The darkness had become so dense that we feared to move lest we might perchance step into one of the boiling springs, fall into the jaws of a jaguar, or set foot on a poisonous snake.

So we stayed where we were, whiles lying on the flooded ground, whiles standing up or walking a few paces in the rain, which continued to fall until the rising of the sun, when it ceased as suddenly as it had begun.
The moor had been turned into a smoking swamp, with a blackened forest on one side and a wall of living green on the other.

The wild animals had vanished.
"Let us go!" said Carmen.
When we reached the trees we took off our clothes a second time, hung them on a branch, and sat in the sun till they dried.
"I suppose it is no use thinking about breakfast till we get to a house or the camp, wherever that may be ?" I observed, as we resumed our journey.
"Well, I don't know.

What do you say about a cup of milk to begin with ?" "There is nothing I should like better--to begin with--but where is the cow ?" "There!" pointing to a fine tree with oblong leaves.
"That!" "Yes, that is the _palo de vaca_ (cow-tree), and as you shall presently see, it will give us a very good breakfast, though we may get nothing else.

But we shall want cups.