"I don't know that we want to avoid them, for I should like very much
to know who and what they are. They must be tipsy to a greater or less
degree by this time, for they do twice as much drinking as eating,"
answered Christy, as he advanced a little way farther up the hill. "They
have a basket of food, and I do not believe they are mere tramps. They
are more likely to be engaged in some occupation which brought them to
this point, and I think we had better fraternize with them. They may be
able to give us some valuable information; and it looks as though they
were drunk enough to tell all they know without making any difficulty
about it."

"Do you think it is quite prudent, Mr. Passford, to approach them?"
asked the engineer.

"When we come on an excursion of this kind we have to take some risk.
If I were alone I should not hesitate to join them, and take my chances,
for they must know something about affairs in this vicinity," replied
Christy in a quiet tone, so that his answer might not be interpreted as
a boast or a reproach to his companion.

"I am ready to follow you, Mr. Passford, wherever you go, and to depend
upon your judgment for guidance," said Graines very promptly. "If it
comes to a fight with those fellows, I beg you to understand that I will
do my full share of it, and obey your orders to the letter."

"Of course I have no doubt whatever in regard to your courage and your
readiness to do your whole duty, Mr. Graines," added Christy, as he led
the way to the summit of the elevation. "Now lay aside your grammar and
rhetoric, and we must be as good fellows as those bivouackers are making
themselves. We are simply sailors who have just escaped from a captured