Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/23

Rh Come in and have a bit to eat. It won't cost you anything."

The invitation was well meant, but the boy shook his curly head decidedly. "I'm not that kind—thank you just the same. If you've got any work—"

"I'll let you work it out. Come."

The boy and the man had been standing in front of a long, low one-story building, set close to a broad highway, and surrounded by tall palm and other tropical trees. On one side of the structure were accommodations for a dozen or more horses, and on the other a small restaurant where light refreshments of various kinds were to be had.

The spot was an ideal one, near the brow of a lofty precipice standing out twelve hundred feet above sea-level, and overlooking a vast expanse of the mighty Pacific Ocean. Here the island of Oahu, upon which Honolulu, the principal city of the Hawaiian Islands, is situated, seemed to split in two, and the sun, glaring down upon that afternoon, lit up one side and cast the other into the deepest of shades.

"You've been in Honolulu a month, eh?" went on the man, as he motioned the lad to a seat by a side-table, and brought him several dishes which