oys withdrew from the road, Don Estevan proceeding ahead. They
heard the sound of the galloping hoofs pause, as their rider met
the Spaniard. There was a talk for a few minutes, and then the
horseman again rode forward at full speed. Don Estevan paused for a
little while, to allow him to get beyond earshot, and then rejoined
his companions.

"I have great news," he said, "and it is for you to decide whether
it will alter your plan of proceeding. The man whom I have just met
is a messenger, dispatched by the governor of Arica to Lima, to
warn the governor there that an English ship, under the noted
freebooter Francis Drake, has put into that harbor; and has started
again, sailing for the north, after exacting certain contributions,
but otherwise refraining from injuring the town."

The boys gave a shout of joy, for they had begun to fear that the
expedition must have met with some disaster, in doubling Cape Horn,
and been compelled to return.

"What will you do?" the Spaniard asked.

"Return to Lima!" the boys exclaimed, simultaneously. "We shall be
there before the admiral can arrive, and can then rejoin our
comrades."

"That will indeed be your best plan," Don Estevan said; "but you
must be disguised thoroughly. However, you are not likely to be so
closely investigated as you otherwise would be, at Lima; for you
may be sure that, when the messenger arrives there, the town will
be in such a ferment of excitement, at the approach of your
countrymen, that our little affair will, for the time, be entirely
forgotten."

"I trust," Ned said, "that we shall be able to do something to
render your security more perfect; for, if I mistake not, when the
admiral hears of the doings of the officials of the Inquisition,
how many people they have burned to death lately at Lima, and what
frightful cruelties they have perpetrated in that ghastly prison,
he will burn the place to the ground and hang up the judges; in
which case we may be sure that no further inquiry will ever be
thought of, concerning the attack on the prison. What do you advise
us to do, senor? For it is clear that your best course is to return
to Arica, direct."

"I cannot think of doing that," the generous young Spaniard
replied. "A few days' longer absence will pass unnoticed,
especially as people will have plenty of other matters to think,
and talk, about. I do not see how you can possibly obtain disguises
without my assistance; and as our pursuers will l