He reached out for the spirits and replenished his pannikin with liberal hand. Then he continued to chatter in low tones with his comrades. As for the sailor, he was a garrulous ruffian, and had imbibed sufficient spirit to make him even more talkative. He found it lonely to sit at the table while men conversed in an unknown language, and presently, feeling that he too must chatter, he turned on his seat, stretched out a grimy paw, and shook someone who lay asleep on one of the long benches against the wall of the cabin. A tall, slim young man sat up, rubbing his eyes, and stared round at the group about the table with every sign of annoyance and disgust. Indeed, a glance at him was sufficient to show that he was of a different stamp entirely. He was dressed as a gaucho but hardly had the appearance of one of those fine fellows. His cheeks were not tanned, and his hands looked as if they had done little work. Still, for all that, he was sturdy enough, and, if one might venture a guess, was decidedly English. In fact he had only recently arrived out from England, and had taken a passage up the river in this particular boat.
"What is it?" he demanded curtly, for he had kept aloof from his fellow passengers. "What do you want? I am sleepy and wish to be left alone."
"Oh ho, so you're sleepy!" answered the sailor huskily. "Well, my bird, you needn't look so ugly. You don't understand the lingo of these here fellers, now, do yer? Well, nor don't I, 'cept when the chap with the beard speaks in Portuguese or the English he's got. But you can understand me, I reckon, and so we'll have a chat. How'd yer like to join to-night, and make a pile from the chap in that boat down below us?"
CHAPTER XI
WHITE BRIGANDS
The River Paraná and its neighborhood were, in the days of which we write, not always very secure for travellers. To begin with, revolutions and conflicts between the states into which South America was divided were of somewhat frequent occurrence, and then it is only to be expected that, being so close to the ranchos, and the hundreds of gauchos employed there, rowdyism and ruffianism were of occasional occurrence. The unfortunate owners of the estancias had not only Indians and their raids to fear. They were often enough wealthy men, for there was always a demand for cattle, and the very fact of their having wealth often proved an attraction to the many ne'er-do-wells who had come to the country to try their luck, or to join some revolutionary band. There had been raids on estancias by white men before then, and piratical attacks on the river were not entirely unknown. But to the English youth who had taken a passage in the boat which lay a few yards higher up the river than the one which Mr. Blunt had chartered, such an attempt was a matter for intense surprise. He was a stranger in the country, and knew nothing of the inhabitants, or he would never have taken passage with such a set of ruffians.
"Make a pile!" he exclaimed while he stared through the smoke of the cabin at the ragged and ill-kempt sailor. "What do you mean? You can't——"
"That's jest where you make the error, young feller," interrupted the man, taking a much-blackened clay from between his lips. "For a chap as has got nothing there ain't a country to come up to this. Look at me. Do I give the impression of having money?"
"Hardly!" came the cautious answer.
"That's jest it. There ain't a single coin in my pockets, and I was starving till these fellows came along."