CHAPTER V.

Todos Santos.

It was evident that the two strangers represented some exalted military and ecclesiastical authority.  This was shown in their dress—­a long-forgotten, half mediaeval costume, that to the imaginative spectator was perfectly in keeping with their mysterious advent, and to the more practical as startling as a masquerade.  The foremost figure wore a broad-brimmed hat of soft felt, with tarnished gold lace, and a dark feather tucked in its recurved flap; a short cloak of fine black cloth thrown over one shoulder left a buff leathern jacket and breeches, ornamented with large round silver buttons, exposed until they were met by high boots of untanned yellow buckskin that reached halfway up the thigh.  A broad baldric of green silk hung from his shoulder across his breast, and supported at his side a long sword with an enormous basket hilt, through which somewhat coquettishly peeped a white lace handkerchief.  Tall and erect, in spite of the grizzled hair and iron-gray moustaches and wrinkled face of a man of sixty, he suddenly halted on the deck with a military precision that made the jingling chains and bits of silver on his enormous spurs ring again.  He was followed by an ecclesiastic of apparently his own age, but smoothly shaven, clad in a black silk sotana and sash, and wearing the old-fashioned oblong, curl-brimmed hat sacred to “Don Basilo,” of the modern opera.  Behind him appeared the genial face of Senor Perkins, shining with the benignant courtesy of a master of ceremonies.

“If this is a fair sample of the circus ashore, I’ll take two tickets,” whispered Crosby, who had recovered his audacity.

“I have the inexpressible honor,” said Senor Perkins to Captain Bunker, with a gracious wave of his hand towards the extraordinary figures, “to present you to the illustrious Don Miguel Briones, Comandante of the Presidio of Todos Santos, at present hidden in the fog, and the very reverend and pious Padre Esteban, of the Mission of Todos Santos, likewise invisible.  When I state to you,” he continued, with a slight lifting of his voice, so as to include the curious passengers in his explanation, “that, with very few exceptions, this is the usual condition of the atmosphere at the entrance to the Mission and Presidio of Todos Santos, and that the last exception took place thirty-five years ago, when a ship entered the harbor, you will understand why these distinguished gentlemen have been willing to waive the formality of your waiting upon them first, and have taken the initiative.  The illustrious Comandante has been generous to exempt you from the usual port regulations, and to permit you to wood and to water”—­

“What port regulation is he talking of?” asked Captain Bunker testily.

“The Mexican regulations forbidding any foreign vessel to communicate with the shore,” returned Senor Perkins deprecatingly.