he
Spanish Main and New Orleans in the regular transport of fruit; next
she would be making erratic trips to Mobile or Charleston, or even
as far north as New York, according to the distribution of the fruit
supply.

Goodwin lounged upon the beach with the usual crowd of idlers that
had gathered to view the steamer. Now that President Miraflores might
be expected to reach the borders of his abjured country at any time,
the orders were to keep a strict and unrelenting watch. Every vessel
that approached the shores might now be considered a possible means
of escape for the fugitives; and an eye was kept even on the sloops
and dories that belonged to the sea-going contingent of Coralio.
Goodwin and Zavalla moved everywhere, but without ostentation,
watching the loopholes of escape.

The customs officials crowded importantly into their boat and rowed
out to the _Karlsefin_. A boat from the steamer landed her purser
with his papers, and took out the quarantine doctor with his green
umbrella and clinical thermometer. Next a swarm of Caribs began to
load upon lighters the thousands of bunches of bananas heaped upon
the shore and row them out to the steamer. The _Karlsefin_ had
no passenger list, and was soon done with the attention of the
authorities. The purser declared that the steamer would remain at
anchor until morning, taking on her fruit during the night. The
_Karlsefin_ had come, he said, from New York, to which port her
latest load of oranges and cocoanuts had been conveyed. Two or three
of the freighter sloops were engaged to assist in the work, for the
captain was anxious to make a quick return in order to reap the
advantage offered by a certain dearth of fruit in the States.

About four o'clock in the afternoon another of those marine monsters,
not very familiar in those waters, hove in sight, following the
fateful _Idalia_--a graceful steam yacht, painted a light buff,
clean-cut as a steel engraving. The beautiful vessel hovered off
shore, see-sawing the waves as lightly as a duck in a rain barrel.
A swift boat manned by a crew in uniform came ashore, and a
stocky-built man leaped to the sands.

The new-comer seemed to turn a disapproving eye upon the rather
motley congregation of native Anchurians, and made his way at once
toward Goodwin, who was the most conspicuously Anglo-Saxon figure
present. Goodwin greeted him with courtesy.

Conversation developed that the newly landed one was named Smith,
and that