"I have none of those things on my pate," laughed Felix, shaking his head vigorously. "If I have, I will scatter them. Are those shafts like the one that whirls the propeller of the Guardian-Mamma, Louis?" "I am afraid the limits of your knowledge of the ornamental appendage of your fine head are not as near as they might be, for you do not seem to know the nomenclature of the hairs of your head." "Are you talking Spanish just now, my darling? If not, I ought to have brought a dictionary with me," said Felix with a gasp to denote the depth of his despair. "Point Mirador," called the pilot. "Punta Mirador," added Louis. "You ought to have your head bound with iron hoops, like a beer-barrel, to keep it from bursting with the fulness thereof, for some of the long words are sticking out through the cracks now." "If it collapses, Flix, I hope you will gather up some of the fruits of the explosion; but at present I do not feel any extraordinary pressure, and I think you will have to acquire your own knowledge in the ordinary laborious manner." "I don't see the p'nt of that point which you call a punta"-- "I don't call it a punta, but a poon-ta. Pronounce it correctly when you speak Spanish, Flix," interposed Louis. "Poonta Mirador, then. There is more Mira-Por-Vos in it," added Felix, alluding to the group of islands among the Bahamas on one of which the foster-father of Scott had been picked up. "Unfortunately for you there is none of that in it, for mirador means a person looking on, or a balcony. You pay your money and take your choice." "Do you pay it in English or Spanish money? There is something on the hill that looks like a balcony; and I pay my money for that interpretation." "There is another point before we come to Algeciras called Rinconcillo," added the pilot. "Call it Rin-con-cil-yo, for double 1 in Spanish is treated like a single letter, sounded like ly joined," Louis explained. "Cilyo it is, Don Louis; and I shall be wilying to remember it when I am spelying out a Spanish word and filying up my empty head with such eroodition through the capilyary shafts. But I suppose that four-sylyabler means something." "You observe that the word is a diminutive." "I observe," replied Felix, shrugging his shoulders, and extending his two hands like a puzzled or a deprecating Frenchman. "I always thought a diminutive meant something small, and this is a four-syllabler, with eleven letters, counting in the y." "Does infinitesimal cover the length of the word or its meaning, Flix?" "Give it up! You always beat me in a literary discussion, my darling; and Oi'm moighty proud of your lairnin'." "Rinconcillo, without regard to the length of the word, means a small corner," said Louis. "And that's just where I am!" exclaimed Felix. "There is only one thing in which I can beat you." "What's that, Flix?" asked Morris, who had been too much amused to say anything before.