CHAPTER XXVIII.
A DESPERATE FIGHT.
The colonel rose, and going down to the canoe helped himself to a handful of crackers and some figs. He came back to his seat and began to munch them very contentedly.
“The most merciful thing we could do would be to cast our provisions into the lake,” he said finally. “It would cut short the agony of waiting, but I don’t suppose you would look at it in that way.”
“No, no; don’t do that,” cried Chutney. “Who knows what may happen yet?”
“Ah! there you are again,” said the colonel; “still clinging to hope of life; still unable to realize the truth. You are only making it so much the harder for yourself.”
“But there is surely some outlet to this vast body of water?” said Melton.
“Yes,” was the colonel’s reply. “Undoubtedly, but it must be at the bottom of the lake; it certainly is not on the surface. Do you suppose those poor savages would have perished here if an outlet had existed? They, too, must have been carried by accident into the wrong channel, and no doubt they circumnavigated the lake, as we have done. Realizing that they were lost, they either slew themselves to end their sufferings or they fell victims to the serpents without much resistance.”