te side of
the fire arranging some hard biscuits on a plate, "surely people have
not been starved to death here, have they?"

"Indeed they have--only too often, senhor. I myself came once to this
hut to rescue a party, but was nearly too late, for most of them were
dead."

He paused to light his cigarette. The negro, after making the door more
secure, sat down again and gazed at the guide with the glaring aspect of
a man who fears, but delights in, the horrible. Manuela, letting her
clasped hands fall in her lap, also gazed at Pedro with the intense
earnestness that was habitual to her. She seemed to listen. Perhaps,
being unusually intelligent, she picked up some information from the
guide's expressive face. She could hardly have learned much from his
speech, as her knowledge of English seemed to be little more than "yes,"
"no," and "t'ank you!"

"It was during a change of government, senhor," said Pedro, "that I
chanced to be crossing the mountains. There is usually a considerable
row in South America when a change of government takes place. Sometimes
they cause a change of government to take place in order to get up a
considerable row, for they're a lively people--almost as fond of
fighting as the Irish, though scarcely so sound in judgment. I had some
business on hand on the western side of the Cordillera, but turned back
to give a helping hand to my friends, for of course I try never to shirk
duty, though I'm not fond of fighting. Well, when I got to the farm
nearest to this hut where we now sit, they told me that a tremendous
gale had been blowing in the mountains, that ten travellers had been
snowed up, and that they feared they must all have perished, since
travelling in such weather was impossible."

"`Have you made no effort to rescue them?' I asked of the farmer.

"`No,' says he, `I couldn't get any o' my fellows to move, because
they've been terrified about a ghost that's been seen up there.'

"`What was the ghost like?' I asked; so he told me that it was a
fearful creature--a mulish-looking sort of man, who was in the habit of
terrifying the arrieros and peons who passed that way, but he said they
were going to get a priest to put a cross up there, and so lay the
ghost.

"`Meanwhile,' I said, `the ten travellers are to be left to starve?'

"`It's my belief they're starved already,' answered the farmer."

At this point Pedro paused to relight his cigarette, and Quashy breathed
a little