Page:Ralph Paine--The Steam-Shovel Man.djvu/109

 read it in a newspaper that you had a fight with a landslide. Ah, you are as strong as a brick house to be out so soon. The arm? Alas, is it serious?"

"It will cripple me for base-ball for a while."

"Ah, you plucky Yankees! You are always thinking of your grand sport of base-ball."

"I thought you had sailed for home," said Walter.

"My steamer had a break-down of her engines. She has not yet arrived from the south. My father has arranged by cable to have the Chilean ship touch at my port on her voyage to Valparaiso. She sails in three days more. I have come to Balboa to see the captain. Will you go on board with me?"

They climbed to the upper deck and while Alfaro did his errand, Walter leaned overside and gazed down at the small Panamanian steamer, whose name he discovered to be Juan Lopez. She was a dirty, disorderly vessel, and the crew, of all shades from black to white, looked as if some of them might be hanged before they were drowned.

No cargo was strewn about. Everything