On board the Guipuzcoa; the Comprachicos Despite my anxieties I reached the port without hazard or hindrance, and sought again the spot where I had encountered the small red-kerchiefed man. I found the place at once, and easily, for he was there ahead of me, jigging impatiently from foot to foot, and looking all around him with his quick, darting black eyes. "Very good, very good, it is the young señor, follow me if you please, for the ship has already arrived and the captain wishes to make passage again without delay!" he exclaimed in a rush of words the moment he saw me; and, snatching at my hand in his impatience to be off, he began leading me, almost at a run, along the sides of wharves, over narrow catwalks, in between great piles of timber, among casks and bales and crates, until I was thoroughly confused and had no notion whether we were going east or west or north or south, but could only follow him in blind trust. I was slower than he liked, though, first because I was burdened with one of my two saddlebags (I had left the other, the one with the food in it, for Sam), and also because I was still hoping to get a glimpse of Sam and longingly craned my neck this way and that as we came out from behind ships and crossed bridges.
