“Do you want to change your clothes here, Sid?” objected Raymond.
“Yes; we’d better do the whole thing up now.”
Thereupon the merchant conducted the boys to a room at the rear of the shop where he apparently lived. When the boys were alone Sidney explained to his brother.
“You see, Ray, my money is all under my clothes, and I didn’t want to take it out and let that fellow know how much we’ve got. Besides, we may as well leave all these old rags here, they’re good for nothing. I was ashamed to jew him down that way, but I guess we paid all the things were worth, or he wouldn’t have let them go.”
When the boys had changed their clothes they returned to the shop, and Sidney informed the merchant that he might have their old clothes which they had left lying in the other room. That seemed to satisfy the man, who was looking as though the boys had literally robbed him of everything he possessed. In a few minutes Captain Foster returned.
“Everything is all right,” he announced, as they walked toward the docks, “and when I told your consul, Mr. Davis, what you boys had done, he said that if you needed money to get home with to call on him. I told him you wouldn’t need any money as far as I went.”
“That’s fine of both of you,” said Sidney, “but I think we have enough money to pay our way home. I took your advice about paying for the clothes, so they didn’t cost us much, but I felt pretty cheap to beat the man down.”
“You needn’t feel cheap,” said the captain; “if you paid half what he asked, you paid enough. You don’t look like the same young men.” And he regarded the boys with satisfaction.
“I’m glad we look better,” said Sidney, “and we’ll feel better after we’ve had a good scrub.”
“You can have a tub,” said the captain, “as soon as we get to the Princess Mary.”