d a few
tears, by the animal's claws, on the arms and thighs. When these were
dressed, Bunco went to work actively to skin the tiger,--an operation
which he performed with great expedition, and then, having rolled it
into a convenient bundle and slung it on his back, he re-loaded his gun
and again resumed his duties as guide. They had not gone far when a
fierce growling behind them told that other wild animals, probably
tigers, had scented out the carcass of the slain animal, and were
already quarrelling over their meal.

Shortly after this they came suddenly and quite unexpectedly on a house
or hut, which turned out to be the residence of a man who was half
Spaniard half Indian. The man received them kindly, and, finding that
Bunco could speak Spanish, offered them hospitality with great
politeness and evident satisfaction.

"Good luck to 'e, boy," said Larry, when their host invited them to
partake of a substantial meal, to which he had been about to sit down
when they arrived, "it's myself'll be proud to welcome ye to ould
Ireland if iver ye come that way."

"Ask him, Bunco," said Will Osten, "where we are, how far we are from
the coast, and what is the name and distance of the nearest town."

To these questions the Spaniard replied that they were in the northern
part of the Republic of Ecuador, and not, as they had supposed, in Peru,
which lay some hundreds of miles to the southward; that a couple of
days' walking would bring them to the coast, and that in two days more
they could reach the town of Tacames. This, being one of the few ports
on the western coast of South America where vessels touched, was a place
from which they might probably be able to make their way to California.
He added that there was a rumour of gold having been discovered of late
in that region, but, for his part, he didn't believe it, for he had
heard the same rumour several times before, and nothing had ever come of
it, at least as far as he knew.

"Ye're wrong there, intirely, mister what's-yer-name," said Larry
O'Hale, pausing for a moment in the midst of his devotion to the good
things spread before him. "Sure it's my own brother Ted as wos out
there a year gone by, an' he swore he picked up goold like stones an'
putt them in his pocket, but the capting o' the ship he sailed in towld
him it wos brass, an' his mates laughed at him to that extint that he
flung it all overboord in a passion. Faix, I've made up my mind that
there