Part 10 (1/2)
CHAPTER VII
MANGROVE CREEK
There was not a ripple on the sea when the _Enchantress_, stea water broke with a drowsy murmur at her bows and turned from silver to a deep blue in the shadow of the hull; her as marked by silky whirls on the back of the swell It was four o'clock in the afternoon, the sea flung back a dazzling light, and Grahalasses
Far back, blue round was blurred and dian or ended, though a broad, dark fringe, which Grahame kneas forest, conveyed some idea of distance In one or two spots, a streak of white indicated surf upon a point, but the picture was flooded with a glare in which separate objects lost distinctness Blue and gray and silver melted into one another without forlasses and turned to the seaure was strong, and he stood, finely posed, with a brown hand on the wheel His face was rugged, but he had clear, blue eyes that aze He was barefooted and his thin cotton trousers and canvas jacket were spotlessly clean, though Grahained he hadthey had meant to throay
”You couel?” Grahame asked in Castilian ”It is not so hot there”
”From San Sebastian, senor, where the trade-breeze blows and the date-pals beside the mule-track to the mountains”
”Then you have a house? Who takes care of it while you are away?”
”My senora She packs the toland It is hard work and one earns a peseta a day”
”Then why did you leave her?” Grahame asked, for he knew that a peseta, which is equal to about twenty cents, will not buy much of the coarse maize-flour the Canary peasants live upon
”There careat te must be done My sons were drawn for the navy; they had no money to send For years, senor, I was captain of a schooner fishi+ng _bacalao_ on the African coast, and when I cas went very well Then the gale swept down fro the boats were matchwood on the reef”
”Ah!” said Grahame He could sympathize, for he too had faced what at the ti disaster ”So you sailed to look for better fortune soo back to San Sebastian some day?”
”If reat angel, for fortune is not always found when one looks for it at sea”
There was no irony in Miguel's answer; his h he had been taught nothing except rudientlelish and Auilty of impertinence ”Sometimes you are able to send the senora a few dollars?”
”I send all but a little to buy clothes when I go where it is cold, and my senora buries the money to buy another boat if it is permitted that I return Once or twice a year comes a letter, written by the priest, and I keep it until I find a man who can read it topathetic in the thought of this untaught exile's patiently carrying the precious letters until he e
”Well,” he said, ”if things go ith us, you will get a bonus besides your wages, which should o hoer in e uel ser on the sea”
Grahaine-roolet torn open at the neck, there was a smear of oil across his face, and his hands were black and scarred
”What on earth have you been doing?” Graha to put a new packing in the gland of a puo that you would be ahed
”Do you knohere we are?” he asked
”I iht risk h to head inshore in a few hours”