, one and
all, devoted their energies to the collection of the train and the armed
guard which Phil declared would also be necessary. And when Stukely,
determined to avail himself to the utmost of their obliging mood,
further intimated that he would also need at least thirty Peruvians to
man the ship which he intended to capture, the said Peruvians of course
to proceed across the Great Water with him, he met with no difficulty in
securing as many volunteers as he needed. But the formation and
equipment of such an expedition as Phil had demanded was not to be
accomplished in a day, or even a week; therefore while men, animals, and
arms were being got together at Huancane, a messenger, armed with the
necessary authority, was sent forward along the route which would be
followed by the caravan, with instructions to the natives all along the
route to collect a certain quantity of food for the men and fodder for
the animals, in order that the passage of the expedition to the coast
might be expedited as much as possible. While this was being done, Phil
and Dick, having taken formal leave of the Huancane authorities,
returned to the Sacred Island, and, assisted by a dozen Peruvians,
proceeded to transport to the mainland as much of the treasure as they
thought they would be able to convey to the coast. This, of course, was
soon done, and then all that remained to them was to wait patiently for
the transport train, without which they could do nothing really worth
the doing.

At length, after they had been idly waiting for nearly three weeks, the
train duly arrived. But what a train it was! Two hundred llamas, with
a driver for every ten beasts; two hundred and fifty armed men to
protect the caravan from possible--but not very probable--attack by the
Spaniards; and forty men, every one of whom were prepared to follow Phil
to the world's end and back, if need be. Ten of the llamas were
intended for the transport of provisions on the march from one village
to another, and were already loaded to the full extent of their
capacity; four were harnessed to the curious hammock-like arrangements
which had been provided for the accommodation of Phil and his friend on
the march; and the remaining hundred and eighty-six animals, as well as
the forty volunteers for sea service, were available for the
transportation of treasure, each llama being provided with a pair of
saddle bags the broad connecting band of which sank so deeply into t