we took. All they wanted was to have their part sent to them just
as soon as could be, and I don't wonder at it; for all those South
American countries are as poor as beggars, and if any one of them got a
sum of money like that, it could buy up all the others, if it felt like
spending the money in that way!

"Those Peruvians were in such a hurry to get the treasure that they
wouldn't agree to have the gold coined into money, or to be sent a part
at a time, or to take drafts for it; but they wanted it just as it was
as soon as they could get it, and, as it was their own, nobody could
hinder them from doing what they pleased with it. Shirley and I have
made up our minds that most likely the present government thought that
they wouldn't be in office when the money arrived if they didn't have it
on hand in pretty short order; and, of course, if they got their fingers
on that treasure, they could stay in power as long as they pleased.

"It is hard to believe that any government could be such fools,--for
they ordered it all shipped on an ordinary merchant vessel, an English
steamer, the _Dunkery Beacon_, which was pretty nigh ready to sail for
Lima. Now, any other government in this world would have sent a
man-of-war for that gold, or some sort of an armed vessel to convoy it,
but that wasn't the way with the Peruvians! They wanted their money, and
they wanted it by the first steamer which could be got ready to sail.
They weren't going to wait until they got one of their cruisers over to
England,--not they!

"The quickest way, of course, would have been to ship it to Aspinwall,
and then take it by rail to Panama, and from there ship it to Lima, but
I suppose they were afraid to do that. If that sort of freight had been
carried overland, they couldn't have hindered people from finding out
what it was, and pretty nearly everybody in Central America would have
turned train-robber. Anyway, the agents over there got the _Dunkery
Beacon_ to sail a little before her regular time.

"Now here comes the point! They actually shipped a hundred and sixty
million dollars' worth of pure gold on a merchant steamer that was going
on a regular voyage, and would actually touch at Jamaica and Rio Janeiro
on account of her other freight, instead of buying her outright, or
sending her on the straightest cruise she could make for Lima! Just
think of that! More than that, this business was so talked about by the
Peruvian agents, while they were