llow, brown, and black, and all the colors between, stood about
and looked at the giants from Kaintock, where people were reported to be
of such extraordinary size and ferocity, and where they certainly were, as
their own eyes could tell them, of uncommon height and strength, even boys
such as they saw Henry and Paul to be.

While the five were engaged in this task, _rabbais_, or peddling
merchants, some Provencals and some Catalans came to sell them goods,
which they carried in coffin-shaped vehicles pushed before them. They had
wares, mostly small articles from Spain and France and the West Indies.
Colored women carrying immense cans of milk or coffee on their heads
passed by or lingered in hope of a sale. Others were calling for sale
_callas_ and cakes _tous chauds_ in monotonous, drawling voices.
Negresses, also, were trying to sell _belles chandelles_, which were dirty
candles made from green myrtle wax, the chief light then sold in the city.

The five understood the gestures of this rabble, although not their words,
and waved them away, not caring to buy anything.

"Keep cool, Jim! keep cool!" said Shif'less Sol. "Don't shoot. They don't
want to kill you; they jest want to rob you."

"Depends on what they want to rob me uv," replied Long Jim with a grin. "I
never had more'n ten shillin's at one time in my life, an' I've got a
purty strong grip on my rifle an' the clothes that I hev on."

"I think we'd better go ashore an' do a little scoutin'," said Tom Ross.
"It's always well to know the groun' on which you're goin' to act."

"No doubt of it, Tom," said Henry, "and we'll all go together."

They had a little money of English coinage which was taken readily in
cosmopolitan New Orleans, and with two shillings they hired a levee
watchman, whom they judged they could trust, to look after "The Galleon."
Then, rifle on shoulder, they entered the fortified city by the gate
called _Chemin des Tchoupitoulas_. Spain, officially at least, was the
friend of the colonies and the enemy of England, and the sentinels at the
gate readily passed them after a few questions.

Here they asked again for the Governor General, Bernardo Galvez, and the
statement of Lieutenant Diego Bernal that he could not be seen was
confirmed. He had arrived only a few hours before from a two days'
expedition down the river, and was now immersed in important papers that
had awaited his coming.

They saw the Governor General's house, a one-story