he at once began to do; and in the course of four or five hours, during
which he stopped for a rest a number of times, he reached a point in the
descent at which the canyon narrowed to a width of not more than ten
feet, and across which a rude foot-bridge of logs had been constructed.
Lilama, as well as those on the opposite side of the chasm, had kept
pace with Peters; and the divided party now came together.

"Ahpilus was gently placed on the ground; and as his old friends
gathered about him it was observed that not only had consciousness
returned, but that the helpless man looked quite the Ahpilus of former
and happier days. As his old friends looked into his eyes, those windows
of the mind, they saw a soul unruffled, and at peace with nature.

"Then Diregus addressed to Ahpilus some words of inquiry; but it was
soon apparent that the stricken man could answer no question relating to
recent days, or even to the past year or two. In fact, Diregus soon
recognized that Ahpilus knew nothing of his own past from a period
antedating his exile to the present time. It appears that the nervous
shock which accompanied the breaking of his spine had, in some way,
dispelled his madness, and also those less maniacal, comparatively mild
delusions which for several years had clouded and perverted his
otherwise brilliant mind; so that he was again the same loving and
lovable Ahpilus of former times; but in all the sixty or seventy years
that he might yet live, he never again would be able to walk, or even to
stand, unaided.

"The party of five, carrying the helpless man, sadly and silently
continued on their way to Volcano Bay, which in the course of an hour
they reached. There they found the other boatmen waiting for them, and,
also, standing here and there in groups, a number of the exiles, among