Explore "Heart of the World" by H. Rider Haggard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
One evening -- it was after we had left the forest country, and with much toil climbed the _sierra_ till we reached the desert beyond, a desert that seemed to be boundless -- we set our camp amongst a clump of great aloes that grew at the foot of a stony hill. This hill was marked on Zibalbay's map as being the site of an underground reservoir, known as a _cueva_, whence in the old days, when this place was inhabited, the Indians drew their supply of water in the dry season from deep down in the bowels of the earth. That this particular _cueva_ existed was proved by the fact that the ancient road, which here was plainly visible, ran through the ruins of a large town whereof the population must once have been supplied by it; but when Zibalbay and his daughter slept at the spot on their downward journey, they were spared the necessity of looking for it by the discovery of a rain-pool in the hollow of a rock.
Now, however, no rain having fallen for weeks, after we had eaten, and drunk such water as remained in the water-skins, we determined to seek for the _cueva_ in order to refill the skins and give drink to the thirsty mules.