I do not know how many miles I walked on the Terro Carril de Dom Pedro III, but I was well tired out, and my head dizzy, from looking at the numbers on the telegraph-poles. The same information--"A few leagues farther on"--was becoming monotonous. Four milreis had been expended for food. With but one milreis left I was getting discouraged. Suddenly I changed my mind, and turned back for Rio de Janeiro. At the first station I was ordered off the track. Then I had to walk on the wagon road. One evening, about dusk, I arrived at the city, tired, hungry, and footsore. Two "dumps"--large copper coins worth forty reis each--was the last of my money. I invested one dump for a piece of cocoanut, the other for bread. That was the last food I ever ate on Brazilian soil. I had often heard sailors joking about "Mahogany Hotel-on-the-Beach," and there I went for a night's lodging. A large pile of mahogany timber hewed square for shipping, some pieces being several feet shorter than others, would make a space large enough for a man to sleep in. No doubt but that it was a very valuable edifice, but, at the same time, very uncomfortable. My apartment was about eight feet in length and only twenty inches in height and width. Early in the morning I was out of bed, with no money nor breakfast, hardly knowing what to do. There was only one thing to be done, that was to get on some vessel and get away from the city. While walking around the docks, I met the "runner" from Portuguese Joe's boarding-house. He was an American. I tried to avoid him, but it was useless. He had seen and recognised me. "Halloa, how long have you been ashore?" he asked. "Oh, quite a long time," I replied. "See here, Murray, I know all about your deserting. Come down to the house and stay until we can get you away." No, I would not take any chances in a boarding-house. "You want to ship, don't you? Come with me and I will put you on a vessel right off." "How much in advance?" "Eighteen dollars," he answered. Then I told him how I was fixed, and also that he could ship me and keep all the advance money for his trouble. CHAPTER X THE SPORT OF THE WAVES