[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.