rricanes and
pineapples that ye eat comes from there."

"That sounds to me!" said the Kid, at last betraying interest. "What'll
the expressage be to take me out there with you?"

"Twenty-four dollars," said Captain Boone; "grub and transportation.
Second cabin. I haven't got a first cabin."

"You've got my company," said the Kid, pulling out a buckskin bag.

With three hundred dollars he had gone to Laredo for his regular
"blowout." The duel in Valdo's had cut short his season of hilarity, but
it had left him with nearly $200 for aid in the flight that it had made
necessary.

"All right, buddy," said the captain. "I hope your ma won't blame me for
this little childish escapade of yours." He beckoned to one of the
boat's crew. "Let Sanchez lift you out to the skiff so you won't get
your feet wet."

II

Thacker, the United States consul at Buenas Tierras, was not yet drunk.
It was only eleven o'clock; and he never arrived at his desired state
of beatitude--a state wherein he sang ancient maudlin vaudeville songs
and pelted his screaming parrot with banana peels--until the middle of
the afternoon. So, when he looked up from his hammock at the sound of a
slight cough, and saw the Kid standing in the door of the consulate, he
was still in a condition to extend the hospitality and courtesy due from
the representative of a great nation.

"Don't disturb yourself," said the Kid easily. "I just dropped in. They
told me it was customary to light at your camp before starting in to
round up the town. I just came in on a ship from Texas."

"Glad to see you, Mr. ----," said the consul.

The Kid laughed.

"Sprague Dalton," he said. "It sounds funny to me to hear it. I'm called
the Llano Kid in the Rio Grande country."

"I'm Thacker," said the consul. "Take that cane-bottom chair. Now if
you've come to invest, you want somebody to advise you. These dingies
will cheat you out of the gold in your teeth if you don't understand
their ways. Try a cigar?"

"Much obliged," said the Kid, "but if it wasn't for my corn shucks and
the little bag in my back pocket, I couldn't live a minute." He took out
his "makings," and rolled a cigarette.

"They speak Spanish here," said the consul. "You'll need an interpreter.
If there's anything I can do, why, I'd be delighted. If you're buying
fruit lands or looking for a concession of any sort, you'll want
somebody who knows the ropes to look out for you."

"I speak Spanish," said the K