enas.

"Did a tug and three coal barges put into your harbor last night?" he
asked.

"No, senor," was the answer, and Dick asked for the coal wharf at Adexe.

"Why didn't you call them first?" Jake inquired.

"I had a reason. The tug was standing to leeward when she left us, but if
her skipper meant to come back to Santa Brigida, he'd have to put into
Arenas, where he'd find shelter."

"Then you're not sure he meant to come back?"

"I've some doubts," Dick answered dryly, and was told that he was
connected with the Adexe wharf.

"What about the coal for the Fuller irrigation works?" he asked.

"The tug and four lighters left last night," somebody answered in
Castilian, and Dick imagined from the harshness of the voice that one of
the wharf-hands was speaking.

"That is so," he said. "Has she returned yet?"

"No, senor," said the man. "The tug----"

He broke off, and there was silence for some moments, after which a
different voice took up the conversation in English.

"Sorry it may be a day or two before we can send more of your coal. The
tug's engines----"

"Has she got back?" Dick demanded sharply.

"Speak louder; I cannot hear."

Dick did so, but the other did not seem to understand.

"In two or three days. You have one lighter."

"We have. I want to know if the tug----"

"The damage is not serious," the other broke in.

"Then I'm to understand she's back in port?"

A broken murmur answered, but by and by Dick caught the words, "Not
longer than two days."

Then he rang off, and pushing Jake's chair out of the way, shut the door.

"It's plain that they don't mean to tell me what I want to know," he
remarked. "The first man might have told the truth, if they had let him,
but somebody pulled him away. My opinion is that the tug's not at Adexe
and didn't go there."

They went back to the hotel, and Dick sat down on a bench in the patio
and lighted his pipe.

"There's something very curious about the matter," he said.

"When the tug left us she seemed to be heading farther off shore than was
necessary," Jake agreed. "Still, the broken water wouldn't matter so much
when she had the wind astern."

"Her skipper wouldn't run off his course and lengthen the distance
because the wind was fair."

"No, I don't suppose he would."

"Well," said Dick, "my impression is that he didn't mean to start at all,
and wouldn't have done so if I hadn't turned him out."

Jake laughed. "After all, there's n