ided between them, and five minutes later, after blowing out the candle
and locking the door behind him, the muleteer mounted and rode off with
Stephen.

CHAPTER XVI.

AN INDIAN GUIDE.

"Of course we must go through Lima," Stephen said as they started.

"Assuredly, senor, the roads over the passes all start from there, and it
would take us a long circuit to avoid the town."

"Oh, there is no occasion to avoid it," Stephen said. "It is about five
miles, is it not?"

"That is the distance; but, as the road ascends a good deal, we generally
count it as six. It is a fine city Lima, and I hope that it will not be
very long before we shall be able to enjoy it without the presence of the
Spaniards; we think they cannot remain here much longer. If the Chilian
army would but move from the sea-coast the whole country would be up in
arms. We would rather have done without the Chilians if we could, for
there has never been any great friendship between them and the Peruvians.
I do not say between them and us, for I am almost as much Chilian as
Peruvian, seeing that I was born within half a mile of the frontier and
high up in the hills. But there is more money to be made here. In the
first place, the Peruvians have more towns beyond the passes, and there is
more traffic; and in the next place, in Chili most men are ready to work
if there is money to be made, whereas most of the Peruvians are too lazy
to pick up gold if it lay at their feet. Most men in our business come
from the hills."

"And why don't the Peruvians and Chilians like each other?"

"Who can tell. The Chilians have a colder climate, and the people for the
most part came from the north of Spain; they are hardier and more active;
then, too, they are not so strict in church matters, and here they call
them heretics, and a Peruvian hates a heretic a great deal worse than he
does the father of all evil. We muleteers pray to the saints for
protection on our journeys, and before we start on a long expedition burn
a few candles at the shrine of our patron saint, and we never pass a
shrine or a wayside cross without making a prayer; but we don't concern
ourselves with other people's religion; that is their business, not ours.
But that is not so with the Spaniards, and the Peruvians are just as bad.
You may kill a man in a knife fight and no one cares much about it. But if
you were to pass a village