“How much?” demanded Talbot.
“It came to two hundred apiece. I’m sorry.”
“Glory be!” shouted Talbot, “we’re ahead of the game. Yank, you long-headed old pirate, let me shake you by the hand!”
“I wish you fellows would go away,” begged Johnny.
We went on deck. The dusk was falling, and the wind with it; and to westward an untold wealth of gold was piling up. Our ship rolled at her anchor, awaiting the return of those of her people who had gone ashore. On the beach tiny spots of lights twinkled where some one had built fires. A warmth was stealing out from the shore over the troubled waters. Talbot leaned on the rail by my side. Suddenly he chuckled explosively.
“I was just thinking,” said he in explanation, “of us damfools roosting on that beach in the rain.”
Thus at last we escaped from the Isthmus. At the end of twenty-four hours we had left the island of Tobago astern, and were reaching to the north.
PART II
THE GOLDEN CITY