Realizing that if I were to reach the farther shore in safety, I must make a dash for it, I waited for a moment, breathing deeply, and then, with a silent prayer and with my eyes fixed on the opposite shore, I took my life in my hands and raced over the log. A dozen times I slipped and nearly fell, a dozen times I had an almost irresistible temptation to glance to one side or the other, to look down at the water. My ears sensed the splashing of dozens of tails, the snapping of dozens of terrible jaws. The log seemed endless, but at last, with panting lungs and pounding heart, I covered the last few yards of the natural bridge, stumbled through the tangle of dead branches, and dropped, faint and trembling, upon the opposite bank. A moment later Maliche joined me. Slowly, one by one, the baffled alligators sank from sight, and thankful indeed that we had survived, we resumed our way. Several hours later we reached the summit of the mountain and to my delight saw the twin peaks of the volcanoes looming sharp and clear a little to the east. Pointing to these landmarks, I told Maliche our way led towards them, and to make my meaning clearer, I showed him the codex with the volcanoes indicated upon it. Instantly he burst out in a torrent of wild incomprehensible words, he shook his head, his eyes were wide with fear, and he gestured excitedly. Even when, partly calmed, he tried to explain in Tecun, I could not make head or tail of his meaning. But when I asked him bluntly if he was afraid to go on, and informed him I was going anyway, he shook his head, declared he was my slave and my shadow, and denied all dread. Poor, good, faithful Maliche! Savage cannibal though he was, yet he was as brave, as true, as fine a man as ever lived. To him I owe a debt of gratitude I can never repay, for without him and his companionship, all my efforts would have been in vain. And had I but known what he was trying to tell me, had I understood his dialect, much that followed might have been avoided. And yet, perhaps, it was all in the plan, all a part of the destiny that beckoned me, with an unseen but irresistible finger, from beyond those smoking cones to the east. We marched steadily all that day, traversing rolling hills covered with forest, meeting with no adventure, fortunate in securing game, and always with the twin cones in sight.