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Updated: June 7, 2025
At length the commodore decided to send Jim in charge of the Blanco's torpedo-boat, with Terry O'Meara in charge of the engines. Montt was to take command of the Cochrane's launch; and a man named Juarez was given the command of the Hereschoff torpedo-boat, which was a craft of about sixteen tons displacement.
As the door closed behind them Montt shivered, although the night was oppressively hot, and Jim could have sworn that he heard the sound of an animal's pads retreating down the passage behind them. The two men swiftly pulled themselves together, however, and started off for the Covadonga, which they reached just as the first faint flush of dawn made its appearance in the eastern sky.
It was also within the bounds of possibility that the Pilcomayo and Manco Capac might likewise be there; and in that case, since the opposing forces would be pretty evenly matched, there was every prospect of a general engagement being fought, a prospect which aroused the keenest enthusiasm of every man in the fleet, and more especially that of such young hot-bloods as Jim and his friend O'Meara, to say nothing of Lieutenant Montt, who was being transferred, to his great gratification, from the Covadonga to the Blanco Encalada.
But you will meet it with the brave heart; and it will not be very bitter when it comes." By this time the two men had reached the door, which the Mama now opened, and a moment later Montt and Douglas were in the street, which was now illuminated by the rays of the full moon.
"Can't imagine what's wrong here to-night," muttered Montt, in a low voice, "but it must be either, as I said, that we have defeated their countrymen somewhere on land, or else that one of our ships has sunk or captured the Huascar; nothing less would, I imagine, have roused them to such a pitch of excitement.
Montt was in the conning-tower, carrying out Condell's orders as to the working of the engines, while the skipper himself watched carefully through the narrow observation-slit in the citadel, waiting for the moment when he might begin to open an effectual fire upon the enemy. At length the moment arrived.
The curious feeling of drowsiness gradually left him, and the figure of Mama Huello appeared, still standing close to Montt and the copper brazier, apparently in the same position as she had taken up when the mist began to appear before his eyes, and she was laughing, a grim, noiseless chuckle that disclosed all her white, pointed teeth.
Half-way down this evil-looking, evil-smelling, and squalid alley Montt called a halt and, looking round carefully, remarked: "Now, Senor Douglas, so far as I can remember for it is a good many years since I was here before this is the house; but as I see no sign of any light in the place, the old woman may have gone away, or died. However, having come thus far, we will try our luck."
Montt thereupon drew from his jacket pocket a revolver, which he had taken the precaution to bring with him, and tapped softly on the door with its butt. This time there followed a plainly perceptible "shuffle-shuffle" like the soft padding of a heavy animal's paws, and both men started violently when, directly afterward, and from the other side of the door, a whining voice inquired
Montt stepped inside, and Jim followed close upon his heels. The door shut after them, of its own accord, apparently; and they found themselves in a narrow stone-flagged passage, which was dimly lighted by an oil-lamp with a large red shade over it. The whitewashed walls were covered with all manner of hieroglyphs and drawings, the meaning of which Jim could not fathom.
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