rrow?"

"At what time would you want to return, senor?"

"It would matter little. I should be done with my business by noon,
but I should be in no hurry. I could wait until evening, if that
would suit you better."

"And we might bring other passengers back, and any cargo we might
pick up?"

"Yes, so that you do not fill the boat so full that there would be
no room for me to stretch my legs."

"Would the senor think four dollars too much? There will be my
brother and myself, and it will be a long row."

"It is dear," Bob said, decidedly; "but I will give you three
dollars and, if everything passes to my satisfaction, maybe I will
make up the other dollar."

"Agreed, senor. I will see if I can find the man who was here,
asking for a boat for his fruit."

"I will come back in an hour, and see," Bob said, getting up and
walking leisurely away.

The fisherman was waiting for him.

"I can't find the man, senor, though I have searched all through
the town. He must have gone off to his farm again."

"That is bad. How much did you reckon upon making from him?"

"I should have got another three dollars from him."

"Well, I tell you what," Bob said; "I have a good many friends, and
people are always pleased with a present from the country. A box of
fruit from Marbella is always welcome, for their flavour is
considered excellent. It is well to throw a little fish, to catch a
big one; and a present is like oil on the wheels of business. How
many boxes of fruit will your boat carry? I suppose you could take
twenty, and still have room to row?"

"Thirty, sir; that is the boat," and he pointed to one moored
against the quay.

She was about twenty feet long, with a mast carrying a good-sized
sail.

"Very well, then. I will hire the boat for myself. I will give you
six dollars, and another dollar for drink money, if all goes
pleasantly. You must be ready to come back, tomorrow evening; or
the first thing next morning, if it should suit you to stay till
then. You can carry what fish you can get to Malaga, and may take
in a return cargo if you can get one. That will be extra profit for
yourselves. But you and your brother must agree to carry down the
boxes of fruit, and put them on board here. I am not going to pay
porters for that.

"At what time will you start?"

"Shall we say six o'clock, senor?"

"That will suit me very well. You can come up with me, now, and
bring the fruit down, and put it on board; or I w