As soon as the steamer berthed alongside the wharf, Mackenzie bade Peter "au revoir" and went ashore together with half a dozen other passengers, mostly Brazilians. Five hours later Peter Corbold set foot on Rioguayan soil at the busy little port of Tepecicoa, being in the awkward position of knowing no word of Spanish and having no one to act as an interpreter. But that troubled him very little. His previous experience of foreign ports stood him in good stead; while having previously provided himself with a large-scale map of the district on which El Toro, his uncle's abode, was plainly marked, he had no great difficulty in finding himself upon the right road. He travelled light, his baggage having been detained at the Custom House for examination. Peter had cabled out to his uncle from England, stating that he was sailing in the Royal Mail steamer _Tagus_, but the date of his arrival at El Toro was a matter for speculation. Nor was the ex-naval officer aware that there was direct telephonic communication between Tepecicoa and his destination, and that electric cars passed within two hundred yards of the place. It was undoubtedly a day of surprises. Peter had expected to find a tenth-rate South American republic, peopled, for the most part, by swarthy ruffians, with long knives conspicuously carried in bright-coloured sashes. He had imagined the town of Tepecicoa to be dirty, squalid, swarming with beggars. Instead, he found broad, tree-planted streets and spacious _plazas_, lighted by electricity and provided with broad, shady, and remarkably clean pavements. There were Indians and half-castes in profusion, looking certainly far from being poverty-stricken. In fact, he did not see a single beggar. There were plenty of people on horseback, and quite a number of motor-cars that obviously had been imported from the United States. Being afoot and dressed in clothes of English cut, Peter was the object of a great deal of attention, especially as he was walking. Almost everyone, even the poorest, rode either in a car or carriage, or on horseback. Presently, Peter arrived at a long and open space, out of which seven broad thoroughfares radiated. Here he stood irresolute, unable to decide as to which of these roads he should take. "Wish I had Mackenzie with me," he soliloquized. Suddenly a hand slapped him heavily upon the shoulder. Surprised, Peter wheeled, to find a tall, lean-faced man, whose gold-filled teeth proclaimed him to be a citizen of the United States. "Say, stranger," exclaimed the man, "you'se the guy Boss Strong's expectin'?" "I am," admitted Peter. "Sure thing," continued the other. "I'm right dead on it every time. What are you hoofing it for? Didn't Old Man Strong send along his automobile?" "He didn't know when to expect me," replied Peter. "I suppose I ought to have telegraphed." "There's a cable-car at twenty centavos or an automobile at a dollar," announced the man. Peter expressed his preference for the latter.