He couldn't understand missionaries,
real or sham: but he understood a square deal, and didn't charge
interest on bowels of mercy. His only grumble was, 'I'll put you on
your honour. Tell me, please, there's no more of you hereabouts.
It's a long passage to and fro: and if you're a man, you'll see that
I'm almost as crowded as you are lonesome. Don't start me beating
_all_ this brush for skunks!'
"--He sailed me back to Valparaiso, after we had spent three days
prospecting the property together. At Lima I left him to fight out
details with the Minister of the Interior--who, for some mysterious
reason, turned out to be the person charged with trafficking for an
islet three hundred miles from any interior--while I trained north
and, crossing the Isthmus, sailed north for New York. The only man
I knew in the whole Western Hemisphere was a friend of mine there,
Renton by name, and I made for Renton, to raise capital.
"--I found that he could walk into Wall Street, and, arm-in-arm with
me, raise the money easily. Moreover I found that he had stored some
twelve thousand dollars for me as my share of an investment I'd
helped him to in Costa Rica.
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