be fit for a trip on shore again."

"I hardly think so, Mr. Atherton; for if the weather continues as it is
now--it is a nice steady breeze, and we have been running ever since we
left Rio--I think we shall be there long before you are fit to go
ashore."

"I do not particularly care about it," Mr. Atherton said. "Buenos Ayres
is not like Rio, but is for the most part quite a modern town, and even
in situation has little to recommend it. Besides, we shall be so far off
that there will be no running backwards and forwards between the ship
and the shore as there was at Rio. Of course it depends a good deal on
the amount of the water coming down the river, but vessels sometimes
have to anchor twelve miles above the town."

"I am sure I have no desire to go ashore," Mrs. Renshaw said, "and after
the narrow escape Wilfrid had at Rio I should be glad if he did not set
foot there again until we arrive at the end of the voyage."

"He is not likely to get into a scrape again," Mr. Atherton said. "Of
course it would have been wiser not to have stopped so late as they did
in a town of whose ways they knew nothing; but you may be sure he will
be careful another time. Besides, I fancy from what I have heard things
are better managed there, and the population are more peaceable and
orderly than at Rio. But, indeed, such an adventure as that which befell
them might very well have happened to any stranger wandering late at
night in the slums of any of our English seaports."

There was a general feeling of disappointment among the passengers when
the _Flying Scud_ dropped anchor in the turbid waters of the La Plata.
The shore was some five or six miles away, and was low and
uninteresting. The towers and spires of the churches of Buenos Ayres
were plainly visible, but of the town itself little could be seen. As
soon as the anchor was dropped the captain's gig was lowered, and he
started for shore to make arrangements for landing the cargo. The next
morning a steam tug brought out several flats, and the work of unloading
commenced. A few passengers went ashore in the tug, but none of the
Renshaws left the ship. Two days sufficed for getting out the goods for
Buenos Ayres. The passengers who had been staying at hotels on shore
came off with the last tug to the ship. Their stay ashore had been a
pleasant one, and they liked the town, which, in point of cleanliness
and order, they considered to be in advance of Rio.

CHAPTER V.