"Out somewhere," answered McKay. "I haven't seen him yet. Want this
first room, Merry?"

"Just to play safe, I'll take the one next the German. And if I hear any
war in the night, Tim, I'm coming over the top with both hands going."

"Grrrumph!" growled Tim.

"That goes, Tim," warned McKay. "I'll take this room and you can have
the one between us. Here comes the baggage train with our stuff. In
here, men!"

Puffing and grunting, Antonio and Jorge and Rosario and Meldo shuffled
in with the boxes and bundles. Under the directions of McKay and
Knowlton, these were stowed in the bare rooms. Then the four shuffled
out again, grinning happily over a small roll of Brazilian paper reis
which McKay had peeled from a much larger roll and handed to them.
Immediately following their departure, in came a youth carrying three
new hammocks.

"Our beds," McKay explained. "I sent this lad to a trader's store for
them. He's the proprietor's son. Thank you, Thomaz. Tell your father to
put these on our bill, and take for yourself this small token of our
appreciation."

More reis changed hands. The young Brazilian, with a flash of teeth,
informed them that the evening meal would soon be ready and disappeared
through a rear door.

"Do they really feed us at this here, now, hotel?" Tim demanded. "Then
the goat's safe."

"Meaning?" puzzled Knowlton.

"Meanin' I didn't know but we had to kill our supper, and I was goin' to
git the cap'n's goat. That is, the goat the cap'n's kiddin'--I mean the
goat that's kiddin' the cap--the skiddin' she-goat--Aw, rats! ye know
what I'm drivin' at. Me tongue so dry it don't work right."

Wherewith Tim retreated in disorder to his room and began wrestling with
his new hammock and the iron hooks.

Swift darkness filled the rooms. The sun had slid down below the bulge
of the fast-rolling world. Thomaz re-entered, lit candles stuck in empty
bottles, and, with a bow, placed one of these crude illuminants at the
door of each of the strangers. By the flickering lights McKay and
Knowlton disposed their effects according to their individual desires,
bearing in mind Tim's observation that any small article dropped on the
floor would land in the mud under the house, whence sounded the grunts
of pigs. Their work was soon completed, and they sauntered together to
the small piazza.

"Nice quiet little place," commented Knowlton. "Make a good sanitarium
for nervous folks."

The comment was made in a tone wh