of our
way, and we shall be out of sight of the crowd all the sooner."

Jim readily acquiesced, as a good many of the people whom they met
seemed to regard them with anything but friendly glances, and the two
men hurried away down the Calle San Antonio, where they soon got out of
range of the angry growling of the mob.

"Can't imagine what's wrong here to-night," muttered Montt, in a low
voice, "but it must be either, as I said, that we have defeated their
countrymen somewhere on land, or else that one of our ships has sunk or
captured the _Huascar_; nothing less would, I imagine, have roused them
to such a pitch of excitement. We Chilians are maintaining a
ridiculously small army of occupation here; far too small for the
purpose, in my opinion; and if the Bolivians were to turn restive, as
they seem very much inclined to do, we should have rather a bad time of
it, I am afraid. However, we are not far away from the house where this
old Inca witch-woman, or whatever she calls herself, lives. It used to
be in one of the small hovels on the right side of the street we are
just coming to."

They turned into the street--or, rather, alley--indicated by Montt, and
at once found themselves in a cobble-paved and exceedingly ill-lighted
thoroughfare, flanked on either side by a curious assortment of huge,
old-time houses, which were doubtless, at one period, the dwellings of
high Government officials, and tiny, tumbledown hovels, which seemed to
have sprung up, like fungi or some other evil growth, on the small
spaces of ground which had formerly been left vacant between the larger
houses.

Half-way down this evil-looking, evil-smelling, and squalid alley Montt
called a halt and, looking round carefully, remarked:

"Now, Senor Douglas, so far as I can remember--for it is a good many
years since I was here before--this is the house; but as I see no sign
of any light in the place, the old woman may have gone away, or died.
However, having come thus far, we will try our luck." And the
lieutenant knocked softly upon the door.

The sound echoed dully through the little building, but otherwise the
silence remained unbroken; it seemed as though the place was indeed
deserted.

"_Caramba_!" exclaimed Montt, "I don't believe there is anybody here,
after all; what a pity! I do not care to knock too loudly, either, for
fear of attracting the attention of the neighbours. They are a queer
lot down in this quarter, I can tell yo