All rights reserved

Published January, 1908

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I.Jacinta Brown[1]
II.An Overheated Journal[13]
III.On the Veranda[26]
IV.A Big Contract[37]
V.The Tomato Finca[49]
VI.Austin's Point of View[60]
VII.At the Bull Fight[72]
VIII.Jefferson Feels the Strain[86]
IX.Austin Makes a Venture[98]
X.Jacinta is not Content[111]
XI.The Land of the Shadow[121]
XII.Nocturnal Visitors[132]
XIII.Toil[142]
XIV.Jefferson's Remonstrance[152]
XV.Starting the Pump[163]
XVI.Elusive Gum[174]
XVII.Austin Goes Down River[183]
XVIII.Jacinta Becomes Indignant[194]
XIX.Condemned Unheard[204]
XX.Jacinta Makes no Excuse[215]
XXI.The Pictures[225]
XXII.Funnel-Paint's Proposition[236]
XXIII.Funnel-Paint Moves Again[245]
XXIV.Austin Finds a Clue[256]
XXV.Hove Off[267]
XXVI.Jefferson Finds the Gum[277]
XXVII.Austin's Toast[288]
XXVIII.In Command[299]
XXIX.Austin is Missing[310]
XXX.Jacinta Capitulates[322]

FOR JACINTA

CHAPTER I
JACINTA BROWN

It was about seven o'clock in the evening when sobrecargo Austin boarded the little mail-boat Estremedura as she lay rolling at anchor on the long, moon-lit heave that worked into the roadstead of Santa Cruz, Palma. Sobrecargo means much the same thing as purser, and Austin was an Englishman, though the Estremedura was to all intents and purposes a Spanish steamer. She traded round the islands of the Canary archipelago with mules and camels, tomatoes, bananas, onions, and seasick English tourists, as fortune favoured her. Now, as the heavily sealed document Austin carried in his pocket declared, she was to sail for Las Palmas, Grand Canary, with the Cuban mail, by the gracious permission of the young King of Spain.