efore I can weigh anchor."

"Clearance duties--port dues to be paid. You want the passage-money
advanced, I presume? Well, I shall not object to prepaying it in part.
How much will you require?"

"_Mil gracias_, Senor Montijo. It's not anything of the kind. Although
far from rich, thank Heaven, neither I nor my craft is under embargo. I
could sail out of San Francisco in half-an-hour, but for the want of--"

"Want of what?" asks Don Gregorio in some surprise.

"Well, senor--sailors."

"What! Have you no sailors?"

"I am sorry to say, not one."

"Well, Captain Lantanas, I thought it strange observing nobody aboard
your ship--except that black fellow. But I supposed your sailors had
gone ashore."

"So have they, senor; and intend staying there. Alas! that's the
trouble. They've gone off to the gold-diggings--every one of them,
except my negro cook. Likely enough, I should have lost him too, but he
knows that California is now part of the United States, and fears that
some speculating Yankee might make a slave of him, or that perchance he
might meet his old master: for he has had one."

"How vexatious all this!" says Don Gregorio. "I suppose I shall have to
look out for another ship."

"I fear you'll not find one much better provided than mine--as regards
sailors. In that respect, to use a professional phrase, we're all in
the same boat."

"You assure me of that!"

"I do, senor."

"I can trust you, Captain Lantanas. As I have told you, I'm not here
without knowing something of yourself. You have a friend in Don Tomas
Silvestre?"

"I believe I have the honour of Don Tomas's friendship."

"Well, he has recommended you in such terms that I can thoroughly rely
upon you. For that reason, I shall now make more fully known to you why
I wish to travel by your ship."

The Chilian skipper bows thanks for the compliment, and silently awaits
the proffered confidence.

"I've just sold my property here, receiving for it three hundred
thousand dollars in gold-dust--the same I intended for your freight. It
is now lying at my house, some three miles from town. As you must be
aware, captain, this place is at present the rendezvous of scoundrels
collected from every country on the face of the habitable globe, but
chiefly from the United States and Australia. They live, and act,
almost without regard to law; such judges as they have being almost as
great criminals as those brought before them. I feel