"Paul, I want to know exactly what you think of our chances for getting out of this."
"Why—" I hesitated. "Harry, I don't know."
"But you've thought about it, and you know something about these things. What do you think?"
"Well, I think they are slim."
"What are they?"
"Nothing less than miracles. There are just two. First—and I've spoken of this before—we might find an underground stream that would carry us to the western slope."
"That is impossible—at least, for Desiree. And the second?"
"Nature herself. She plays queer tricks in the Andes. She might turn the mountain upside down, in which case we would find ourselves on top. Seriously, the formation here is such that almost anything is possible. Upheavals of vast masses of rock are of ordinary occurrence. A passage might be opened in that way to one of the lower peaks.
"We are surrounded by layers of limestone, granite, and quartzite, which are of marked difference both in the quality of hardness and in their ability to withstand the attacks of time. When one finds itself unable to support the other, something happens."
"But it might not happen for a hundred years."