The occupant of the hut nearest the edge of the bluff professed to know all about the losing of the gold, and he agreed for a small consideration to give what information he could. He was willing, too, to take the young Americanos into his house to live during the two or three days that they thought they might stay in Potosi. There was plenty of room, for the cooking-place was a fire under the nearest tree, and the beds were only hammocks swung from the wattles that answered for rafters. The custom was to turn into the hammocks "all standing," as Jack called it, without any change in the toilet, so that a large family could sleep conveniently under the one small roof.
The boy's new landlord, who called himself Felipe, lived alone in the hut with his daughter, a swarthy but handsome girl of about fifteen. Maria, the daughter, did all the work of the house, even to cutting the firewood; but the visitors soon had reason to believe that her father did not treat her very kindly. She was much interested in the newcomers, and did some little kindnesses for them. Of course Ned considered her entirely beneath his notice; but Jack saw that she had the soft brown eyes of her race, with the smooth copper-colored skin of our own Indians, though with more red in her cheeks, and a profusion of straight raven-black hair. He thought her a very pretty and intelligent-looking girl.
"Now, then, young chap," said Ned, after they had taken a short rest in the shade of the hut, "we're going to have a hunt for that gold. Felipe has gone out to cut some poles, and he's going with us in the canoe to point out the spot. It's a thousand dollars apiece to us, mind you, if we strike it, and a great help to father. Two thousand ounces of gold is only 125 pounds, and we can easily handle it if we can find it. Say," he went on, "I believe you've made a conquest, Jack. I notice that young Dago girl keeps looking at you and smiling at you half the time. I suppose she's not used to seeing such handsome kids as you."
"Get out!" Jack answered, blushing. "She wants to be hospitable to us, that's all. It makes me mad to see the way her father orders her around, for she's much more intelligent than he is."
"Humph!" Ned grunted, "Always keep on the right side of the cook; that's the advice of an old traveller."
Felipe was very liberal with his information when they went out in the canoe. There the steamer lay, here the boat was capsized and the box went down. The swift current was setting a little off shore at the time, so he pointed out the likeliest places for sounding the mud. "But think of sixty feet of water!" he exclaimed. The box might have been carried half a mile down stream before it touched bottom at all. The only chance was to make a thorough search over a large space.
"Say, Ned," Jack asked, in English, while they were prodding the mud with their poles, "if this fellow knows so well where the box went down, why didn't he get it himself?"
"I suppose because he couldn't find it, like the rest of them," Ned answered. "He seems to be an honest sort of fellow."
They kept up the search till noon without finding anything more valuable than a few big stones and water-soaked logs; and when they went up to the house to dinner the little girl squeezed a lime into a cup of cool water for each of the strangers, saying that they looked tired and hot.
"It's all on your account, Jack," Ned said, banteringly. "You're the attraction."