PRISONERS IN THE TEMPLE A fear of impending danger will not always prove sufficiently strong to prevent yielding to the demands of fatigue.

I realized the desperation of our position, feeling no doubt regarding our ultimate fate.

I read it plainly in our surroundings, as well as within those vengeful, scowling faces, yet so dulled was every physical sense from excessive weariness that I had passed through much already described like a man in a dream.

The brief repose of the previous night, broken by nervous, superstitious terrors, the anxious effort to escape from the haunted canyon, the hurried labor on our rude defences, the two fierce combats with the savages, my numerous wounds, none dangerous yet weakening me by loss of blood, together with the rapid marching and the difficult climb up the cliff, combined to exhaust my vitality so completely that, the moment we halted within the sacred precincts of this temple, I flung myself full length upon the floor.

I remember the sun had already disappeared behind the western heights.