“I’ll show you when I come back. I’m thinking of getting Manuel to go ashore with me.”
“All right. Don’t stay too long, for we’re bound to have a swell supper to-night.”
“I shan’t be away more than half an hour,” Ned replied, and then he asked the interpreter if he would take him for a short trip.
Manuel professed to be not only willing, but pleased to grant the favor, and as soon as the purchases of fruit and provisions could be taken from the boat, the two rowed toward the pier from which she had just come.
CHAPTER XIX.
SUSPICIONS.
Not until they were ashore did Ned tell Manuel the nature of his errand, and then he said with an assumption of carelessness:
“Take me where I can buy a revolver.”
“A revolver?” the man repeated as if in surprise.
“Certainly. Is there anything to prevent?”
“Nothing, of course, only it seemed strange in the first place that there should not be an ample supply of weapons on the steamer, and then again that you might think a revolver necessary so soon after arriving at one of the most peaceable ports in the world.”