ss, and resumed:

"Well, the saints did not desert us. _Ah, mais non!_ For about four
o'clock in the afternoon the captain sighted Su-Tum-Tum."

"Sighted what?" I exclaimed.

"_Eh ben!_ Su-Tum-Tum," he replied.

"Where had you drifted? To the Corean coast?"

"_Mais non_," he retorted, annoyed at my dullness to comprehend. "We
were saved--_comprenez-vous?_--for there, to starboard, lay Su-Tum-Tum
as plain as a sheep's nose."

"England? Impossible!" I returned.

"_Mais parfaitement!_" he declared, with a hopeless gesture.
"_Su-Tum-Tum_," he reiterated slowly for my benefit.

"Never heard of it," I replied.

The next instant he was out of his chair, and fumbling in a drawer of
the table extracted a warped atlas, reseated himself, and began to turn
the pages.

"_Eh, voila!_" he cried as his forefinger stopped under a word along the
English coast. "That's Su-Tum-Tum plain enough, isn't it?"

"Ah! Southampton!" I exclaimed. "Of course--plain as day."

"Ah!" ejaculated the mayor, leaning back in his chair with a broad smile
of satisfaction. "You see, I was right, Su-Tum-Tum. _Eh ben!_ Do you
know," he said gently as I left him, "when you first came to Pont du
Sable there were times then, my poor friend, when I could not understand
a word you said in French."

Then, as if a sudden thought had struck him, he called me back as he
closed the gate.

"Are those gipsies still camped outside your wall?" he inquired,
suddenly assuming the dignity of his office. "_Bon Dieu!_ They are a bad
lot, those vagabonds! If I don't tell them to be off you won't have a
duck or a chicken left."

"Let them stay," I pleaded, "they do no harm. Besides, I like to see the
light of their camp-fire at night scurrying over my wall."

"How many are there?" inquired his excellency.

"Seven or eight, not counting the dogs chained under the wagons," I
confessed reluctantly, fearing the hand of the law, for I have a
fondness for gipsies. "But you need not worry about them. They won't
steal from me. Their wagons are clean inside and out."

"_Ah, mais!_" sighed the mayor. "It's just like you. You spoil your
cat, you spoil your dog, and now you're spoiling these rascals by giving
them a snug berth. Have they their papers of identity?"

"Yes," I called back, "the chief showed them to me when he asked
permission to camp."

"Of course," laughed the mayor. "You'll never catch them without
them--signed by officials we never can trace."

He w