to go?"

"I am thinking of making for Arica. Before we reach that town you
can, if you choose, strike to the hills and join the natives
beyond, as you proposed when at Arica; or, should you prefer it,
you can, in disguises, enter Arica and remain there, for a time,
until all possibility of your friends appearing before that place
be at an end.

"My absence will not have been noticed, for I mentioned to friends
there that I was going into the interior, to investigate a mine, of
whose existence I had heard from some Indians. When I return,
therefore, I shall say that the mine was not sufficiently
promising, in appearance, for me to care about asking for a
concession from the government. I shall, of course, pretend to be
extremely vexed at the time that has been wasted; and I do not see
that any suspicion can fall upon me, as having been concerned in
the affair at Lima.

"We will walk our horses at a slow pace, in order to save them, as
far as possible; and to ascertain whether our pursuers have
correctly followed our steps. When we once hear them, we can then
put on our best speed; and as they will not know that we are but a
short distance ahead, they will go at a moderate pace. Besides, the
speed of bloodhounds, when tracking, is by no means great."

An hour later, they heard a faint sound in the distance.
Instinctively they checked their horses, and again, in the darkness
of the night, the deep distant bay of a hound was heard.

"Just as I thought!" Don Estevan exclaimed. "They have got the
bloodhounds, and I should think, by the sound, that they must have
just reached the spot where we mounted. The hounds will be puzzled
now; but the sagacity of these creatures is so great that I am by
no means sure that they will be unable to follow us by the track of
the horses. Now let us set spur."

For the next four or five hours they proceeded, at a steady gallop,
towards the south. The country was flat; the road sandy, but even;
and the cool night air was exhilarating, indeed, after the
confinement in the dark and noisome dungeon at Lima. So rejoiced
were the boys, with their newly-recovered freedom, that it was with
difficulty they restrained themselves from bursting into shouts of
joy. But they were anxious that no sounds should be heard, by the
villagers of the little hamlets lying along the road. The sound of
the horses' hoofs on the sandy track would scarcely arouse a
sleeping man; and the fact that their tracks w