Before them lay the city itself, a city of many white buildings, the
color of which met and blended with the tints of the mountains
beyond, and those tints varied from olive green, into olive brown,
indigo, and, in some places, even to the more brilliant ultramarine.
The motor girls gazed at the scene with eager eyes, and into those of
Inez came tears of joy, for she was, every minute, coming nearer and
nearer to the land she loved--the land where her father was a
prisoner.

Up to the small dock puffed the motor boat, and when Mr. Robinson
demanded to know the price, the boatman named a sum that instantly
brought forth a voluble protest from the Spanish girl. At once she
and the boatman engaged in a verbal duel.

"Mercy!" exclaimed Bess. "What can have happened? Is he some
brigand who wants to carry us off ?"

"Or a pirate?" suggest Jack. "He looks like one. Wally, have you a
revolver with you?"

"Don't you dare!" cried Belle, covering her ears with her hands.

"He want to charge two pesos too much!" explained Inez, when she had
her breath. "It is not lawful!" and once more she expostulated in
Spanish.

The boatman, with a shrug of his shoulders, as much as to ask, "How
can one quarrel with a woman?" accepted the amount Inez picked out
from the change Mr. Robinson held out, and then they went ashore,