two guards seized Douglas by the arms and pinioned him so that
further struggles were impossible. The bandage was then adjusted, and
Jim was forced back against the planks. The guards then stood aside;
but, Jim's arms being now bound behind him, resistance was useless and
escape impossible. Rather, therefore, than engage in a useless and
undignified struggle, he determined to put a bold face on the matter,
and meet his fate like a man. Accordingly, he stood still, waiting for
the end.

He heard the sharp command to load, then to present; and he was nerving
himself to hear the fatal word "Fire!" when the voice of Villavicencio
broke the intense stillness. What he said Jim did not know, but the
command to fire did not come. Instead, the rifles were grounded with a
clash, and Douglas heard somebody walking toward him.

Then the Peruvian skipper's voice broke the intense silence. "Take off
that bandage," he commanded; and the handkerchief being stripped from
Jim's eyes he found himself looking into those of Villavicencio.

"You are reprieved, Senor Englishman," he said; "I have just received a
letter which has induced me to change my mind about you. Instead,
therefore, of shooting you, I am sending you, together with a number of
your comrades, the Chilian officers whom I captured in the _Rimac_, to
the silver mines on the shores of Lake Titicaca. That will, in some
sort, compensate me for your insulting remark about the incident in the
Second Narrows, for I can promise you that your life, and the lives of
your comrades, will be made a very purgatory for you. Shooting is much
too easy a death for you, my friend; you will die, all the same, in the
silver mines; but the process of dying will be slow and very unpleasant.
You will start on your journey to-morrow, senor; and you will have a
splendid opportunity to view the beauties of the country, for you will
walk the whole distance, which is several hundred miles. And now,
senor, I bid you a final _adios_. Guards, take the man away and lodge
him again in his cell. Look after him well; for you will pay for it
with your lives if you let him escape. Again, senor, _adios_!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

ON THE ROAD TO SORATA.

It is small wonder that Douglas felt so unnerved by the ordeal through
which he had just passed that his brain seemed numbed to such an extent
that he scarcely realised what was going on around him. Villavicencio's
taunts passed him by almost un