pretty soon after noon, and in the meantime where do we eat?"

We returned through the town. It was now filled to overflowing with our
compatriots. They surged everywhere, full of comment and curiosity. The
half-naked men and women with the cigars, and the wholly naked children
and dogs, seemed not in the least disturbed nor enlivened.

Talbot's earnest inquiries finally got us to the Crescent Hotel. It was
a hut exactly like all the rest, save that it had a floor. From its name
I suppose it must have been kept by a white man, but we never got near
enough through the crowd to find out. Without Talbot we should have gone
hungry, with many others, but he inquired around until we found a native
willing to feed us. So we ate on an upturned hencoop outside a native
hut. The meal consisted of pork, bread, and water.

We strolled to the beach at the hour appointed with our boatman. He was
not there; nor any other boatman.

"Never mind," said Ward; "I'll know him if I see him. I'll go look him
up. You fellows find the boat with our things in it."

He and I reentered the village, but a fifteen minutes' search failed to
disclose our man. Therefore we returned to the beach. A crowd was
gathered close about some common centre in the unmistakable restless
manner of men about a dog fight or some other kind of a row. We pushed
our way in.

Johnny and Yank were backed up against the palmetto awning of one of the
boats in an attitude of deadly and quiet menace. Not two yards away
stood four of our well-dressed friends. Nobody as yet displayed a
weapon, except that Yank's long rifle lay across the hollow of his left
arm instead of butt to earth; but it was evident that lightnings were
playing. The boatman, who had appeared, alone was saying anything, but
he seemed to be supplying language for the lot.

Johnny's tense, alert attitude relaxed a little when he saw us.

"Well?" inquired Ward easily. "What's the trouble?"

"Yank and I found our goods dumped out on the beach, and others in their
place," said Johnny.

"So you proceeded to reverse matters? How about it?" he inquired
pleasantly of the four men.

"I know nothing about it," replied one of them shortly. "We hired this
boat, and we intend to have it; and no whipper-snapper is going to keep
us from it."

"I see," said Talbot pleasantly. "Well, excuse me a moment while I talk
to our friend." He addressed the man in Spanish, and received short,
sullen replies. "He says," T