There will be a wine shop for sure where we may find somebody more promising to talk to and get some information from." "Aye, aye, sir," said Tom falling into step behind his officer.

"A bit of palaver as to courses and distances can do no harm; I crossed the broadest part of Cuba by the help of my tongue tho' knowing far less Spanish than I do now.

As they say themselves it was 'four words and no more' with me, that time when I got left behind on shore by the _Blanche_, frigate." He made light of what was before him, which was but a day's journey into the mountains.

It is true that there was a full day's journey before striking the mountain path, but that was nothing for a man who had crossed the island of Cuba on his two legs, and with no more than four words of the language to begin with.
The officer and the man were walking now on a thick sodden bed of dead leaves, which the peasants thereabouts accumulate in the streets of their villages to rot during the winter for field manure.

Turning his head Mr.
Byrne perceived that the whole male population of the hamlet was following them on the noiseless springy carpet.