welcome as can be. Just come here, walk
in, hang up your hat, and you'll find a job right at hand. I got a big
order for ant-eaters, jaguar, tiger-cats, and the like, on hand and I'll
likely be here for a couple of years--off and on. Goin' to be mighty
lonesome, too, without the Professor," he added, shaking his head,
sorrowfully.

Tugg was a money-lover; but I know that he didn't hold the loss of his
animals and outfit as anything to be compared to the miserable end of
his partner. I liked him for _that_.

I can't say that I enjoyed that canoe trip to the Straits. We had a
queer three-cornered sail that was rigged in some native way, and as the
wind was free we traveled the hundred or so miles to the mouth of the
inlet in good time. But I did not sleep much; Pedro and the giants might
easily knock me on the head, take my few dollars and my gun and other
traps, and drop me overboard. I couldn't believe that they were to be
trusted.

But nothing really happened until we were within a mile or so of the
mouth of the long lagoon. I could see a bit of the strait and over the
rocky headland appeared a banner of smoke. It was from the stack of a
steamship bound east. I pointed it out to the mate of the Sea Spell and
told him how anxious I was to reach that very craft. I had money enough
left of my wages to pay my fare to Buenos Ayres at least--perhaps to
Bahia; and surely the steamship would stop somewhere along the east
coast.

Pedro jabbered to the Patagonians, and the wind having fallen light they
got out the paddles and set to work. I showed them each a silver dollar
and they went at it like college athletes. Such paddling I never saw
before, and it seemed to me we shot out of the inlet about as fast as
though we were ironed to a bull whale!

But we were too late. The steamship had a long sea-mile on us and she
wasn't stopping for a canoe. We should have to trim our sail again and
make for the West and Punta Arenas. As we swung the canoe's head around,
however, I caught sight of a big ship, with a wonderful lot of canvas
set, passing the steamship and heading our way. She sailed the straits
like a huge bird, her white canvas bellying from the deck to the extreme
points of her wand-like topmasts. She was a pretty sight.

I began to stare back at her more and more as she came up, hand over
hand. I saw that she was a bark; then I saw that her crowsnest was
occupied by a lookout. Only one manner of craft would have a ma