ng away, he had put them both on, in spite
of the heat of the day.

Diego's friend pushed them into a little cubby-hole under the half-deck
of the bumboat, saying in Spanish, which Diego translated to Lee:

"Lie there, lads, and we'll put you on shore at Regla all right."

The place was hot and stuffy and there was hardly room to turn round,
but they were so anxious to get away that they lay perfectly still for
at least an hour.

Then the bumboat shoved off to return to the shore, and in fifteen
minutes Lee stood upon foreign soil for the first time. Forlorn and
strange enough he felt, too, and if it had not been for Diego, would
have felt almost inclined to go back to the Traveler and her tyrant of a
captain.

Every sight and sound which met him when he landed was different from
any he had ever experienced before. Long drays, drawn by mules covered
with tasseled harness and bells, and driven by half-naked negroes,
groups of dark-complexioned men, with sashes round their waists and gay
handkerchiefs on their heads, on top of which they wore felt or straw
hats.

They talked with great energy and many gestures as they smoked their
cigars. Diego said they were stevedores and other laborers who had just
finished their day's work.

The streets were paved with small cobble stones, or else not paved at
all, and the sidewalk was very narrow and elevated, more like a beach
than a walk, and everybody seemed to take to the middle of the street.

Nobody took any notice of the two lads, for sailors were no rarity in
those parts, and they worked their way along the narrow, crowded, noisy
streets, sometimes jumping to one side to avoid a mule dray or some
heavy burden, carried by a number of negroes upon their heads, the
bearers singing in chorus to warn people out of the way.

Occasionally they met a lady dressed in white, with bare head and fan in
hand, who had driven down in her volante to fetch a father or a husband
from his place of business.

This vehicle struck Lee as being very odd. It was a sort of large, open
gig, mounted on very high wheels and drawn by a horse at the end of very
long shafts, which kept him several feet from the volante.

The horse was always ridden by a black postillion in gorgeous livery,
glazed hat and cockade, and enormous boots, who cracked a whip with a
noise like pistol-shots, to show that an important person was coming.

A number of times Lee stopped to look at the novel sights about h