ly delivering
themselves into our hands! I was wondering by what means we should be
able to overcome a hundred armed soldiers while on the march, but now
that we have got these things it will be easy."

He was aroused from his reverie by receiving a heavy blow on the
shoulder and hearing a rough voice exclaim: "Now then, wake up; don't
stand there dreaming all day. What are you thinking about? Here, catch
hold of this spade and pickaxe; that's your share. Ha, ha! it's a good
idea and an excellent joke to make you rascals carry the tools with
which we are going to make you work when you reach the mines. That's
it; now get into your place, and look sharp; we shall be on the march in
a few minutes. I hope your honour won't find the weight too heavy, for
you will come off rather badly if you do!"

Jim clutched his tools with the grasp of a drowning man, and there was
joy in his heart as he shouldered them, for he did not regard them as
tools, but rather as the precious means by which to regain his liberty.
Find them too heavy! Well, he rather thought not; he would not part
with them, now that they were his, on any account, for a scheme of
escape had come into his mind which he believed he could easily put into
practice, if he could but secure the co-operation of his fellow-
prisoners.

But there was no more time at present for thought; the column was on the
point of departure. A bugle rang out shrilly from somewhere in the
courtyard; a stentorian voice barked out certain orders, and the
Peruvian guards closed up round their captives. Then, just as dusk was
falling, the gates were thrown open, and the column of three hundred men
marched out of Lima castle into the broad streets, on the road to
Sorata.

Nothing could be done that night, Jim decided; and a week elapsed before
he could even speak to his companions upon the subject which was
uppermost in his mind. Then, one evening, shortly before midnight, when
the vigilance of the guards had somewhat relaxed, Jim found his
opportunity. He softly wakened the man next to him, and whispered
earnestly to him for about ten minutes. The Chilian officer listened
intently, and then awoke his companion in turn and passed the idea on to
him. Thus the "word" percolated through the sleeping camp, and before
morning every one of the Chilians who could be trusted had been informed
of Jim's plan, and had agreed to be on the watch for the signal which
the young Englishman ha