oving. The murmur of many voices, punctuated by shouts and hammering,
floated across the smooth water, and from the shipping sounded frequent
hails. Through the shipping weaved the _California_, with all her
passengers peering excitedly; then "Boom!" spoke her signal gun, and
not far from the water-front, where a clear place had been left, she
dropped anchor. From her decks arose a mighty cheer; and listen--the
people running down to the water-front replied! So everybody cheered
again, Charley swinging his hat and "hooraying" as hard as anybody.

XIV

ALL ASHORE

So interested had most of the passengers been, that they had omitted to
collect their baggage and make the grand rush as at Chagres. But now
at the dropping of the anchor the charm was broken. Helter-skelter
they all ran, to be ready for the first landing, but suddenly were
halted by the word that nobody could go ashore until morning. The ship
must first be examined by the health officer. So a howl of dismay and
wrath arose.

"The captain thinks he'll keep us aboard all night, does he? Well, he
can't and nobody else can, either. Ain't that right?"

Charley had been carried along by the rush to gather the baggage; and
now this voice spoke at his elbow. He looked quickly, and saw the
profile of the long-nosed man, who was talking to one of his partners.

"There'll be plenty of boats sneaking around, and plenty of sailors
taking French leave for the mines," continued the long-nosed man.
"We'll just join 'em. We've got too big a stake ahead of us, to waste
a night here."

"Sure. We'll let the other party do the wasting," answered the
partner. "We're ahead, so far, and we'll stay ahead."

"All right. Keep your eyes and ears open, and a little money in your
hand, and at the first chance, we leave. Tell Jack, if you see him
before I do."

Charley slipped away. So the long-nosed man's party were planning to
go ashore anyhow, were they? Well, he'd see about that. He'd tell his
father, who'd tell the captain, and the captain would make them play
fair.

But his father shook his head, after Charley had excitedly appealed.

"No, we won't do a thing. Grigsby and I had decided anyway that we'd
better stay on board till morning. We'll all gain nothing by going
ashore in the dark, Charley. Lieutenant Sherman says it's a miserable
place to find your way around in, and it's full of the riff-raff of all
nations, besides the better people.