“The clothes, senor,” answered Diego, in reply, pointing to the basket, which they had deposited on the flagstones.

“Ah, that’s all right!  Are they from Dolores?  There’s a gentleman here who has inquired half a dozen times already about his clean things.  He wants to leave to-day.”

“What’s his name?  I have the lists here.”

“What is his name?  I never can remember these English and American names.  But here he comes himself.”

As he spoke, a tall, fine-looking man, of about forty, with light hair and complexion and wearing gold spectacles, came hurrying in from the street.

“Now, then, senor,” said he, addressing the clerk, “are those my things?  All right.  Take them to my room, No. 17, on the balcony.  The steamer sails for Ruatan this afternoon, before sunset, and I must send my baggage on board at once.  Where is the servant you promised to engage for me?”

“Senor, the young man I hoped to get will not go on such an expedition as yours, and has backed out, at the last moment, after promising me he would be ready.”

Lee and Diego both pricked up their ears at the word “expedition,” and Diego took off his cap and said: 

“Where might the gentleman be going?”

“I’m going to make some explorations, and to try to find some ruined cities in Central America.  Not an easy task, for their situation is not precisely known, and many have been baffled in trying to find them.  I want a young man who is a good traveler and handy, and who speaks both Spanish and English, so that he can act as an interpreter.”

“But just where are you going, sir?”

“Why, to Ruatan, first—­where I shall get my outfit, and engage some canoe hands and a cook; and then to Truxillo, for more precise information.  I may go up the River Maugualil, or some other stream.  It will depend upon what I hear.”

Diego and Lee looked at each other as much as to say, “Why wouldn’t we do?  We must do something, and that at once; and here is a chance for travel and adventure, too.”

Lee even forgot his design of returning North, and said to the gentleman: 

“I am an American, sir, willing and strong, and ready for anything which will give me an honest living and a chance to see something new; and my friend here speaks Spanish, for it is his native tongue—­and also English well enough.  If you’ll take us both, there is nothing to prevent us from going, for we have left our vessel.”

The gentleman looked closely at their faces, and then answered: 

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t try you—­especially as I can’t get any one else,” he added to himself.  “My name is Higley, and I am a professor in Coryale College.  I have been sent out for the purpose I have told you, and expect to be gone from here for seven or eight months, or perhaps a year.  Now, who are you?”

Lee told him their story, and the professor said, when he had finished: