hen at the open door, as
though meditating flight, and he had evidently just made up his mind to
decamp when Carlos came plunging down the stone steps.

"_Amigo mio_!" he gasped hoarsely, "something has gone terribly wrong
somewhere, for the Chilian squadron is bombarding Iquique; and what is
more, all the shells are falling in this quarter. The streets are full
of dead, and a man I saw flying past just now says that a body of
marines is already on shore, and coming this way. We must fly at once,
or we shall be too late! Can it be that this is in return for our
having seized this youngster? Come along, my friend, quickly; and it
would be well to give the boy a tap on the head and thus spare his
countrymen the trouble of carrying him away, if they find him. But,
come quickly man, or we are both lost. Those cursed shells are
beginning to fall in this direction again!"

And indeed he was right; the dungeon fairly rocked under the hideous
concussion of the bursting missiles, while the roar of falling masonry
could plainly be heard above, mingled with shrieks which came to their
ears, strangely muffled by the distance.

"I don't like to leave that boy," muttered Lopes, who seemed much the
cooler of the two men, "but if I stay here we shall both be buried
alive. No, Mr Officer, I will not kill you," he said, drawing back his
lips from his teeth with an evil smile; "I will leave you here, so that
your friends may have the satisfaction of killing you themselves!"

Then, as another fearful crash sounded above, he kicked the brazier of
coal over so that the glowing embers scattered themselves over Jim's
body, and, calling to his friend, exclaimed, "_Adios, senor_!" as the
two men ran up the stone stairs. Jim suffered excruciating pain as the
embers burnt their way through his clothes and ate into his flesh; but
at length he contrived to roll and shake himself free of them.
Meanwhile, his two enemies could hardly have gone a dozen steps upward
when there came a most deafening concussion close by, and a shower of
dust and flying fragments of masonry scattered itself round Douglas,
nearly blinding him. He felt that he was lost; for, bound as he was, he
could do nothing to help himself; but as he lay there waiting for death
he was astonished to find that one of the cords confining his wrists was
slackening, and the next moment it had parted; a fragment of glowing
charcoal had providentially fallen upon it and burnt it thr