I'm sleepy.'

"So I had to leave Halloran. I dressed quiet, and slipped out of the
tent we were in. When the guard came along I knocked him over, like
a ninepin, with a green cocoanut I had, and made for the railroad.
I got on that hand-car and made it fly. 'Twas yet a while before
daybreak when I saw the lights of Port Barrios about a mile away. I
stopped the hand-car there and walked to the town. I stepped inside
the corporations of that town with care and hesitations. I was not
afraid of the army of Guatemala, but me soul quaked at the prospect
of a hand-to-hand struggle with its employment bureau. 'Tis a country
that hires its help easy and keeps 'em long. Sure I can fancy Missis
America and Missis Guatemala passin' a bit of gossip some fine, still
night across the mountains. 'Oh, dear,' says Missis America, 'and
it's a lot of trouble I'm havin' ag'in with the help, senora, ma'am.'
'Laws, now!' says Missis Guatemala, 'you don't say so, ma'am! Now,
mine never think of leavin' me--te-he! ma'am,' snickers Missis
Guatemala.

"I was wonderin' how I was goin' to move away from them tropics
without bein' hired again. Dark as it was, I could see a steamer
ridin' in the harbour, with smoke emergin' from her stacks. I turned
down a little grass street that run down to the water. On the beach I
found a little brown nigger-man just about to shove off in a skiff.

"'Hold on, Sambo,' says I, 'savve English?'

"'Heap plenty, yes,' says he, with a pleasant grin.

"'What steamer is that?' I asks him, 'and where is it going? And
what's the news, and the good word and the time of day?'

"'That steamer the _Conchita_,' said the brown man, affable and easy,
rollin' a cigarette. 'Him come from New Orleans for load banana. Him
got load last night. I think him sail in one, two hour. Verree nice
day we shall be goin' have. You hear some talkee 'bout big battle,
maybe so? You think catchee General De Vega, senor? Yes? No?'

"'How's that, Sambo?' says I. 'Big battle? What battle? Who wants
catchee General De Vega? I've been up at my old gold mines in the
interior for a couple of months, and haven't heard any news.'

"'Oh,' says the nigger-man, proud to speak the English, 'verree great
revolution in Guatemala one week ago. General De Vega, him try be
president. Him raise armee--one--five--ten thousand mans for fight
at the government. Those one government send five--forty--hundred
thousand soldier to suppress revolution. They fight bi