es in the Sunday papers--but the real sort that open
chrysanthemum shows and christen battleships.

"Well, sir, we never got a sight of that fruit tub on the road. The
ocean is a pretty big place; and I guess we took different paths
across it. But we kept going toward this Anchuria, where the fruiter
was bound for.

"We struck the monkey coast one afternoon about four. There was a
ratty-looking steamer off shore taking on bananas. The monkeys were
loading her up with big barges. It might be the one the old man had
taken, and it might not. I went ashore to look around. The scenery
was pretty good. I never saw any finer on the New York stage. I
struck an American on shore, a big, cool chap, standing around with
the monkeys. He showed me the consul's office. The consul was a
nice young fellow. He said the fruiter was the _Karlsefin_, running
generally to New Orleans, but took her last cargo to New York. Then
I was sure my people were on board, although everybody told me that
no passengers had landed. I didn't think they would land until after
dark, for they might have been shy about it on account of seeing that
yacht of mine hanging around. So, all I had to do was to wait and nab
'em when they came ashore. I couldn't arrest old Wahrfield without
extradition papers, but my play was to get the cash. They generally
give up if you strike 'em when they're tired and rattled and short on
nerve.

"After dark I sat under a cocoanut tree on the beach for a while,
and then I walked around and investigated that town some, and it was
enough to give you the lions. If a man could stay in New York and
be honest, he'd better do it than to hit that monkey town with a
million.

"Dinky little mud houses; grass over your shoe tops in the streets;
ladies in low-neck-and-short-sleeves walking around smoking cigars;
tree frogs rattling like a hose cart going to a ten blow; big
mountains dropping gravel in the back yards, and the sea licking the
paint off in front--no, sir--a man had better be in God's country
living on free lunch than there.

"The main street ran along the beach, and I walked down it, and
then turned up a kind of lane where the houses were made of poles
and straw. I wanted to see what the monkeys did when they weren't
climbing cocoanut trees. The very first shack I looked in I saw
my people. They must have come ashore while I was promenading. A
man about fifty, smooth face, heavy eyebrows, dressed in black
broadcloth, loo