lead, and, casting that out, I waited
till all was black around my line, then I jerked. I snagged one of the
little fish and found him to be a beautiful, silvery, flat-sided shiner
of unknown species to me. Every cast I made thereafter caught one of
them. And they were as good to eat as a sardine and better than a
mullet.

My English comrade, C., sometimes went with me, and when he did go, the
interest and kindly curiosity and pleasure upon his face were a constant
source of delight to me. I knew that I was as new a species to him as
the little fish were to me. But C. had become so nearly a perfectly
educated man that nothing surprised him, nothing made him wonder. He
sympathized, he understood, he could put himself in the place of
another. What worried me, however, was the simple fact that he did not
care to fish or shoot for the so-called sport of either. I think my
education on a higher plane began at Alacranes, in the society of that
lonely Englishman. Somehow I have gravitated toward the men who have
been good for me.

[Illustration: NESTS EVERYWHERE IN THE SAND AND MOSS]

[Illustration: THESE HUGE BLACK RABIHORCADOS WERE THE LARGEST SPECIES
OF FRIGATE OR MAN-OF-WAR BIRD]

But C. enjoyed action as well as contemplation. Once out on the shoals
when Manuel harpooned a huge hawk-bill turtle--the valuable species from
which the amber shell is derived--we had a thrilling and dangerous ride.
For the turtle hauled us at a terrific rate through the water. Then C.
joined in with the yells of the Indians. He was glad, however, when the
turtle left us stranded high upon a coral bed.

On moonlight nights when the tide was low C. especially enjoyed wading
on the shoals and hunting for the _langustas_, or giant lobsters. This
was exciting sport. We used barrel-hoops with nets, and when we saw a
lobster shining in the shallow water we waded noiselessly close to swoop
down upon him with a great splash. I was always afraid of these huge
crayfish, but C. was not. His courage might have been predatory, for he
certainly liked to eat lobster. But he had a scare one night when a
devilfish or tremendous ray got between him and the shore and made the
water fly aloft in a geyser. It was certainly fun for me to see that
dignified Englishman make tracks across the shoal.

To conclude about C., when I went on to Mexico City with him I met
friends of his there, a lord and a duke traveling incognito. C. himself
was a peer of England a