Pepe grinned. "One does not get rich by fishing and piloting. It is cool here in the shade and I have not much to do."
"Oh, well," said Wyndham, "No doubt you have seen the schooner. I expect we'll sail in about a week and we can give you a passage, if you are going back."
Pepe said he did not mean to return yet, and Marston and Wyndham went away.
"I wonder what he is doing about the boats, although I don't know if it matters," Marston remarked.
"He was rather obviously loafing."
"I'd have expected to find him loafing about a second-class wine shop."
"With a hat like his and new yellow boots?" said Wyndham dryly.
"They may have cost him all he's got. These fellows are vain. All the same, there's something strange about his being here and trying to pass without our seeing him last night. He's frank enough this morning."
"He may have been making the best of it because he could not steal off before we came up."
"It's possible, although I don't see why he should want to dodge us," Marston replied, and added thoughtfully: "Since he's allowed to pilot vessels at the lagoon, I expect he's the Bat's man."