“I will see what can be done when we anchor,” said the professor. “They may be very strict here—I do not know.”
Soon the big steamer was close up to the wharf where she was to discharge part of her cargo and passengers. One of the first parties to leave was Herr Dombrich, who shook hands cordially with the professor.
“It has been von great bleasure to sail mit you,” said the Dutch merchant. “I vos hobe ve meet again, not so?”
“I’m thinking of taking the boys ashore,” said the professor. “They would like to see the city.”
“Yes, yes, surely you must do dot,” was the reply. “I vould go mit you, but I must on pisiness go to de udder side of de island. Goot py!” and in a moment Herr Dombrich was ashore and lost in a crowd. Then Mark caught a glimpse of him as he was driven away in an old-fashioned Dutch carriage which had been waiting for him.
An interview was had with some custom house and other officials, and the party obtained permission to go ashore and roam around the place until the steamer should set sail for La Guayra. In the meantime Dan Markel had already disappeared up one of the long docks.
The man from Baltimore was in a quandary. He had borrowed fifty dollars from Hockley, and he was strongly inclined to hide until the steamer should sail and then use the money to suit himself. But he realized that his capital, which now represented a total of eighty dollars, would not last forever, and a brief look around Willemstad convinced him that it was not at all the city he had anticipated.
“I’d starve to death here, after the money was gone,” he reasoned. “I’ll wager these Dutchmen are regular misers. The best thing I can do is to go to Caracas with that crowd and then squeeze that young fool out of another fifty, or maybe a couple of hundred.”
He had come ashore after another talk with Hockley, in which he had promised to lay some plan whereby one or another of the boys might be left behind. He had been told by the captain of the steamer that the vessel would sail at five o’clock sharp. If he could only manage to keep somebody ashore until ten or fifteen minutes after that hour the deed would be done.
The day was hot and, as was usual with him, Markel was dry, and he entered the first wine shop he discovered. Here he imbibed freely, with the consequence that when he arose to go his mind was far from being as free as it had been.