n to protect our
comrade. We saw that we must at once give over all thought of trying to
do any more business in Rio, and set all our inventions and energy at
work to save the L10,000 and to smuggle our companion safely out of Rio.
But how?

CHAPTER XVII.

ONCE MORE WE SAIL THE SEAS OVER.

Here in our country we know nothing of the annoyances and humbuggery of
the passport system, but now, as in 1872, every person desiring to leave
Brazil must be provided with a passport--if a foreigner, from his own
Government; if a native, one from the government of Brazil. When ready
to leave the country he must take his passport to police headquarters
and get it vised, at the same time notifying the police of the steamer
he proposes to sail on. Leaving the passport with the agent from whom he
buys his ticket, the latter, after ascertaining from the police that the
intending passenger is not wanted by the authorities, transmits the
passport to the purser of the steamer, who, in turn, hands it to the
passenger after the vessel is at sea.

It will be seen that these regulations make it difficult for a suspected
person to leave Brazil by the regular channels of communication, and
there are no back doors of escape in that country. Once in any seaport
town you must, if you leave at all, sail out of the harbor mouth, for in
the other direction, that is, inland, one is confronted by the mighty
tropical forests, the greater portion of which has never been looked
upon by the eye of man; and between all the seaports the same
impenetrable forest stretches.

So, straight out of the harbor between the Sugar Loaf and Fort Santa
Cruz Mac had to sail. How he should do so with safety was the problem we
had to solve. In this venture it would not do to have any blunders.
Without doubt the steamers would be watched for him, and instant arrest
and incarceration in the deadly tropical prison would be his lot if
discovered in the attempt to slip out of the country.

To complicate the matter here it was Monday, and no steamer to sail
until Wednesday, so there were forty-eight hours of frightful anxiety
ahead of us.

The Ebro, going to Europe, was in the harbor taking in cargo and coal.
The Chimborazo, going South, was not yet signaled, and we determined at
all hazards to get him off by the Ebro. We all had American passports,
and by the use of chemicals could alter the names and descriptions on
them at will.

Of course, the names in our p