Experiencing the same tension, I persuaded the Puritan to suspend his onslaught, and, undisturbed by sight or sound, we began a slow advance, clambering across the bowlders strewing the narrow way, discovering as we moved forward that those towering cliffs on either side were becoming lower, although no possibility of scaling them became apparent.  We travelled thus upwards of a quarter of a mile, our progress being necessarily slow, when a dull roar stole gradually upon our hearing.  A moment later, rounding a sharp edge of projecting rock, and picking our way cautiously along a narrow slab of stone extending out above the swirling water, we came forth in full view of a vast cliff, with unbroken front extending from wall to wall across the gorge, while over it plunged the stream in a magnificent leap of fully one hundred and fifty feet.  It was a scene of rare, romantic beauty, the boiling stream surging and dancing madly away from its foot, and the multicolored mists rising up like a gauzy veil between us and the column of greenish-blue water.  Yet it pleased us little then, for it barred our progress northward as completely as would a hostile army.

Our depth of disappointment at facing this barrier was beyond expression.  We could but stand in silence, gazing upon the broad, impassable sheet of water, blocking further advance.  De Noyan was earliest to recover power of speech.

“Le Diable!” he swore, half unconsciously.  “This cursed place is surely damned!  Yet it has some consolation to my mind, for that will drive us backward into the lowlands, out of this demon-haunted defile.”

“Your judgment is right,” I returned gravely enough, not unrelieved myself by the thought.  “There is no other course open to us.  We shall be compelled to retrace our steps, and if we desire to reach the open before another night, we need be at it.  May the good God grant us free passage, with no skulking enemies in ambuscade, for never saw I poorer spot for defence than along this narrow shelf.”

Fortunately, the way proved easier travelling as we proceeded downward, and we were not long in passing beyond our haunted camp of the previous night.  Below this spot—­which was passed in painful anxiety—­we entered into that narrower, gloomy gorge leading directly toward the plain beyond.  The little river foamed and leaped in deep black waves upon our left, the rocks encroaching so near that we were compelled to pass in single file, picking a way with extreme caution lest we slip upon the wet stones, and having neither time nor breath for speech.  The Puritan led, bearing the Spaniard’s naked rapier in his hand.  Suddenly, from where I brought up the rear, his voice sounded so noisily I made haste forward fearing he had been attacked.