AMONG THE MOUNTAIN
Two days later the mules were brought round to the door at sunrise, and
Harry and his brother sallied out from the hotel, dressed for the first
time in the Peruvian costume. They were both warmly clothed. On their
heads were felt hats with broad brims, which could be pulled down and
tied over the ears, both for warmth and to prevent their being blown
away by the fierce winds that sweep down the gorges. A thick poncho of
llama wool fell from their shoulders to their knees, and loosely tied
round their necks were thick and brightly-coloured scarves. They wore
high boots, and carried large knives stuck in a strap below the knee.
The rifles were fastened at the bow of their saddles, and their
wallets, with provisions for the day, were strapped behind. By the
advice of Dias each had in his pocket a large pair of green goggles, to
protect their eyes from the glare of sun and snow. They tied these on
before coming downstairs, and both agreed that had they met
unexpectedly in the street they would have passed each other without
the slightest recognition.
"It is a pity, Harry," Bertie said seriously, "that you did not have
your portrait taken to send home to a certain young lady. You see, she
would then have been able to hang it up in her room and worship it
privately, without anyone having the slightest idea that it was her
absent lover."
"You young scamp," Harry said, "I will pull your ears for you."
"If you attempt anything of the sort, I shall tie the brim of my hat
tightly over them. I really think it is very ungrateful of you not to
take my advice in the spirit in which I gave it."
"If you intend to go on like this, Bert, I shall leave you behind."
"You can't do it."
"Oh, yes, I can! I might give you in charge for some crime or other;
and in lack of evidence, the expenditure of a few dollars would, I have
no doubt, be sufficient to induce the judge, magistrate, or whatever
they call him, to give you six months' imprisonment."
"Then you are an unnatural brother, and I will make no more suggestions
for your good."
So they had come downstairs laughing, though feeling a little shy at
their appearance as they issued out of the courtyard. Speedily,
however, they gained courage as they saw that passers-by paid no
attention to them.
They had spent the previous afternoon in packing the bundles, in which
every item was put away so that it could be got at readily, and in
making sure that nothing had been omitted. The five baggage mules were
fastened one behind another, and José stood at the head of the leading
one. As they came out Dias swung his wife on to a cushion strapped
behind his saddle, and mounted himself before her. Harry and his
brother climbed into theirs. They had both refused to put on the heavy
and cruel spurs worn by the Peruvians, but had, at the earnest request
of the Indian, put them in their saddle-bags.
"You will want them," he said. "You need not use them cruelly, but you
must give your mules an occasional prick to let them know that you have
spurs."
On leaving the town the road ran up the valley of the Rimac, a small
river, but of vital importance to the country through which it passes,
as small canals branching from it irrigate the land.
"The Spaniards have done some good here at least," Harry said to Dias,
who was riding beside him.
"Some of these canals were constructed in their time, but the rest
existed long before they came here, and, indeed, long before the Incas
came. The Incas' work lies chiefly beyond the mountains; on this side
almost all the great ruins are of cities and fortresses built by the
old people. Cuzco was the Incas' capital, and almost all the towns
between the two ranges of the Andes were their work. It is true that
they conquered the people down to the sea, but they do not seem to have
cared to live here. The treasures of Pachacamac and the other places on
the plains were those of the old people and the old religion. The
inhabitants of the plains are for the most part descendants of those
people. The Incas were strong and powerful, but they were not numerous.
That was why the Spaniards conquered them so easily. The old people,
who regarded them as their masters, did not care to fight for them,
just as the Peruvians did not care to fight for the Spaniards."
"I expect it was a good deal like the Normans in England," Bertie put
in. "They conquered the Saxons because they were better armed and
better disciplined, but they were few in number in comparison with the
number they governed, and in their quarrels with each other the bulk of
the people stood aloof; and it was only when the Normans began their
wars in France and Scotland, and were obliged to enlist Saxon archers
and soldiers, that the two began to unite and to become one people."
"I have no doubt that was so, Bertie; but you are breaking our
agreement that you should speak in Spanish only."
"Oh, bother! you know very well that I cannot talk in it yet, and you
surely do not expect that I am going to ride along without opening my
lips."
"I know you too well to expect that," Harry laughed, "and will allow an
occasional outbreak. Still, do try to talk Spanish, however bad it may
be. You have got cheek enough in other things, and cheek goes a long
way in learning to talk a foreign language. You have been four months
at your Spanish books, and should certainly begin to put simple
sentences together."
"But that is just what one does not learn from books," the lad said.
"At any rate, not from such books as I have been working at. I could do
a high-flown sentence, and offer to kiss your hand and to declare that
all I have is at your disposal. But if I wanted to say, 'When are we
going to halt for dinner? I am feeling very peckish,' I should be
stumped altogether."
"Well, you must get as near as you can, Bertie. I dare say you cannot
turn slang into Spanish; but you can find other words to express your
meaning, and when you cannot hit on a word you must use an English one.
Your best plan is to move along on the other side of Dias, and chat to
his wife."
"What have I got to say to her?"
"Anything you like. You can begin by asking her if she has ever gone a
long journey with her husband before, how far we shall go
to-day--things of that sort."
"Well, I will try anyhow. I suppose I must. But you go on talking to
Dias, else I shall think that you are both laughing at me."
Five miles from Lima they passed through the little village of Quiraz.
Beyond this they came upon many cotton plantations, and in the ravines
by the side of the valley or among the ruins of Indian towns were
several large fortresses. They also passed the remains of an old
Spanish town and several haciendas, where many cattle and horses were
grazing. They were ascending steadily, and after passing Santa Clara,
eleven miles from Lima, the valley narrowed and became little more than
a ravine. On either side were rents made in the hills by earthquakes,
and immense boulders and stones were scattered about at the bottom of
the narrow gorge. Four hours' travelling brought them to Chosica, where
the valley widened again near the foot of the hills.
Here they halted for the day. There was an inn here which Dias assured
them was clean and comfortable, and they therefore took a couple of
rooms for the night in preference to unpacking their tents.
"It is just as well not to begin that till we get farther away," Harry
said. "We have met any number of laden mules coming down, and if we
were to camp here we should cause general curiosity."
He accordingly ordered dinner for himself and his brother, Dias
preferring to take his meal in a large room used by passing muleteers.
The fare was as good as they had had at the hotel at Lima.
"I am not sorry that we halted here," Bertie said; "I feel as stiff as
a poker."
"I think you got on very well, Bertie, with Mrs. Dias. I did not hear
what you were saying, but you seemed to be doing stunningly."
"She did most of the talking. I asked her to speak slowly, as I did not
manage to catch the sense of what she said. She seems full of fun, and
a jolly little woman altogether. She generally understood what I meant,
and though she could not help laughing sometimes, she did it so
good-temperedly that one did not feel put out. Each time I spoke she
corrected me, told me what I ought to have said, and made me say it
after her. I think I shall get on fairly well at the end of a few
weeks."
"I am sure you will, Bertie; the trouble is only at the beginning, and
now that you have once broken the ice, you will progress like a house
on fire."
There were still four hours of daylight after they had finished their
meal, so they went out with Dias to explore one of the numerous
burying-grounds round the village. It consisted of sunken chambers. In
these were bones, with remains of the mats in which the bodies had been
clothed. These wrappings resembled small sacks, and they remarked that
the people must have been of very small size, or they could never have
been packed away in them. With them had been buried many of the
implements of their trade. One or two had apparently not been opened.
Here were knitting utensils, toilet articles, implements for weaving,
spools of thread, needles of bone and bronze. With the body of a girl
had been placed a kind of work-box, containing the articles that she
had used, and the mummy of a parrot, some beads, and fragments of an
ornament of silver. Dias told them that all these tombs were made long
before the coming of the Incas. He said that round the heads of the men
and boys were wound the slings they had used in life, while a piece of
cotton flock was wrapped round the heads of the women. Many of the
graves communicated with each other by very narrow passages; the
purpose of these was not clear, but probably they were made to enable
the spirits of the dead to meet and hold communion with each other.
"I don't want to see any more of them," Bertie said after they had
spent three hours in their investigations; "this sort of thing is
enough to give one a fit of the blues."
Beyond Chosica civilization almost ceased. The road became little more
than a mule track, and was in many places almost impassable by vehicles
of any kind. Nothing could be wilder than the scenery they passed. At
times rivers ran through perpendicular gorges, and the track wound up
and down steep ravines. Sometimes they would all dismount, though Dias
assured them it was not necessary; still, it made a change from the
monotonous pace of little over two miles an hour at which the mules
breasted the steep incline.
José rode on the first of the baggage mules, which was very lightly
loaded; he generally sang the whole time. When on foot, Donna Maria
stepped gaily along and Bertie had hard work to keep pace with her. He
was making rapid progress with the language, though occasionally a peal
of laughter from his companion told of some egregious error.
There were villages every few miles, but now when they halted they did
so as a rule a mile before they got to one of these. Dinner was cooked
over a fire of dead sticks, and after the meal Harry's tent was erected
and the bed spread in it. The Indians went on to the village for the
night, while Harry and his brother sat and smoked for a time by the
fire and then turned in. At daybreak Dias rode back leading their
riding mules and a baggage animal; the tent, beds, and the cooking
utensils were packed up, and they rode in to the village and passed on
at a trot until they overtook Maria and José, who had started with the
other four mules when Dias rode away. At last they reached the head of
the pass, and two days' journey took them to Oroya, standing on an
elevated plateau some ten thousand feet above the sea, and five
thousand below the highest point of the road.
The scenery had now completely changed. Villages were scattered thickly
over the plain, cultivation was general. The hillsides were lined by
artificial terraces, on which were perched chalets and small
hamlets--they had seen similar terraces on the way up. These were as
the Spaniards found them, and must at one time have been inhabited by a
thriving population. Even now gardens and orchards flourished upon them
up to the highest points on the hills. Oroya was a large place, and,
avoiding the busy part of the town, they hired rooms, as it was
necessary to give the mules two days' rest. On the first evening after
their arrival they gathered round a fire, for the nights were cold, and
even in the daytime they did not find their numerous wraps too hot for
them.
"Now, Dias," Harry said, "we must talk over our plans. You said that we
would not decide upon anything till we got here."
"In the first place, señor, I think it would be well to go to the north
to see the Cerro de Pasco silver mine, they say it is the richest in
the world. It is well that you should see the formation of the rocks
and the nature of the ore; we may in our journeyings come across
similar rock."
"It is gold rather than silver that one wants to find, Dias. I do not
say that a silver mine would not be worth a very large sum of money,
but it would be necessary to open it and go to a large expense to prove
it. Then one would have to go to England and get up a company to work
it, which would be a long and difficult matter. Still, I am quite ready
to go and see the place."
Dias nodded.
"What you say is true, señor. I could take you to a dozen places where
there is silver. They may be good or may not, but even if they were as
rich as Potosi the silver would have to be carried to Lima, so great a
distance on mules' backs that it would swallow up the profits. And it
would be almost impossible to convey the necessary machinery there,
indeed to do so would involve the making of roads for a great distance."
"At the same time, Dias, should you know of any silver lodes that might
turn out well, I would certainly take some samples, and send two or
three mule-loads of the stuff home. They might be of no good for the
purpose for which I have come out here, but in time I might do
something with them; the law here is that anyone who finds a mine can
obtain a concession for it."
"That is so, señor, but he must proceed to work it."
"I suppose it would be sufficient to put two or three men on for that
purpose."
"But if you were away for a year difficulties might arise. It would be
better for you only to determine the course of the lode, its thickness
and value, to trace it as far as possible, and then hide all signs of
the work, and not to make your claim until you return here."
"Very well, I will take your advice, Dias. And now about the real
object of our journey."
"I have been thinking it over deeply," Dias said. "First as to mines;
at present almost all the gold that is obtained is acquired by washing
the sands of rivers. Here and there gold has been found in rocks, but
not in sufficient quantities to make mining pay. The rivers whose sands
are richest in gold are in the mountains that lie behind Lake Titicaca,
which lies to the south of Cuzco and on the border of Bolivia. No one
doubts that in the time of the Incas there existed gold mines, and very
rich ones; for if it had not been so it is impossible to account for
the enormous amount of gold obtained by the Spanish conquerors, and no
one doubts that they got but a small portion of the gold in existence
when they arrived. It is of no use whatever for us to search the old
ruins of the Incas in Cuzco, or their other great towns; all that can
be found there has already been carried away.
"Now you see, señor, Huanuco, Jauja, Cuzco, and Puno all lie near the
eastern range of the Andes, and when the alarm caused by the arrogant
conduct of the Spaniards began, it was natural that the treasures
should be sent away into the heart of those mountains. The towns on the
western sides of this plateau, Challhuanca, Tanibobamba, Huancavelica,
would as naturally send theirs for safety into the gorges of the
western Andes, but all traditions point to the fact that this was not
done by the Incas. As soon as the Spaniards arrived and struck the
first blow, the great chiefs would naturally call together a band of
their followers on whose fidelity they could rely, load the treasures
on llamas, of which they possessed great numbers, and hurry them off to
the mountains.
"It is among the mountains, therefore, that our search must be made.
All our traditions point to the fact that it was along the eastern
range of the Cordilleras, and the country beyond, that by far the
greater portion of the treasures were taken for concealment. At any
rate, as we have but eighteen months for the search it is on that side
that we must try, and ten times that length of time would be
insufficient for us to do it thoroughly. As to the gold mines, it is
certain that they lie in that portion of the range between Cuzco and
Lake Titicaca. It was near Puno, a short distance from the lake, that
the Spaniards, owing to the folly of an Indian, found great treasures
in a cave. They would probably have found much more had not a stream
suddenly burst out which flooded the whole valley and converted it into
a lake. Which do you think we had better look for first, gold mines or
hidden treasures?"
"Of course that must depend on you, Dias, and how much you know about
these matters. I need not say that a hidden treasure would be of vastly
more use to me than the richest gold mine in the world. To obtain the
gold from a mine an abundance of labour is required, besides machinery
for crushing quartz and separating the gold from it. In the bed of a
river, if it is rich and abounding in nuggets, three or four men, with
rough machinery, could wash out a large quantity of gold in a short
time, and a place of that sort would be far better than a rich mine,
which could not be worked without a large amount of capital."
"I have heard tales of such places on the other side of the mountains
to the south. From time to time gold-seekers have returned with as much
as they could carry, but not one in a hundred of those that go ever
come back; some doubtless die from hunger and hardship, but more are
killed by the Indians. Most of the tribes there are extremely savage,
and are constantly at war with each other, and they slay every white
man who ventures into their country."
"Then is it not probable, Dias, that the gold could have come from
their country?"
"Not from the plains, but from the streams running down into them; and
although the Incas never attempted to subdue the tribes beyond the
mountains, they may have had bodies of troops to protect the workers
from incursions by these savages."
"Are there many wild beasts there?"
"In some parts of the mountains pumas and jaguars abound."
"That is not altogether satisfactory, though I should not mind if we
fell in with one occasionally. But how about game, Dias?"
"The chief game are the wild vicuñas, which are very numerous in some
parts; but they are very shy and difficult to hunt. Deer are plentiful,
and there are foxes, bears, and hogs; but the great article of food is
fish. On the plains the manatee, which is very like the seal, is
caught; turtles are found in great numbers, and the people make oil
from their eggs; and the buffo, a sort of porpoise, also abounds. The
natives do not eat these, except when very pressed for food; they catch
them for the sake of their oil. There are many kinds of fish: the
sunaro, which I heard an English traveller say are like the fish the
English call the pike; these grow to the length of seven or eight feet.
And many smaller kinds of fish are caught by throwing the juice of the
root of the barbasto into small streams. This makes the fish stupid,
and they float on the surface so that they may easily be caught by
hand. There are also many sorts of fruit."
"Well, then, we ought to do fairly well, Dias."
"Yes, señor; but many of these creatures are only found in the forests
and in the rivers of the plains, and they are so much hunted by the
savages there that they are very shy. But there are some creatures with
which we certainly do not wish to meet, and unfortunately these are not
uncommon. I mean the alligators and the great serpents. The natives
fear the alligators much, for their weapons are of no avail against
them, and they would never venture to attack a great snake."
"And besides these, what other disagreeables are there, Dias?" Bertie
asked cheerfully.
"There is one other disagreeable," Dias replied, "and it is a serious
one. There are in the mountains many desperate men. Some have slain an
enemy who had friends influential enough to set the law in motion
against them, or have escaped from prison; some have resisted the
tax-collectors; many have been suspected of plotting against the
government; and others are too lazy to work."
"And how do they live?" Harry asked.
"They live partly on game and partly on plunder. They steal from
cultivators; they are paid a small sum by all muleteers passing through
the mountains; they rob travellers who are worth robbing; and sometimes
they carry off a proprietor of land, and get a ransom for him.
Occasionally they will wash the sand, and get gold enough to send one
of their number into a town to buy articles they require."
"And do they go in large bands?"
"No, señor; as a rule some ten or twelve keep together under the one
they have chosen as their chief. Sometimes, if people make complaints
and troops are sent against them, they will join to resist them; but
this is not often. The authorities know well enough that they have no
chance of catching these men among the mountains they are so well
acquainted with, and content themselves with stationing a few troops in
the villages."
"And is it through the robbers or the savages that so few of the gold
explorers ever return?"
"It is chiefly, I think, from hardship," Dias said; "but undoubtedly
many who venture down near the Indians' country are killed by them.
Some who have done well, and are returning with the gold they have
accumulated, fall victims to these robbers. You must not, of course,
suppose that there are great numbers of them, señor. There may be some
hundreds, but from Huancabamba--the northern frontier of the western
Cordilleras, where the Maranon crosses the eastern range--down to Lake
Titicaca on the one side, and Tacna on the other, is nigh a thousand
miles, and the two ranges cover more square leagues than can be
reckoned, and even a thousand men scattered over these would be but so
many grains of sand on a stretch of the sea-shore."
"It certainly sounds like it, Dias; but perhaps those worthy people
congregate chiefly in the neighbourhood of the passes."
"That is so, señor; but even through these a traveller might pass many
times without being troubled by them."
"Have you fallen in with them often, Dias?"
"Yes; but, as you see, they have done me no harm. Sometimes, when I get
to the end of my journey, the mules are not so heavily laden as when I
started; but generally the people for whom I work say to me, 'Here are
so many dollars, Dias; they are for toll.' There are places in the
villages at the foot of the most-frequented passes where it is
understood that a payment of so many dollars per mule will enable you
to pass without molestation. In return for your money, you receive a
ribbon, or a rosette, or a feather, and this you place in your hat as a
passport. You may meet a few men with guns as you pass along, but when
they see the sign they salute you civilly, ask for a drink of wine if
you are carrying it, then wish you good-day. It is only in
little-frequented passes that you have to take your chance. I may say
that though these men may plunder, they never kill a muleteer. They
know that if they did, all traffic on that road would cease, and the
soldiers would find guides who knew every path and hiding-place in the
mountains."
"Anyhow, I think it is well, Dias, that I took your advice, and handed
over my gold to Señor Pasquez, for if we do fall into the hands of any
of these gentry, we can lose practically nothing."
"No money, señor, but we might lose everything else, except perhaps the
mules, which they could not use in the mountains. But if they were to
take our blankets, and tents, and provisions, and your firearms, we
should be in a bad way if we happened to be a couple of hundred miles
in the heart of the mountains."
"Well, I don't think they will take them," Harry said grimly, "without
paying pretty dearly for them. With your gun and our rifles, and that
old fowling-piece which you got for José, which will throw a fairly
heavy charge of buck-shot, I think we can make a very good fight
against any band of eight men, or even one or two more."
"I think so," Dias said gravely. "It is seldom I miss my mark. Still, I
hope we shall not be troubled with them, or with the Indians. You see,
it is not so much an attack by day that we have to fear, as a surprise
at night. Of course, when we are once on the hills, José and I will
keep watch by turns. He is as sharp as a needle. I should have no fear
of any of these robbers creeping up to us without his hearing them. But
I can't say so much for him in the case of the Indians, who can move so
noiselessly that even a vicuña would not hear them until they were
within a spear's-throw."
"The spear is their weapon then, Dias?"
"Some tribes carry bows and arrows, others only spears, and sometimes
they poison the points of both these weapons."
"That is unpleasant. Are there remedies for the poisons?"
"None that I know of, nor do I think the savages themselves know of
any. The only chance is to pour ammonia at once into the hole that is
made by an arrow, and to cut out all the flesh round a spear-wound, and
then to pour in ammonia or sear it with a hot iron."
"That accounts for your buying that large bottle of ammonia at Lima. I
wondered what you wanted it for. When we get into the country these
unpleasant people inhabit, I will fill my spirit-flask with it, so that
it will always be handy if required. Now we understand things
generally, Dias. It only remains for you to decide where we had best
leave the plain and take to the mountains."
Dias was silent for a minute. "I should say, señor, that first we had
better journey down to Cuzco and then down to Sicuani, where the
western Cordilleras, after making a bend, join the eastern branch, and
there cross the Tinta volcano. On the other side are many gorges. In
one of these I know there is some very rich gold sand. Explorers have
sought for this spot in vain, but the secret has been well kept by the
few who know it. It has been handed down in my father's family from
father to son ever since the Spaniards came. He told it to me, and I
swore to reveal it to none but my son. I have no son, and the secret
therefore will die with me. Whether it has been passed down in any
other family I cannot say. It may be, or it may not be; but as I owe
you my life, and also the debt of gratitude to Señor Barnett, I feel
that you are more to me than a son. Moreover, the secret was to be kept
lest it should come to the knowledge of the Spaniards. The Spaniards
have gone, and with them the reason for concealment, so I feel now that
I am justified in taking you there."
"I am glad of that, Dias. Assuredly the gold can be of service to no
man as long as it lies there, and it would be better to utilize it than
allow it to waste. I need not say how grateful I shall feel if you can
put me in the way of obtaining it."
"That I cannot absolutely promise," he said. "I have the indications,
but they will be difficult to find. Three hundred years bring great
changes--rocks on which there are marks may be carried away by
torrents, figures cut in the cliffs may be overgrown by mosses or
creepers. However, if but a few remain, I hope to be able to find my
way. If I fail we must try elsewhere; but this is the only one of which
I have been told all the marks. I know generally several places where
great treasure was hidden, but not the marks by which they could be
discovered, and as we may be sure that every measure was taken to hide
the entrances to the caves, the chances would be all against our
lighting upon them. I may say, señor, that, great as was the treasure
of the Incas, that of the Chimoos or Chincas, a powerful people who
inhabited part of this country, was fully as large; and traditions say
that most of the treasures hidden were not those of the Incas, but of
the Chimoos, who buried them when their country was invaded by the
Incas.
"This is certainly the case with most of the treasures hidden to the
west of the mountains. It was so at Pachacamac; it was so at Truxillo,
where the Spaniards found three million and a half dollars of gold; and
it is known that this was but a small hoard, and that the great one,
many times larger, has never been discovered. Probably the secret has
long been lost; for if there are but few who know where the Incas
buried their gold, it may well be believed that the exact locality of
the Chimoo treasures, which were buried more than eight hundred years
ago, is now unknown, and that nothing but vague traditions have been
handed down."
"That one can quite understand," Harry agreed, "when we consider how
many of the Chimoos must have fallen in the struggle with the Incas,
and how more than half the population were swept away by the Spaniards,
to say nothing of those who have died in the wars of the last thirty
years. It seems strange, however, that the treasures in the temple of
Pachacamac were left untouched by the Incas and allowed to accumulate
afterwards."
"It was so generally regarded as the sacred city," Dias said, "that,
powerful as they were, the Incas did not attempt to interfere with it,
as to do so would certainly have stirred up a formidable insurrection
of the natives throughout the whole of their territory; and instead,
therefore, of taking possession of the temple and dedicating it to
their own god, they allowed it to remain untouched and the worship of
the old gods to be carried on there, contenting themselves with
building a temple of their own to the Sun-god close at hand."
"Whether any treasure we find belonged to the Incas or to the Chimoos
is of no consequence whatever. I certainly think that before entering
upon what would seem to be almost a hopeless search for such stores, we
should try this place that you know of. In that case it seems to me,
Dias, that if we had gone down the coast to Islay, and up through
Arequipa to Cuzco, our journey would have been considerably shorter."
"That is true, señor, but we should have found it difficult to take a
passage for our mules; the steamers are but small craft, with poor
accommodation even for passengers. And besides, until we had made all
our arrangements for the journey from Lima, I could hardly say that I
had made up my mind to bring you to this place. Only when you and your
brother saved my life did I feel that I was bound to aid you, even to
the point of divulging the secret. It is different now from what it was
when it was first handed down. At that time the Spaniards were
mercilessly slaying all known to be in the possession of any secret
connected with gold, and every discovery of gold entailed the forced
labour of thousands more of the natives. Well, señor, all that is
changed; we are our own masters, and those who find mines are allowed
to work them on payment of certain royalties. There is, therefore, no
good in keeping a secret that has been useless for hundreds of years."
"Certainly, Dias, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you
are injuring no one by the act, and are besides doing a very good
action to my brother and myself.
"Well, Bertie," Harry said when Dias had left the room, "I think we may
congratulate ourselves. For the first time I really think there is a
chance of the expedition turning out a success."
"It certainly looks like it," Bertie agreed. "For your sake I hope it
will be so. As for me, I am quite content; what with Indians and
brigands, wild beasts, alligators, and snakes, the journey is likely to
be an exciting one."