Greatly encouraged, Livingstone continued, with enthusiasm:

"And that wireless man said," he added, "that with the launch we
can get there in half an hour. We might run down after dinner." He
turned to Marshall.

"Will you join us, Mr. Consul?" he asked, "and dine with us,
first?"

Marshall accepted with genuine pleasure. It had been many months
since he had sat at table with his own people. But he shook his
head doubtfully.

"I was wondering about Las Bocas," he explained, "if your going
there might not get you in trouble at the next port. With a yacht,
I think it is different, but Las Bocas is under quarantine"

There was a chorus of exclamations.

"It's not serious," Marshall explained. "There was bubonic plague
there, or something like it. You would be in no danger from that.
It is only that you might be held up by the regulations. Passenger
steamers can't land any one who has been there at any other port of
the

West Indies. The English are especially strict. The Royal Mail
won't even receive any one on board here without a certificate from
the English consul saying he has not visited Las Bocas. For an
American they would require the same guarantee from me. But I don't