of brandy to steady his
nerves. Then placing the genuine signature before him and the forged
letters, he began to put in the name. The signatures were not well
written, but under the trying circumstances they were wonderfully well
done. All this had taken place within half an hour after he had left the
bank.

It was a trying ordeal, but Mac was quite willing to do as George
advised. That was that he should take several of the letters and march
boldly into the bank and say: "Here are my letters; they are all right.
Both signatures are on all my letters but the one, and from that the
second signature has been in some way omitted." George's last word to
Mac was: "Rely upon us to extricate you from anything. Keep cool. Act up
to the character you have assumed. They can never fathom that the names
could have been written in so short a time. Boldly offer them more
exchange on London, and if there is any hesitation say you will transfer
your business to the English Bank of Rio at once."

[Illustration: "SURELY THE CLERKS IN THE BANK KNOW HOW TO SPELL."--Page
172.]

He started on his decisive errand, followed by us, in a miserable state
of anxiety. He was not long in the bank, but returned empty-handed. Upon
meeting at the designated place, he informed us the manager was
evidently agreeably surprised when shown the letters with both
signatures, and transferred the indorsement from the letter that had but
one signature to one with two. Once more we had matters all right, and
the broken place patched up again, but it behooved us not to do so any
more. But we did.

During our stay in Rio we saw much to interest us. The negro was very
much in evidence. Slavery was still the law of the land; all the toil
and burden-bearing falls to the poor slave's lot. One day we all three
took an early train and alighted at a small hamlet on the border of a
stream about thirty miles from Rio, beyond the ranges of mountains that
hem in the city. We managed to find some saddle mules and started to see
the country. We rode for some miles through a land covered with
moundlike hills, no sooner coming to the bottom of one than we were
ascending another. These hills are covered with coffee bushes filled
with red fruit, about the size of a cherry, each containing two kernels.
The coffee was being picked into large flat baskets by slaves, which,
when filled, they carried away on their heads to the drying grounds.

The roads were bordered with orange