At this point some remnant of mirth caused Strawbridge to compress his lips to keep from laughing again. The dark being on the steps stopped his discourse quite abruptly; then he said with a certain severity:
"Let us understand each other, señor. You sell rifles and ammunition; do you not?"
"Yes," said Strawbridge, sobering at once at this hint of business.
Gumersindo took a last glance at the city sleeping in the fulgor of a tropical noon:
"Let's get to the garage," he suggested briefly.
CHAPTER V
Gumersindo's automobile turned out to be one of those cheap American machines which one finds everywhere. Its only peculiarity was an extra gasolene-tank which filled the greater part of the body of the car, and which must have given the old rattletrap a cruising-radius of a thousand or fifteen hundred miles.
Just as the negro and the white man were getting into the car the man with the knot of hair at the back of his head strolled into the garage. He called to Gumersindo that the Americano was to take him on the expedition which was just starting.