with Tom, or his chum, but they were on their guard now, and,
failing to get into much of a conversation with the two young men,
the pretended clergyman turned his attentions to Mr. Damon.

That eccentric gentleman welcomed him at first, until a quiet hint
from Tom brought that to an end.

"Bless my fire shovel!" cried Mr. Damon. "You don't say so! Not a
clergyman at all? Dear me!"

And then, getting desperate, and needing very much to learn how long
a journey his rivals were to undertake, so that he, too, might
prepare for it, Mr. Hank Delby, alias Blinderpool, began to "pump"
Eradicate.

But the latter was too sharp for him. Well knowing that a white man
would not get suddenly friendly with one of the black race unless
for some selfish object, Eradicate fairly snubbed the seeming
minister, until that worthy had to go off by himself, saying bitter
things and casting black looks at our friends.

"But I'll get ahead of them yet!" he muttered, "and I'll get their
giants away from them, if they capture any."

The box on which Tom set such an importance, and which had so nearly
been the cause of a disaster, had been stored in one of the fire-
proof compartments of the ship, and now, as a few days more would
see the vessel entering the harbor of the Rio de la Plata, thence to
steam up to the ancient city of Buenos Ayres, Tom and the others
began to think of what lay before them.