It was a very novel and amusing journey, even in the very discomforts and the strange characters with whom he was thrown, and more discontented travellers used to declare that Don Luis, as he told the muleteers to call him, always seemed to have the best success with the surly hotel-keepers, though when he resigned his acquisitions to any resolute grumbler, it used to be discovered that he had been putting up with the worst share. A place called Guallaval seemed to be the most squalid and forlorn of all the stations--outside, an atmosphere of mosquitoes; inside, an atmosphere of brandy and smoke, the master an ague-stricken Yankee, who sat with his bare feet high against the wall, and only deigned to jerk with his head to show in what quarter was the drink and food, and to 'guess that strangers must sleep on the ground, for first-comers had all the beds'--hammocks slung up in a barn, or unwholesome cupboards in the wall. At the dirty board sat several of the party first arrived, washing down tough, stringy beef with brandy. Louis was about to take his place near a very black-bearded young man, who appeared more civilized than the rest, and who surprised him by at once making room for him, leaving the table with an air of courtesy; and when, in his halting Spanish, he begged 'his Grace' not to disturb himself, he was answered, in the same tongue, 'I have finished.' After the meal, such as it was, he wandered out of the hut, to escape the fumes and the company within; but he was presently accosted by the same stranger, who, touching his slouched Panama hat, made him a speech in Spanish, too long and fluent for his comprehension, at the same time offering him a cigar. He was civilly refusing, when, to his surprise, the man interrupted him in good English. 'These swamps breed fever, to a certainty. A cigar is the only protection; and even then there is nothing more dangerous than to be out at sunset.' 'Thank you, I am much obliged,' said Louis, turning towards the hut. 'Have you been long out here?' 'The first time on the Isthmus; but I know these sort of places. Pray go in, my Lord.' The title and the accent startled Louis, and he exclaimed, 'You must be from the Northwold country?' He drew back, and said bluntly, 'Never mind me, only keep out of this pestiferous air.' But the abrupt surliness completed the recognition, and, seizing his hand, Louis cried, 'Tom! how are you?' You have turned into a thorough Spaniard, and taken me in entirely.' 'Only come in, my Lord; I would never have spoken to you, but that I could not see you catching your death.' 'I am coming: but what's the matter? Why avoid me, when you are the very man I most wished to see?' 'I'm done for,' said Tom. 'The fellows up there have saddled their rogueries on me, and I'm off to the States. I--' 'What do you say? There, I am coming in. Be satisfied, Tom; I am come out with a commission from Mr. Dynevor, to see what can be arranged.'