u for your friendliness, but
we neither of us drink. Be good enough to tell me where the agent of
the ship lives, and I'll give you half-a-dollar."

"Nonsense! come and have a drink, my lad."

"No, thank you," I said. "Come, Esau."

"Why, what a fellow you are. Very well, then, hand over the twenty
dollars each, if you can't take a friendly drop. I'll get the tickets
for you all the same."

"No, no," said the other man. "Let's do no business without a drink
first; they think we want to make them pay, but I'll stand liquors for
the lot."

"No, let 'em have their own way," said the first man; "they're not used
to our customs. You let 'em alone. I'm going to get 'em passages in
the _Paulina_, for twenty dollars each. Come, lads, where's your
money?"

I glanced quickly to right and left, but we seemed to be away from help,
and, strangers as we were, in the lower part of the port, quite at the
mercy of these men. Then, having made up my mind what to do, I pressed
up to Esau, pushing rather roughly by our first friend.

"Now, Esau," I said, "back to the hotel. Straight on," I whispered.
"Run!"

"I bet you don't," said our first friend; "that trick won't do here,
stranger;" and his smooth looks and tones gave place to a scowl and the
air of a bully. "Come along, Esau," I said sharply. "No, nor you don't
come along neither," said the man, as the others closed round us as if
out of curiosity, but so as to effectually bar our retreat.

"What's matter?" said one who had not yet spoken.

"Matter?" cried our friend. "Why jest this. These here tew have been
holding me off and on for three days, wanting me to get 'em a ship to
take 'em to Esquimalt. First they wanted to go for ten, then they'd
give fifteen."

"Fifteen dollars to Skimalt?" cried the new man. "Gammon."

"That's so," said our friend. "Last they said they'd give twenty
dollars a-piece, and after a deal o' trouble we got 'em berths, and paid
half the money down; now they want to back out of it."

"Oh, yes," cried the second man; "that won't do here, mates."

"It's not true," I said, indignantly. "And now wants to bounce me out
of it. Here, yew wouldn't hev that, mates, would yew?"

There was a regular excited chorus here, and the men closed in upon us,
so that we were quite helpless, and for a moment I felt that we must buy
ourselves out of our awkward position. But a glance at Esau showed that
he was stubborn and angry as I, and that