ing round him and perceiving that several passengers in his
immediate neighbourhood were regarding him with unconcealed amusement,
he hastily retreated below. As he did so, a man who had been lounging
over the rail close at hand, smoking a cigar as he watched the traffic
upon the river, turned, and regarding Escombe with a good-natured smile,
remarked:

"Your friend seems to be a rather cantankerous chap, isn't he? He will
have to take care of himself, and keep his temper under rather better
control, or he will go crazy when we get into the hot weather. Is he
often taken like that?"

"I really don't know," answered Harry. "The fact is that I only made
his acquaintance about three weeks ago; but I fear that he suffers a
great deal from nervous irritability. It must be a very great
affliction."

"It is, both to himself and to others," remarked the stranger dryly. "I
have met his sort before, and I find that the only way to deal with such
people is to leave them very severely alone. He seems to be a bit of a
bully, so far as I can make out, but he will have to mind his p's and
q's while he is on board this ship, or he will be getting himself into
hot water and finding things generally made very unpleasant for him.
You are in his service, I suppose?"

"Yes, in a way I am," answered Escombe with circumspection; "that is to
say, we are both in the same service, but he is my superior."

"I see," answered the stranger. "How far are you going in the ship?"

"We are going to Callao," answered Harry.

"To Peru, eh?" returned the stranger. "So am I. I know the country
pretty well. I have lived in Lima for the last nine years, and I can
tell you that when your friend gets among the Peruvians he will have to
pull in his horns a good bit. They are rather a peppery lot, are the
Peruvians, and if he attempts to talk to them as he has talked to you
to-day, he will stand a very good chance of waking up some fine morning
with a long knife between his ribs."

"Oh, I hope it will not come to that!" exclaimed Escombe. "But--to
leave the subject of my friend and his temper for the present--since you
have lived in Peru so long, perhaps you can tell me something about the
country, what it is like, what is the character of its climate, and so
on. It is possible that I may have to spend a year or so in it. I
should therefore be glad to learn something about it, and to get such
tips as to the manner of living, and so on, as