The way was barred by an immense rock. At the very moment when the caravan seemed to be on the point of reaching its goal, a terrible obstacle started up before it.
All the Beluchs, after having mingled their lamentations with those of the guides, became silent and pressed round the Europeans, recognizing that the white men alone could extricate them from this fresh difficulty.
"What do you think of it, old fellow?" said M. de Pommerelle to the doctor.
"I think," replied M. Desrioux, "that this rock is impracticable. I have just been examining it attentively, and I cannot discover a single crevice or fissure, or any of those natural steps which sometimes enable one to climb up such a place as this. Our ropes, moreover, would not reach the top, and, if they did, we have no grappling hooks to fasten them there."
"At the same time you agree with me that this rock alone separates us from the plain?"
"There can be no question about that. The two mountains, or, rather, the two cliffs which shut us in come to an end here. Behind this rock the sky and the horizon are once more spread out. We have evidently been following the bed of an immense torrent, perhaps a cascade of considerable size, now dried up, lost to view, perhaps, for centuries past. This torrent, which in former times must have spread over the plain, one day dragged along with it this block of granite. The rock rolled on as long as the two cliffs would let it, and then it was brought to a sudden stop between them, hemmed in by the two walls."
"I am quite ready to accept your version," said M. de Pommerelle, "but it is not of much importance to us to know how the rock got here. It stops the way for us—that is the essential, as well as the mournful part of the business. A few yards of granite in length and breadth imprison us. What are we to do? Shall we seek another route?"
"No. First of all, I have examined the mountain thoroughly, and I do not believe that there is another exit. Secondly, our men, already discouraged, would this time most assuredly decline to follow us."
"Are we then to go back by the way that we came, and find our way to the lake again?"
"Never—not at any price. We must pass this way by hook or by crook."