The Belted Seas

lking down the rocks to meet us. He was a tall man with a long m

the ma

ome to Craney's funeral. Blam

ng sick boarders, he broke out sharp, "Since when has my house--But I ask your pardon

an to recommend his board. His Spanish wasn't the kind I was used to.

Tower of Ananias. It was three stories high, the top stor

I could see the stars through the square seaward window of the tower, and hea

e window, and saw the ship making sail, it seemed to me I was some

ware on one of them. The hammocks hung between the windows, and in one of them lay Craney, looking like mould

e tower. The monkey yelped and went up the banana tree. "Dios!" says the woman, when she came to the door, and she put down the basket and ran. The keeper came down the stone stairs and ran silently after her. The little black monkey drop

n and screeched some. He said her name was Titiaca, and she would look afte

le names. My own is Gaspero Raphael de Avila y Mituas." He stated it so, and w

ck. They just named m

ched, but at that time I didn't see what for. S

d shadow, and sometimes under the banana tree, where the little black monkey loped around melancholy. We grew better. Titiaca gossiped, and told us the keeper was a magician, and master of the winds, and probably the bestower of

light in the tower-all night! it is himself in the tower-all night-all day! He speaks not

lantations, fishermen along the shore, many people, though only footpaths ran through the woods. Her gossip lacked variety, and the little black monkey took no interest in me at all. It appeared to me things were u

and motioned to the stair leading to the lantern story, which was roofe

otion of things. At first it surprises him; then he thinks there might be something in it; and then may

spent, or lost, or had confiscated, till there was nothing much but the story. Now here's what surprised me. For the thought of his race was in his bones, same as the sea is in mine. For instance, it seems to me I'm more to the point than my ancestors, on account of being alive. I don't much know who they were. I'm a separate island, with maybe a few other islands, close by. My continental connections appear to be sort of submerged. That's the average American way of looking at it, and he

as; maybe his children and the folks that were coming after him; maybe the folks that went before him; maybe his country, or a machine he had invented, or a ship

began and went off like a bottle of beer that's been corked o

king and emperor, to Juan de Avila y Mituas, the friend of Francisco Pizarro, who was an upstart indeed, but a valiant man. They say to me: 'There is a lighthouse on Punta Ananias. For the keeping of the light is paid this much. Sir, be pleased in this manner to occupy your estate.' Do I care for their mocking?

ories of an Avila and a Yankee seaman near enough together to compare them, more than a dozen eggs with a parallel of latitude. But his manne

oney, no relations,-but I'd hate to give up the idea of s

says very quiet. "I shall not see again

o melancholy to be sociable, I

he said Craney

and sat down under the banana tree, and acted as if he had something on his mind. I told him about the keeper, and laid out m

h them. Then I met an old priest, who was fat and slow and peaceable. I went in a sailboat with him up the coast to his house, and spent the night. He said the Injuns of this neighbourhood were more'n half heathen in their minds, but he was too old, and settled down now, and couldn't help it. It didn't appear to trouble him much. He wondered if Senor de Avila knew he was that gruesome and popular; and then he mooned along, talking sort of wandering, till near midnight. The Injuns don't think his credit with the gods and the elements amounts to much, anyway. This morning I crossed to the north shore and saw more villages and plantations, and came back to Titiaca's village in a catamaran rigged with a sprit-sail. Now, this is a business opening, Tommy. And look here! The old man's notions, as he put 'em to you, they're a good thing. I didn't know how he'd take it, but I guess we can fix it. You see, this section-why, Padre Filippo

at's all th

le plantation into ribbons so far. Has he, now? No. Well, ain't it astonishing? Why, he must have this whole territory riddled with pipe connections. Boys, I don't see how you can be so reckless,' I says, 'and ungrateful. How long do you expect him to look out for folks that don't appear to care whether they blow up or not? First you know, he'll get disgusted and turn the whole section into cinders. He must have been mighty cautious as it is. Shook you up a little now and then. Nothing to what he's liable to do. Suffering saints!' I says; 'can't you take a hint? What do you suppose he means when the ground wrinkles under

ill of goods, but the keeper didn't seem to understand. "Why," says Craney, "you see, these people have a sort of mysterious revere

hey got about half the proceeds and the agents stole the rest."

ion, to collect on the same antique terms, only we gi

nt of my rights? I do not understand a business proposition. I do not understand how th

nt. I talked to them and they saw reason. Fact is, though,

ides of Craney's scheme. I began: "It might mean the vi

e vineyards of Aragon! My Ma

ked and we

ro was surprised when he found he'd con

ey, and left me to take in and stow away those bags of cocoa beans. I used to sit in front of the shed, which was close to the shore, and smoke and admire the world. Once a week Craney would come

s they wouldn't say anything, except to state that this bag came from such and such plantations, and to hope Himself would take, note of it. Then they'd look pleased and peaceful to have it all written down neatly, and maybe they'd want the ite

up in the earthquakes. And when they'd once taken that idea, it made no difference if they'd felt little motors every few days all their lives, and trembloritos and tremblors pretty frequent. As a specimen of authority, even a little motor earthquake is too much. They happen along in that neighbourhood every now and then, maybe once

? They seemed to think no less of him for it; but rather more. They thought he was a fine thing. It puzzl

r the keeper talk about Madrid and the vineyards of Aragon, and about his longing and his pride. Then I felt better. If the keeper's

g to be, and I'm a sinner, and Craney can look af

seeing an opening for enterprise. He was a singular man, Craney, a shrewd one, and yet romantic and given to ingenious visions. And yet again, when he talked his wildest, you'd find he had his feet on some rocky facts,

n rocks, and there's pearls in oysters. Richness grows out of the ground, and glory drops out of the clouds. Me, I'm a man of ideals. Give me room to spread. Let me strik

the Mituans were mad about it, but they had a big harvest. They brought cocoa-beans in caravans and boatloads for a whil

back voyage, and inquired some for us, but that was a month before. Later Craney had a contract

t much enterprise in it. The Injuns were terrible set in their ideas. He had a number of schemes. One of them for putting up a supply store in

a tree, when we saw a large catboat coasting down to the

d two men besides, one in a cocked hat and uniform. So they came

s. "Alas! what behaviour!" and he ch

omplaint lodged with the authorities against the keeper, that he'd been drawing illicit

ey, "I know some

they've a mind to present him with a bag of beans

him before the alcalde, and here is the keeper of the lighthouse who takes his p

nd to go before your alcalde! Why, a

n reverence of authorities, my s

l res

ble," says t

er. He might go back to Spain, maybe. Maybe you don't know his popularity in this section, but I tell you this, he could make you plenty of trouble. You've got an idea he's going to b

ays the Pad

es, in that case it might interest you

ther, very calm. "It

p to the lantern story where the keepe

don't you go to Arag

not? But you have some reason

y're getting offish, and it can't be helped. You don't want to squabble over the lighthouse. Why not buy some vin

around him, and said, "I will go,

in the tower, and I never but once again have landed on the point. T

gures around it, but all that was hidden when the sailboat drew under the bluffs. I stepped ashore and went into the

the water. They are mad! Hear them! They mourn for Senor de Avila. They build a great f

rom under the bluffs, and caught the breeze, and stood away. The shouting an

eaning to go to Spain, and never knew he'd been supernatural. Craney told me afterwards he'd heard the keeper died on the voyage and

t that I mentioned the hundred and forty lost at Colon. For if he took it (and I guessed pretty near he did) he'd paid it back with a long leeway by sharing the Mituas business with me, when the whole thing was his. I thoug

t to where Abe Dalrimple lives?

sa

u know of i

him, but me, I'm ambitious, I got to spread out. I'm a romantic man, Tommy. That's my secret. That's the key of me. Give me largeness. Give me space for my talents. What do you want with Greenough? You stay with

ard bright eye, and though

right, but they're s

news of any on

'em a

name of Pemberton," I

he says, "that married a girl named Pemberton from G

Pembe

s that

hich mixed breeds of people, mostly square-shouldered little men, were discussing the time of day and the merits of wine-which hadn't any-in

ys,

n I says, "It don't suit me in Corazon," and I got up. I went out in

remembered the verse Sadler used to chant to me in the Hebe Maitland days, when I was ac

y sailor boy,

pin', you'

n' sorrows are

amin', the

orning, on the beach at Co

stay there till I'm ready,

I bought a passage to San Francis

st Coast into shares in a ship called the Anac

ning sharks. He'd made up his mind property wasn't his stronghold and gone back to cooking, and never took any more interest in property after that, nor had any to take interest in. But he told me Sadler was in business and getting rich, and in partnership with a Chinaman, and living in a town called "Saleratus," sixty

ed to Uncle Abim

r's tune to that verse, 'Sailor,

ng to me," said Uncle Abimelech wra

said Captain Buckingham.

y Tod

d that name,

or a ship, or a man; same as the Anaconda, for the Anaconda had bad luck, same as A

before going on, to think