I'll shoot you to-day, Senor Chileno, although I
don't know that I may not change my mind later. However, I will spare
you this once, for you deserve to escape death after having been shot at
twice. Get up!"

Hardly able to believe his ears, Jim rose to his feet, and was
immediately secured to the chain once more. Then, still in a dream, he
heard the command given to march, and the sadly depleted company moved
down the side of the knoll, leaving nearly seventy unburied corpses
lying on its summit. How very differently things had looked yesterday
at this hour, thought Jim: how sadly everything had changed! Between
now and yesterday lay this blood-red day of Cuzco--a day which Jim knew
he would never forget so long as he lived.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A CURIOUS DISCOVERY.

After the dreadful episode near Cuzco a heavy gloom settled down upon
the poor remnant of the prisoners, and the group marched forward and
ever forward in a sullen, hopeless silence. Jim made several efforts to
put fresh heart into his comrades, and to persuade them that everything
was not lost, even yet, if they could but pull themselves together. He
told them that the mines were still some distance away, and that a
second attempt at escape might perhaps be so engineered as to be
successful; but it was all to no purpose; the unhappy Chilians had
completely lost heart. Moreover, they seemed to think that the ill-
success which had attended their effort at Cuzco was in some measure due
to the young Englishman who had, as they put it, misjudged the time; and
Jim soon found that he was everywhere greeted with sullen looks instead
of with the cheery smiles which were once accorded him. He therefore
gave up the idea of inciting them to another attempt, and came to the
conclusion that he would have to make his escape alone, if it was to be
made; and he determined that henceforth he would keep his intentions
secret from the others, and would not even invoke their assistance; for
he feared treachery on their part in the temper that then possessed
them.

Watch as he might, however, the young man could find no opportunity, for
the guards had redoubled their vigilance, and they kept an especially
sharp eye on Jim, for he was considered by all the Peruvians to have
been the ringleader of the Cuzco affair; indeed, the soldiers quite
failed to understand why Captain Garcia-y-Garcia had shown him any mercy
on that occasion. The young Englishman also