Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/170

146 spirit; on account; and they were now met to feast themselves on the fruits of their success.

The room in which they were assembled was large, but crowded to inconvenience with tackle and spars of coasting-vessels, kegs, barrels, boxes, and bales, which they kept as a partly concealed, partly avowed stock in trade. On some jagged and broken shelves stood several large canvass bags, of questionable appearance, only imperfectly covered by the nets and fragments of sails drawn over them. On one side of the apartment was a huge chest, from under the slightly raised cover of which gleamed the point of a sword, and the muzzle of a rifle barrel; it contained, beside arms, different articles of clothing, three or four boat-hooks, the like number of coils of cordage, and a couple of dark lanterns, seldom used. Against the other wall of the building were ranged a few barrels, used on the present occasion as side tables; though it was no difficult matter, from their suggestive appearance, to hazard a shrewd guess as to the real quality of their contents, could their roughly-nailed covers have been raised. Boxes and bales were stowed into corners, and were even thrust