It was indeed "quare." The entire city was made up of the most flimsy
and make-shift materials that can be conceived. Many of the shops were
mere tents with an open framework of wood in front; some were made of
sheet-iron nailed to wooden posts; some were made of zinc; others,
(imported from the States), of wood, painted white, and edged with
green; a few were built of sun-dried bricks, still fewer of corrugated
iron, and many of all these materials pieced together in a sort of fancy
patchwork. Even boats were used as dwellings, turned keel up, with a
hole cut in their sides for the egress of a tin smoke-pipe, and two
others of larger size to serve as door and window.

Finding space scarce, owing to the abrupt rise of the hills from the
shore, many enterprising individuals had encroached upon the sea, and
built houses on piles driven into the sand nearly half-a-mile below the
original high water mark.

Almost every nation under the sun had representatives there, and the
consequent confusion of tongues was equal to that of Babel.

The hills overhanging the lower part of the town were also well covered
with tents, temporary houses, and cottages that had some appearance of
comfort about them.

Such was the city on which the sun went down that night, and many were
the quaint, sagacious, and comic remarks made by the men as they sat
round their various mess-tables in the forecastle of the _Roving Bess_,
speculating noisily and half-seriously on the possibility of getting a
run into the interior for a day or two.

But there was a party of men in the ship whose conversation that night
was neither so light-hearted nor so loud. They sat in a dark corner of
the forecastle talking earnestly in subdued tones after the watch for
the night was set. Their chief spokesman was a rough, ill-looking
fellow, named Elliot.

"Ye see, lads," said this man to the half-dozen comrades around him, "we
must do it to-night, if we're to do it at all. There's the captain's
small boat layin' out astarn, which comes quite handy, an', as we lose
all our pay by the dodge, I don't see why we shouldn't take it."

The man struck his fist into his left palm, and looked round the circle
for opinions.

"I don't half like it," said one; "it seems to me a sneaking way of
doin' it."

"Bah!" ejaculated another, "wot gammon you do talk. If _he_ lose the
boat, don't _we_ lose the tin? Besides, are we agoin' to let sich a
trifle stand in the way