As the current was carrying me
toward her, she gave a cry of alarm and faced me, the long-bearded
goats doing the same. They formed a beautiful picture. Not wishing to
frighten her, I called out some reassuring word in Spanish, and to
show that she was not frightened, as were her male protectors, she
seized a big stone and raising it defiantly over her head, awaited my
approach. As I passed, I waved her an adieu and then she dropped the
stone and fled up the mountain followed by her goats.
"All day I picked my way cautiously along, using every energy to avoid
the varied shaped boulders which filled the river. At one time I
appeared to shoot down a very steep hill. I was hemmed in by huge rocks
that rose like a high wall on either side and there was no possible way
to get out. The thought struck me that I was going into some
subterranean passage, the perpendicular walls seeming to close in and
swallow up the entire river. I was swept down by the mighty, though
narrow current, and was beginning to feel sure that I was being
carried into some underground rapids, when I was suddenly dumped into
a deep pool, where the course of the river was running smooth and
placidly along almost at right angles with the rapids above.
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