They were soon inside the building, which was built, like so many others, in the form of a hollow square. The patio was a garden of flowers, with a single giant palm in the center. There was a broad veranda running entirely around the house, with two steps at either side of the passage leading to the outside. The flooring of the veranda was of two kinds of wood, laid in fancy designs.
“Come into the parlor,” said Enrique Morano, and led the way into an apartment facing the highway beyond. It was a room at least twenty feet square, with a polished floor partly covered with rugs. The furniture was of hardwoods, elaborately carved but without any fixed coverings.
“Not so very different from a summer parlor at home,” whispered Frank, when they were left alone for a moment.
“They don’t cover the furniture on account of the bugs and insects,” said the professor.
Opening up from the parlor was a library and smoking room. Enrique Morano had furnished this to suit himself, and it was very much in the style of a rich college man at Princeton or Yale. There was a case of books and files of the latest papers and magazines, and also a case containing cigars, cigarettes, smoking tobacco and pipes.
“A regular den!” cried Professor Strong, his face brightening. “And just as you had it in the olden days.”
“It reminds me of good old times,” answered Enrique Morano. “Those college days! I shall never forget them, nor the many friends I made in the United States.”
He asked them to sit down, while he offered the professor a cigar. The boys were glad enough to look over the files of native papers and Spanish magazines, although they could read but little. There were El Diario de Caracas, the leading daily of the capital, El Pregonero, another daily, and a magazine with some reproductions of pictures from American and foreign weeklies.
“What funny advertisements,” said Mark, as he spelt one and another out. “Here is a store that has for sale American sewing machines of the latest fashions, and another that sells clothing that will make a man look like a President.”
While Professor Strong and his old friend were smoking and conversing the boys were told to roam through the house at will, and this they did. Next to the library they found a dining hall, long and broad, with a table in the center which was so heavy none of the boys could budge it. Here the tableware was of solid silver and of the finest cut glass.