midnight
Ten minutes later , as the brief twilight was rapidly deepening into night , the nude figures of the two Englishmen scrambled out of the water , each bearing his quota of dead wild duck , and , laying their spoils upon the ground , nonchalantly proceeded to resume the quaint garments of skins that now constituted their only clothing . Long into the night sat the pair , crouching over their camp fire , for though the days were hot the nights were bitterly cold , even in that valley between the two ranges of mountains ; and while Dick gazed abstractedly aloft into the velvet blackness at the innumerable stars that glittered above him through the frosty atmosphere , Phil spoke of the strange dreams -- which he persisted , half-jestingly and half in earnest , in regarding as memories -- that visited him so frequently , of curious scenes that he had witnessed and remarkable deeds that he had done in the far past , either in imagination or reality , he could not possibly say which . And while he talked and Dick listened , vacillating between amusement and conviction , some twenty stalwart figures , thin and aquiline of feature , copper-hued of skin , and strangely clothed , came creeping up out of the darkness until they reached a clump of bush within earshot of the pair , where they lurked , waiting patiently until the audacious intruders upon their most sacred territory should resign themselves to sleep -- and to a captivity which , as planned by the chief figure of the group , was to be of but brief duration , ending in a death of unspeakable horror . It was past midnight , and the camp fire , which Dick had bountifully replenished with stout branches from the neighbouring clump of bush , the last thing before stretching himself out to sleep , had dwindled to a mass of dull red smouldering embers , when the white-clad figure of an elderly man , copper-hued , bald-headed , and clean shaven , approached with stealthy footsteps the recumbent bodies of the two slumbering Englishmen . Bending over first one and then the other , he held a saturated cloth toward their nostrils in such a manner that the sleepers were permitted to inhale , for about a minute each , the faint , fragrant fumes that emanated from it ; then , abandoning all further caution , he withdrew from the fire a half-consumed branch and waved it in the air until the smouldering stump was fanned afresh into flame ; when , the torch having served its purpose as a signal , he flung it back upon the almost extinguished fire . A couple of minutes later those to whom this man had signalled approached the camp fire , and while two parties of four each raised the recumbent and now unconscious figures of the Englishmen to their shoulders , the remainder carefully gathered together and took possession of the weapons and other belongings of their prisoners , after which , at a signal from their leader the entire party moved off , marching inland away from the lake . Relieving each other at frequent intervals , for they found their unconscious burdens heavy -- especially those who were told off to carry Dick -- the party marched a distance of nearly eight miles , until , in a sequestered valley among the hills , they reached the ruins of what had evidently at one time been a city of considerable importance , built equally on both sides of an ice-cold mountain stream .