.  All had lived in the lower part of the oasis, and when the volcano began spouting water, after the third earthquake, they fled to the coast and so escaped.  Though naturally much distressed (being bereft of home, kindred, and all they possessed), they bore their misfortunes with the uncomplaining stoicism so characteristic of their race.