e
like the roaring of a thousand lions. For two days the gale raged so
furiously that travelling--especially in the higher regions of the
Andes--became impossible. The Indian girl, Pedro, and the negro, bore
their detention with that stoicism which is not an infrequent
characteristic of mountaineers, guides, and savages. As for our hero,
he devoted himself and all his skill to his patient--to which duty he
was the more reconciled that it afforded him a good opportunity at once
for improving his Spanish and pointing out to the bandit the error of
his ways.

To do the man justice, he seemed to be fully sensible of the young
doctor's kindness, and thanked him, with tears in his eyes, not only for
his previous intention to save him from the tremendous fall over the
cliff, but for his subsequent efforts to alleviate the evil consequences
thereof.

It mattered nothing to the great warm-hearted, loose-jointed Englishman
that when he mentioned these hopeful signs in his patient to Pedro, that
worthy shook his head and smiled sarcastically, or that Quashy received
the same information with a closing of the eyes and an expansion of the
jaws which revealed the red recesses of his throat to their darkest
deeps! Lawrence, being a man of strong opinions, was not to be shaken
out of them either by sarcasm or good-humoured contempt.

Turning to the Indian girl for sympathy, he related the matter to her at
a time when the other inhabitants of the hut had gone out and left them
alone.

"You see,--Manuela," he said, with the frown of meditation on his brow,
and his eyes fixed on the ceiling, "I have no belief in the very common
idea that there is a soft spot in the heart of every man, however bad;
but I do believe that the heart of the very worst of men may be made
soft by the Spirit of God, and that He employs us, who call ourselves
Christians, as His agents in bringing about the result. It is quite
possible that I may have been thrown in the way of this robber for the
very purpose of touching his heart through kindness--God's own
motive-power--and that the Spirit will soften his heart to receive the
touch."

He paused, and, withdrawing his gaze from the ceiling, observed that the
girl's eyes were fixed on his face with an expression of perplexity and
earnestness.

It then suddenly occurred to him that, having spoken in English, she
could not have understood him.

"But you _do_ look as if you had some idea of what I have b