's the Professor!" cried Juarez, "but what the mischief has he got
there?"

"That's it!" cried Jim, joyfully. "He's got the 'mischief' himself. It's
Manuel."

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Jo and Tom, running forward to meet him. "Where did
you get him?"

"You will find your bag back upon the wharf," explained the professor,
when he came near, holding the snapping, snarling object up in the air
with a vicelike grip on the waistband of its trousers. "And mine, too,"
he added, as the boys started off on a run in the direction indicated.

"I caught this viper sneaking along with a bag that I knew did not
belong to him, and that I took to belong to some of you. What do you
think we had better do with this thing?" indicating Manuel.

"I think," observed Berwick, "we had better take it on board with us and
put it in a cage like any other wild beast."

"Not a bad suggestion, that," agreed the professor. "That's about the
best thing we could do with him."

But with a sudden twist the wily Mexican slipped from his loose
trousers, leaving the garment in the professor's grasp.

"Hi--stop him!" shouted Jo, making a futile attempt to seize him.

But with an inarticulate snarl of rage, the Mexican made a headlong
plunge from the wharf into the water, disappearing from sight.

"Ugh!" exclaimed the professor, holding up the empty trousers. "He's
shed his skin like the snake he is. He had better take them along,"
tossing them into the water.

"We will get him when he comes up," cried Tom.

But, although the boys ran along the string piece of the wharf looking
for him to reappear, they saw nothing more of him. An officer in uniform
was called and told of the circumstances. After watching for some time
they were obliged to conclude that the villainous Mexican had at last
met his just desert.

"Well," remarked Jo, at length, "I guess we have seen the last of him."

"I sincerely hope so," returned Berwick, "but that fellow has more lives
than a cat."

"There doesn't seem to be any use of waiting any longer," said the
professor. "He doesn't seem to be coming back. There is nothing we can
do and we may as well go on."

By this time the sun was up, and the wharf was beginning to be astir
with people. The boatmen were coming and going over the bay, intent on
business. Hailing one of the larger boats, which was rowed by two
Hawaiians, the professor asked them if they could carry the party out to
the yacht.

"Si, senor," replied one o