letter which has induced me to change my mind about you. Instead,
therefore, of shooting you, I am sending you, together with a number of
your comrades, the Chilian officers whom I captured in the _Rimac_, to
the silver mines on the shores of Lake Titicaca. That will, in some
sort, compensate me for your insulting remark about the incident in the
Second Narrows, for I can promise you that your life, and the lives of
your comrades, will be made a very purgatory for you. Shooting is much
too easy a death for you, my friend; you will die, all the same, in the
silver mines; but the process of dying will be slow and very unpleasant.
You will start on your journey to-morrow, senor; and you will have a
splendid opportunity to view the beauties of the country, for you will
walk the whole distance, which is several hundred miles. And now,
senor, I bid you a final _adios_. Guards, take the man away and lodge
him again in his cell. Look after him well; for you will pay for it
with your lives if you let him escape. Again, senor, _adios_!"
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
ON THE ROAD TO SORATA.
It is small wonder that Douglas felt so unnerved by the ordeal through
which he had just passed that his brain seemed numbed to such an extent
that he scarcely realised what was going on around him. Villavicencio's
taunts passed him by almost unheeded, and Jim most certainly did not
realise that he was only exchanging a sudden for a lingering death. He
was conscious only of the fact that his life had been spared; and he
walked to his cell, between the guards, like a man in a dream. It was
not until the heavy prison door banged to after him that he really awoke
once more to a sense of the reality of things; and, although he speedily
realised all that was meant by his being condemned to the silver mines
for life, hope sprang up again in his breast. While there was life
there was hope; and he would be a poor sort of man, he reflected, if he
could not somehow contrive to escape, and that soon, from the terrible
captivity to which Villavicencio had consigned him. And further than
that, he determined that, once free, he would make the brutal Peruvian
skipper pay, and that heavily, for the mental torment to which he had
put his prisoner.
To occupy his mind, Jim then began to examine his prison, so far as his
bonds would permit him to do so, with the view of ascertaining whether
there was any possibility of escape for him; and he came to the
conclusion that, though he might possibly manage to break out, if he
were given time enough, he would need a very much longer time for the
accomplishment of such a task than the few hours which were to elapse
before he was to be taken out of the cell and placed among the chain-
gang which was to march to the silver mines. No; escape, if escape was
to be compassed, would have to be effected while on the march; and
Douglas fell to wondering who his companions in misfortune would prove
to be, and whether they would be likely to be prevailed upon to join him
in a dash for liberty. At any rate, he decided, as he fell asleep,
nothing could be done, no arrangements could be made, until he saw the
men who were to be his fellow-prisoners. Then, and then only, would he
be able to judge whether an escape while on the march would be
practicable. Jim sincerely hoped that the captives would prove to be
"game" men, for once they had arrived at their destination, the silver
mines, there would be very little chance of escape. Their freedom would
have to be won while on the march, or not at all.
Thus musing, Jim, overcome by the many and varied emotions of the
morning, at length fell asleep; and he continued to slumber peacefully
and almost continuously until he was wakened, on the following morning,
by the sounds of the clashing of arms and the tramp of heavy footsteps
outside his cell door. The young man sat up quickly, feeling much
refreshed after his long sleep; and a second later the cell door swung
open, a file of Peruvian marines entered the prison, and he was ordered
to rise to his feet. His manacles were then unlocked, and, between his
two guards, he walked out of his cell for the last time and proceeded on
deck. There was nobody there when he arrived, and he was ordered to sit
down under the port bulwarks, which he did, with the marines mounting
guard over him. But a few minutes later Lieutenant Rodriguez appeared
on deck, followed by a miserable-looking squad of half a dozen Chilian
officers, among whom Jim recognised one or two whom he knew. They were
guarded by a score of Peruvian seamen armed with drawn cutlasses. Jim
was then roughly hauled to his feet and pushed into the midst of the new
arrivals, who, recognising his uniform, tattered and torn though it was,
hailed him as a comrade, and received him with, figuratively, open arms.
The seven men were then formed up in line, and their names called out
by Rodriguez. When they had answered the roll the Peruvian lieutenant
called the sergeant in charge of the guard aside and gave him certain
instructions; after which the Chilians were once more formed up in the
middle of their escort, and the whole body, prisoners and guards,
marched down the sloping gangway which led from the _Union's_ deck to
the wharf, and Jim found himself once more, after many weary months, on
_terra firma_.
Still surrounded by their guards, the Chilians marched away along the
stone quay wall, and presently, having left the precincts of the
harbour, they arrived in the town proper of Callao. There, as soon as
they made their appearance, a crowd of roughs surrounded the prisoners
and began to deride them and pelt them with such filth and garbage as
came to hand. Their destination, Jim discovered, was the _Plaza_, or
great square, of the city, where they were to join the main body of
prisoners destined for the mines. For the whole of the way the
unfortunate men were in peril of their lives from the ferocity of the
mob; indeed, in one instance the crowd made such an ugly rush in its
attempt to get at the Chilians, to tear them to pieces, that their
guards were obliged to halt, form a hollow square, with their captives
in the middle, and repel the attack with their fixed bayonets.
At the moment when the danger was at its worst Jim seized the
opportunity to observe the faces of his companions in misfortune, and on
only two of them did he perceive any signs of terror; he therefore
decided that when making his plans for escape he would take especial
care that those two officers were not made acquainted with them, as they
would be not unlikely to disclose the plot, hoping that by so doing they
might procure their own freedom without the danger involved in fighting
for it. The remaining four held their heads high, and looked as though,
if only they possessed weapons, they would have been more than glad to
take a share in the fight. These were the sort of fellows, Douglas
decided, with whom to discuss plans for escape, and he made up his mind
that as soon as he could do so without being observed by the guards, he
would take them aside with a view to the arranging of a plan of escape
to be put into effect before the prison-gang should arrive at the mines.
At length the crowd, finding that the military guard round the prisoners
was too strong for it, abandoned its attempt to wreak its vengeance on
the Chilians, and finally dispersed. The procession then resumed its
march, and a quarter of an hour later arrived at the _gran Plaza de
Callao_, where another depressing sight met Jim's eyes. Round the
_Plaza_ now ranged rank upon rank of armed Peruvian soldiers, who were
mounting guard over a hundred or more disconsolate-looking Chilian
prisoners, who were nearly all manacled, some singly and some in groups.
There were present representatives of nearly every regiment of the
Chilian army, and naval men of all ratings; and, since the poor fellows
had had no change of clothing during their captivity, most of their
uniforms were almost unrecognisable. But Jim distinguished among them
officers who belonged to the Constitucion and Valparaiso regiments, the
Guias, and Grenaderos, together with Carabineros, Lancers, and Rifleros.
Most of the naval prisoners were, however, officers; and Jim was
overjoyed to see that among these were several men whom he knew, and to
whom he determined to make his presence known at the first possible
opportunity. The Englishman was at first a little surprised at the
preponderance of military over naval captives, until he recollected that
some months before, the _Union_, in command of the redoubtable
Villavicencio, had captured the transport _Rimac_, which was on her way
to Arica with troops. These unfortunate men had been subjected to a
rigorous captivity in Callao for some months, and had only been taken
from prison that very morning in order to march to the still worse fate
of captivity in the mines. Altogether there were, with the new
arrivals, about a hundred and fifty Chilian prisoners present on the
_Plaza_; and Jim speedily made up his mind that it would be very curious
if they could not by some means or other manage to effect their escape
while on the road.
The appearance of the naval prisoners from the _Union_ was the signal
for cheers from their companions in misfortune, and Jim was speedily
recognised by some of the officers near him. The Peruvian soldiers,
however, did not seem to relish this manifestation on the part of their
prisoners, and several of them ordered the Chilians to keep silent,
enforcing the command with savage blows from the butt-ends of their
muskets. But at this moment a gorgeously uniformed official rode up on
horseback and spoke to the captain in charge of the guard. Jim could
not hear what was said, but the official handed the captain a paper,
appeared to give him certain instructions, and then galloped off.
Captain Veragua--for that, Jim afterwards learned, was the soldier's
name--glanced through the paper, and then began to call the roll of the
prisoners. Most of them were present; but a hiatus now and again
occurred, which was filled in by a voice responding, "Dead, captain!"
This ceremony having been finished, several armourers made their
appearance, with hammers and cold chisels, and proceeded to knock off
the prisoners' leg-irons, so that they would be able to march. Then the
unhappy men were manacled together in groups of a dozen by means of a
long chain to which their right wrists were fastened. Jim, seeing that
this process was in progress, unostentatiously moved from where he was
standing and took up a position in the midst of a number of naval
officers whom he knew, and who had already been making covert signs for
him to do so. It thus fell out, as he had hoped, that he was manacled
to a group of men whom he already knew, and he determined to lose no
time in discussing with them plans for a possible escape.
There was no opportunity for that just at present, however; for his
group was practically the last to be attended to; and, directly their
chains had been riveted on, the whole body was formed up in a solid
square. They were then surrounded by the troops, the order to march was
given, and the entire company wheeled to the right off the _Plaza_ into
the _Calle de los Angeles_, down which they proceeded at a rapid pace.
The low hum of conversation immediately broke out among the Chilians,
and it was not checked by their guards; therefore, although it was
impossible at present to discuss anything of a private nature, Jim took
the opportunity to ask his friends if they had any information as to the
fate in store for them, beyond the fact that they were destined for the
mines. He found, however, that the latter fact was practically all that
was known. They were to be taken, in the first place, he learned, to
the recently erected station at Callao, and then put in the train for
Lima. There they were to be imprisoned in the castle for one or two
nights, until a second detachment of Chilian prisoners should have
arrived from the south, and then the whole body was, as far as could be
ascertained, to be marched direct to Sorata by way of Yanyos,
Huancavelica, Guantanga, Cuzco, and Santa Rosa. This constituted a
journey of some six hundred miles, the whole of which was to be
accomplished on foot! Truly a pleasant prospect! But Jim vowed to
himself that it would not be his fault if he did even as much as a sixth
of that distance before he escaped. He therefore caused the word to be
passed round among his fellow-officers, to whom he was manacled, that he
wished to have a private talk with them upon the first occasion that
offered; and their nods of comprehension assured him that they pretty
clearly understood for what purpose the conversation was to be held.
But they had, by this time, arrived at the railway station, and the
detachment was halted in the goods-yard just outside. Although regular
passenger communication had not yet been established between Callao and
the capital, there had been for some time a line of railway for the
purpose of carrying merchandise from the coast to Lima; and when the war
began this line was seized upon by the military authorities for the
purpose of transporting stores and soldiers. A huge, gloomy barrack of
a station had been built, together with a number of auxiliary goods-
sheds for the purpose of holding the war material; and it was among
these sheds that the Chilians found themselves halted. The tedious
process of calling the roll was then again gone through, and by the time
that that was finished a shrill whistle, accompanied by much blowing-off
of steam, and the clank of coupling-chains, announced that the train was
being drawn up.
Presently it came in sight round a curve, bumping and jolting over the
points, and Jim saw that it was made up of a number of goods-trucks, to
which no covering whatever had been attached, so that the unhappy
prisoners would be exposed, during the whole of their journey, to the
fierce rays of an almost vertical sun, and, as some of the men had
already been without water for twelve hours, and there seemed to be no
prospect of getting any before their arrival at Lima, it looked as
though their journey, short as it was to be, would prove a never-to-be-
forgotten one.
The Chilians were now formed up in two long lines, one on each side of
the set of metals on which the train was approaching; and, as soon as it
steamed into its place, they were ordered to get on board. Manacled as
they were in groups of twelve, this was necessarily a very tedious
process, and two hours elapsed before the prisoners were all stowed
away. It was then found that too few wagons had been provided, and, as
there were no more procurable, the consequent crushing was terrible.
But it had one advantage, which was, that the Peruvians were obliged to
send a much smaller guard of soldiers than they would otherwise have
done, for the simple reason that there was no room for more; and, as all
the Chilians had now stowed themselves away and it would have taken too
long a time to rearrange them, all the guards had to go in the last
truck, instead of being distributed all over the train. This gave the
prisoners the opportunity that some of them were looking for to have a
little private conversation; but there was no present chance of escape;
for the Peruvians with their rifles could fire from one end of the train
to the other, and thus speedily put an end to any attempts of the sort.
The train was on the point of starting when one poor thirsty wretch
began to cry out most piteously for a drink of water; and in a second
all the others were also clamouring for some. But the Peruvians merely
laughed at their entreaties, telling them that it would do them good to
be without for a while, and that they would appreciate their drink all
the more when they got to Lima. The signal was then given, the whistle
blew, and the melancholy procession moved out of Callao station, to the
accompaniment of ironical cheers and wishes for a safe and happy journey
from the soldiery and such of the townspeople as had come to witness the
departure.
The pace of the train was positively snail-like, and, as the engine had
no tender attached, and burned wood instead of coal, the stoppages in
order to replenish with fuel were very numerous. At the same time, it
being now high noon, the vertical sun streamed down upon the uncovered
trucks until they resembled so many ovens. The intense heat, coupled
with the inordinate length of time occupied by the journey, reduced some
of the prisoners, especially those who had been without water for many
hours, to the verge of frenzy. Their supplications for water would have
moved the hearts of any but the brutal Peruvian guards, whose canteens
were full of spirit and water, and who constantly refreshed themselves
therefrom, tortured the thirsty prisoners by holding the water-bottles
up to their gaze, and then pouring the contents down their own throats.
Gradually a low moan of pain and misery made itself heard in one of the
trucks, which soon spread to the others as the miserable men became
unable to bear their tortures any longer in silence.
"By Jove!" exclaimed Jim, "this is awful; what fiends these Peruvians
are! We have never treated our prisoners of war as these fellows are
doing; I wish I had some water to give them, but unfortunately I have
none; moreover, I am nearly perishing with thirst myself. Dozens of
these men are wounded, you know, Carlos," he continued, to a brother
officer who was sitting next to him, "and their sufferings must be
awful; some of them will go mad before we get to Lima. Hallo! quick
there, stop that man!" he yelled, as a haggard-looking Chilian soldier
staggered to his feet, his eyes blazing with insanity.
But Douglas's warning came too late. The Englishman had understood
instinctively what the maddened wretch was about to do, and shouted his
warning, but the men were packed so closely that there was no
opportunity to save him. Before a single individual could rise to his
feet the Chilian, manacled by one wrist as he was, had flung himself
over the end of the truck and, falling between the metals, was now being
dragged along by the train, his shrieks of agony filling all who heard
them with horror. The soldier happened to be the end man of his group,
and his length of chain was rather longer than that connecting the other
members of that particular party; but he had nearly dragged the man next
to him to a similar fearful death, for the poor fellow, half crazed with
terror, was hanging over the end of the truck with his arm nearly torn
from its socket by the corpse trailing on the line. His companions,
however, seized him by the body, while several strove to disconnect the
chain which fettered him to the awful object trailing beneath the train.
Jim and several others had staggered to their feet and were shouting to
the driver to stop the train, but the man was too far away to comprehend
what was said. The Peruvians in the last truck, feigning to believe
there was a mutiny of the prisoners, and glad of any excuse for cruelty,
began to fire into the huddled mass of Chilians, the bullets doing
fearful execution at such short range. The officer next in line to Jim
fell dead with a bullet through his heart, and pulled Douglas down with
him, thereby saving the Englishman's life, for a perfect hail of bullets
whizzed into the truck the moment after he fell.
At this moment there was a fearful shriek from the front end of the
truck. The body of the man who had committed suicide had by this time
been cut to pieces by the wheels, and the loose end of chain had
consequently been relieved of the drag upon it and was now lashing about
among the wheels. Before the soldier who had been nearly dragged over
could realise this and haul up the chain, the swaying end had got
entangled among the spokes of a wheel. It was quickly coiled up and
broken, of course, but before this happened it had actually torn the
unhappy Chilian's hand completely off, and his shrieks would have
convinced the Peruvian guards that something was wrong had they been
willing to be convinced, and not been too busily occupied in firing into
their helpless prisoners.
The maimed soldier had, however, fainted, and he now fell senseless upon
the floor of the car, while his companions, unable to assist him,
followed his example by lying down, to be out of the line of fire. The
Peruvians, however, fired a few more shots into the truck; but since
they could no longer see anybody at whom to shoot, they presently tired
of their pastime, and laid down their rifles, laughing heartily among
themselves at the sport they had enjoyed. Douglas and his fellow-
officers heard the raucous sounds of merriment, and each in his heart
vowed that, if they lived, they would exact a fearful retribution for
the inhuman treatment which they had that day received from their
captors.
At four o'clock that afternoon the train crawled and jolted into Lima;
the trucks were at once surrounded by soldiery who were waiting for
their arrival, and the unhappy prisoners were roughly hauled out and
formed up in a square as before. The weary, hungry and thirsty
prisoners were hurried off to the castle of Lima, where, in the
courtyard, they were given the first food and water that many of them
had received for nearly thirty-six hours.
While the starving wretches were refreshing themselves, the gates opened
to admit another body of about fifty Chilians surrounded by guards.
These were herded in among those who had arrived by the train, and
likewise were given food and water, upon which they fell like ravenous
wild beasts. After having satisfied his hunger, Jim seized the
opportunity to look round him a little. There were now about two
hundred Chilians present, and it was evident, from the preparations that
were being made, that they were all to be taken to the mines. Even as
he looked about him the new force of guards began to form up. There
were quite a hundred of them, Jim noticed, or about one to every two
prisoners. But the Peruvians were all armed with rifle and bayonet,
whereas the Chilians were not; moreover, the guards were free, while the
Chilian prisoners were manacled together in groups of a dozen.
Douglas had been led to expect that they would be kept a day or two at
Lima, but he now saw that he had been mistaken in his surmise.
Apparently the second body of prisoners had arrived sooner than they
were expected, and consequently the authorities had decided that all the
Chilians should commence their march without delay. The captives were
now ordered to stand up, and were formed into one company of five men
deep. After this was done a number of Peruvians brought in a couple of
wagons, which they at once began to unload, taking therefrom a number of
pickaxes and shovels, which were then served out among the prisoners,
and each man was given one of each tool. The reason for this, Jim
discovered, was that there were not sufficient implements at Sorata to
supply the new labourers, so the prisoners were compelled to carry with
them the tools wherewith they were to do their work when they reached
their destination.
"_Carrajo_!" exclaimed Douglas under his breath, as he watched his
fellow-prisoners shoulder the pickaxes and shovels. "Do those fools of
Peruvians know what they are doing? Why, they are absolutely delivering
themselves into our hands! I was wondering by what means we should be
able to overcome a hundred armed soldiers while on the march, but now
that we have got these things it will be easy."
He was aroused from his reverie by receiving a heavy blow on the
shoulder and hearing a rough voice exclaim: "Now then, wake up; don't
stand there dreaming all day. What are you thinking about? Here, catch
hold of this spade and pickaxe; that's your share. Ha, ha! it's a good
idea and an excellent joke to make you rascals carry the tools with
which we are going to make you work when you reach the mines. That's
it; now get into your place, and look sharp; we shall be on the march in
a few minutes. I hope your honour won't find the weight too heavy, for
you will come off rather badly if you do!"
Jim clutched his tools with the grasp of a drowning man, and there was
joy in his heart as he shouldered them, for he did not regard them as
tools, but rather as the precious means by which to regain his liberty.
Find them too heavy! Well, he rather thought not; he would not part
with them, now that they were his, on any account, for a scheme of
escape had come into his mind which he believed he could easily put into
practice, if he could but secure the co-operation of his fellow-
prisoners.