and, I had to
submit.

"I made it up with the Colonel by letting him pay half of the bills,
though he would pay four-fifths of them at first," chuckled Owen, as
though he had won a victory over his fellow-passenger.

I had paid every one of the ship's company his wages when they were
due; I had painted the steamer at St. George, while the passengers were
travelling on shore; I had taken in a large supply of engine stores;
and still had about eleven hundred dollars on hand. I felt that I was
getting rich very fast, though a season of idleness might scatter all
my wealth.

By this time our passengers had seen all there was to be seen from the
hurricane-deck of the steamer. Though the sun had come out, it was
rather a cool day to our party, who had spent a portion of the winter
in the tropics. Owen informed me that his friends desired to go on
shore. I had hardly sent them off in both boats, before a well-dressed
gentleman came on deck, and desired to see the captain.

CHAPTER III.

A NATIVE FLORIDIAN.

The gentleman who wished to see the captain came off in a small boat,
pulled by a man who might have been a mulatto, a Cuban, or a Spaniard.
I noticed that he was a fine-looking fellow, lightly but handsomely
built. If he had been brown, instead of slightly yellow, I should have
taken him for a white man. He had a fine eye, and both his form and his
face attracted my attention.

I invited the gentleman in the stern sheets, who wished to see me, to
come on board, and then conducted him to my state-room. He was not more
than thirty-five, and was dressed rather jauntily in a suit of
light-colored clothes. He looked and acted like a gentleman, and his
speech indicated that he was a person of refinement. I gave him a
chair, and took one myself. Washburn had gone ashore in one of the
boats, and I had the room to myself. Before he seated himself he handed
me a card, on which was engraved "Kirby Cornwood." There was nothing
more to indicate his business.

"Take a seat, Mr. Cornwood," I said, when I had read his name.

"Thank you, Captain Garningham," he replied: and I wondered where he
had learned my name, for I had not yet been ashore to report at the
custom-house.

"You will excuse me for calling upon you so soon after your arrival;
but business is business, and sometimes if it is not attended to in
season, it can't be done at all."

"Quite true, sir; and I was going ashore as soon as the boats returned
to