III
The sky grew darker and darker, and there were queer shapes all around them. Giant cacti with their arms reaching out like [p 117] the arms of a cross loomed up before them. There were other great cacti in groups of tall straight spines, and every now and then a palm tree would spread its spiky leaves like giant fingers against the sky.
Suddenly there was a great clap of thunder, “It’s the beginning of the rains,” said Tonio.
[p 118]
“Shall we—shall we—be drowned—do you think?” wept Tita. “It’s almost night.”
Tonio was really a brave boy, but it is no joke to be lost in such country as that, and he knew it.
Tonio was almost crying, too, but he said, “I’ll climb the first tree I can get up into and look around.” He tried to make his voice sound big and brave, but it shook a little in spite of him.
Soon they came to a mesquite tree. There were long bean-like pods hanging from it. Tonio climbed the tree and threw down some pods. They were good to eat. Tita gathered them up in her rebozo,[19] while Tonio gazed in every direction to see if he could see a house or shelter of any kind.
“I don’t see anything but that hill over there,” he called to Tita. “It is shaped like a great mound and seems to be all stone and rock. Perhaps if we could get up on top of it and look about we could tell where we are.”
[p 119]
“Let’s run, then,” said Tita.
The children took hold of hands and ran toward the hill. There were cacti of all kinds around them, and as they ran, the spines caught their clothes. The hill seemed to get bigger and bigger as they came nearer to it, and it didn’t look like any hill they had ever seen. It was shaped like a great pyramid and was covered with blocks of stone. There were bushes growing around the base and out of cracks between the stones. Tonio tried to climb up but it was so steep he only slipped back into the bushes, every time he tried.
“Oh, Tonio, maybe it isn’t a hill at all,” whispered Tita. “Maybe it’s the castle of some awful creature who will eat us up!”
“Well, whatever it is he won’t eat me up!” said Tonio boldly. “I’ll stick a cactus down his throat and he’ll have to cough me right up if he tries.”
“I’ll kick and scream so he’ll have to cough me up too,” sobbed Tita.
Just then there came a flash of lightning. [p 120] It was so bright that the children saw what they hadn’t noticed before. It was a hollow place in the side of the pyramid where a great stone had fallen out, and the dirt underneath had been washed away, leaving a hole big enough for them to crawl into, but it was far above their heads.
At last Tonio climbed into a small tree that grew beside it, bent a branch over, and dropped down into the hollow, holding to the branch by his hands.
Poor Tita never had felt so lonely in her whole life as she did when she saw Tonio disappear into that hole! In a minute he was out again and looking over the edge at her.
“It’s all right. You climb up just as I did,” he said.
Tita tied the mesquite pods in the end of her rebozo and threw it up to Tonio. Then she too climbed the little tree and dropped from the branch into the mouth of the tiny cave.
A hole in the side of a queer pyramid isn’t exactly a cheerful place to be in during [p 121] a storm, but it was so much better than being lost in a cactus grove that the children felt a little comforted.
The rain began to fall in great splashing drops, but they were protected in their rocky house. They ate the mesquite pods for their supper, and then Tonio said: “Of course, no one will find us to-night, so we’d better go to sleep. We’ll play we are foxes. The animals and birds sleep in such places all the time and they’re not afraid.”
So they curled down in the corner of the cave, and, being very tired, soon fell asleep.
[17] Ō-kō´teh.
[18] Mah-gay´ē.
[19] Ray-bō´sō.
[p 122a]
VII
WHILE THEY WERE GONE
