tions. The breathing of them brought the past before us;
the past which was so recent, yet so far away; the past which is so
dear to a sailor and so depressing to a landsman. So and so was dead,
and Jimmy had gone among the Islands, and Dick had pulled out for home
because "he couldn't stick that Mr. Jenkins." Very few of them
remained on the Coast; the brothers of the Coast are a shifty crowd.

"D'ye remember the Frenchman," I asked, "the man who was always asking
about the Incas?" "The ginger-headed feller?" "Yes, a little fellow."
"A red-headed, ambitious little runt? I remember him," said Billy; "he
left us at Payta, the time we fouled the launch." "That's the man," I
said; "have you heard anything of him?" "Oh, he's dead all right,"
said Billy. "His mother came out after him; there was a piece in the
Chile _Times_ about him." "He was killed, I suppose?" "Yes, them
Indians got him, somewhere in Ecuador, Tommy Hains told me. They got
his head back, though. It was being sold in the streets; his old
mother offered a reward, and the Dagoes got it back for her. He's dead
all right, he is; he might ha' known as much, going alone among them
Indians. Dead? I guess he is dead; none but a red-headed runt'd have
been such a lunk as to try it." "He was an ambitious lad," I said.
"Yes," said Billy, "he was. Them ambitious fellers, they want the
earth, and they get their blooming heads pickled; that's what they get
by it. Here's happy days, young feller."

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