the _Condor_, in the which I'm 'bout to ship, then,
shiver my spars! if I don't raise sich a rumpus as--"

"Kurra--kurra--cro--cro--croak! Na--na--na--boof--ta--ta--pf--pf--
piff!"

The sailor's voice is drowned by the gibbering of the orangs, his
gesture of mock-menace, with the semi-serious look that accompanied it,
having part frightened, part infuriated them.

The fracas continues, until the darkey returns on deck followed by the
skipper; when the cook takes charge of the _quadrumana_, drawing them
off to his caboose.

Captain Lantanas, addressing himself to the sailor, asks: "_Un
marinero_?" [A seaman.]

"_Si, capitan_." [Yes, captain.]

"_Que negocio tienes V. commigo_?" [What is your business with me?]

"Well, capten," responds Harry Blew, speaking the language of the
Chilian, in a tolerably intelligent _patois_, "I've come to offer my
sarvices to you. I've brought this bit o' paper from Master Silvestre;
it'll explain things better'n I can."

The captain takes the note handed to him, and breaks open the envelope.
A smile irradiates his sallow face as he makes himself acquainted with
its contents.

"At last a sailor!" he mutters to himself; for Harry is the only one who
has yet offered. "And a good one too," thinks Captain Lantanas, bending
his eyes on the ex-man-o'-war's man, and scanning him from head to foot.

But, besides personal inspection, he has other assurance of the good
qualities of the man before him; at a late hour on the night before he
held a communication with Don Gregorio, who has recommended him. The
haciendado had reported what Crozier said, that Harry Blew was an able
seaman, thoroughly trustworthy, and competent to take charge of a ship,
either as first or second officer.

With Crozier's endorsement thus vicariously conveyed, the
ex-man-o'-war's man has no need to say a word for himself. Nor does
Captain Lantanas call for it. He only puts some professional questions,
less inquisitorially than as a matter of form.

"The Senor Silvestre advises me that you wish to serve in my ship. Can
you take a lunar?"

"Well, capten; I hev squinted through a quadrant afores now, an' can
take a sight; tho' I arn't much up to loonars. But if there's a good
chronometer aboard, I won't let a ship run very far out of her
reck'nin'."

"You can keep a log-book, I suppose?"

"I dare say I can. I've larned to write, so 'st might be read; though
my fist ain't much to be bragged about."