s lifted, on his mattress and still
covered with the bedclothes, off the little iron camp bedstead and
carefully placed in the litter, the jewel was replaced about his neck,
the pillow under his head was comfortably arranged by Arima, the litter
was closed, and then a little procession, consisting of the litter and
its four bearers, with the eight other men who acted as reliefs, headed
by the two priests, filed silently out into the darkness, leaving Arima,
with six men, armed to the teeth with bows and arrows--the latter tipped
with copper--lances of hardwood sharpened by fire, and short swords, the
copper blades of which were hardened and tempered almost to the
consistency of steel by a process known only to the Peruvians
themselves. The duty of these men was to collect together and pack,
under Arima's supervision, the whole of Escombe's private and personal
belongings; and this they did with such expedition that, in less than
half an hour from the involuntary departure of its owner, the tent was
almost entirely stripped of its contents and left deserted.

Under the anaesthetic influence of the vapour which he had unconsciously
inhaled, Escombe continued to sleep soundly until close upon midday, by
which time the effect had almost entirely passed off, and he began to
awake very gradually to the consciousness that something very much out
of the ordinary course of things was happening. The first thing to
impress itself upon his slowly awakening senses was the fact that the
bed upon which he was lying was in motion, a gentle, easy, rhythmic,
swaying motion, unlike any movement that he had ever before experienced.
Yet the bed seemed to be the same as that upon which he had retired to
rest upon the preceding night, so far as he could judge; the mattress
had the old familiar feel, and--yes, certainly, he was still under the
shelter of the bedclothes, and his head still rested upon the familiar
pillow--he could feel the lumps in it where the flock filling had become
matted together. But why the mysterious motion? Could it be that he
was experiencing for the first time the effects of a Peruvian
earthquake? Slowly and reluctantly he opened his eyes, and saw that his
bed was indeed the same, yet with a certain difference, the precise
nature of which he was at first unable to define. But presently he saw
that the bed or couch upon which he was lying was closely encompassed by
a soft blanket-like cloth, tightly strained over