restin' man,
whose right name I don't know yet, because everybody speaks of him as
Conrad of the Mountains, though some calls him Pedro, and others the
Rover of the Andes, and a good lot say he's a robber. But I don't care
twopence what they say, for I've seen him, and believe him to be a
first-rate feller. Anyhow, he's a rich one, and has bin hirin' a few
men to help him to work his silver-mine, and as I know somethin' about
mining, he has engaged me to superintend the underground work.'

"You may be sure we was surprised as well as pleased to hear all this,
an' we pumped him, in course, a good deal, an' he told us that the mine
was in the Andes somewheres, at a place called Murrykeety Valley, or
some such name. This Conrad had discovered the mine a good while ago,
and had got an old trapper an' a boy to work it, but never made much of
it till a few months back, when the old man an' the boy came suddenly on
some rich ground, where the silver was shovelled up in buckets. In
course I don't rightly know what like silver is when first got hold on.
It ain't in ready-made dollars, I dare say, but anyhow, they say this
Conrad'll be as rich as a nabob; an' he's got a pretty darter too, as
has bin lost the most of her life, and just turned up at the same time
wi' the silver. I don't rightly know if they dug her up in the mine,
but there she is, an' she's goin' up to the mountains too, so young
Ansty will be in good company."

"Jim," said Bill at this point, looking with unsteady solemnity at his
comrade, and speaking slowly, "I d-don' b-b'lieve a single word on't.
Here, give us a light, an'--an'--pash th' borle."

Rising at this point, Lawrence and Pedro left those jovial British tars
to their elevating occupations.

"Well, senhor," said the latter as they walked away, "you have heard it
all, though not just in the way I had intended!"

"But tell me, Pedro, is this all true?"

"Substantially it is as you have heard it described, only I have had
more people than old Ignacio and his boy to work my silver-mine. I have
had several men at it for a long time, and hitherto it has paid
sufficiently well to induce me to continue the works; but when Ignacio
visited it a few weeks ago, in passing on his way here to meet me, he
found that a very rich lode had been found--so rich, indeed, and
extensive, that there is every reason to expect what men call `a
fortune' out of it. There is a grave, as you know, which dims for me
th