The voyage continued, and was fast drawing to a close. "Mr.
Blinderpool" made several more attempts to strike up a friendship
with Tom, or his chum, but they were on their guard now, and,
failing to get into much of a conversation with the two young men,
the pretended clergyman turned his attentions to Mr. Damon.

That eccentric gentleman welcomed him at first, until a quiet hint
from Tom brought that to an end.

"Bless my fire shovel!" cried Mr. Damon. "You don't say so! Not a
clergyman at all? Dear me!"

And then, getting desperate, and needing very much to learn how long
a journey his rivals were to undertake, so that he, too, might
prepare for it, Mr. Hank Delby, alias Blinderpool, began to "pump"
Eradicate.

But the latter was too sharp for him. Well knowing that a white man
would not get suddenly friendly with one of the black race unless
for some selfish object, Eradicate fairly snubbed the seeming
minister, until that worthy had to go off by himself, saying bitter
things and casting black looks at our friends.

"But I'll get ahead of them yet!" he muttered, "and I'll get their
giants away from them, if they capture any."

The box on which Tom set such an importance, and which had so nearly
been the cause of a disaster, had been stored in one of the fire-proof
compartments of the ship, and now, as a few days more would see
the vessel entering the harbor of the Rio de la Plata, thence to
steam up to the ancient city of Buenos Ayres, Tom and the others
began to think of what lay before them.

"How do you propose to head into the interior?" asked Mr. Damon one
afternoon, when the captain announced that the following morning
would see them nearly opposite Montevideo.

"I'm going to hire a lot of burrows, donkeys or whatever they have
down here that answers the purpose," replied Tom. "We have a lot of
things to transport, and I guess pack mules would be the best, if we
can get them. Then I've got to hire some drivers and some porters,
camp-makers and the like. In fact we'll have quite a party. I guess
I'll need ten natives, and a head man and with ourselves we'll be
fifteen. So we'll need plenty of food. But then we can get that as
we go along, except when we get away into the interior, and then
we'll have to hunt it ourselves."

"That's the stuff!" cried Ned. "We haven't had a good hunting
expedition since we went to elephant land, Tom. The electric rifles
will come in handy here."

"Yes, I expect th