I have finished first and go out to the platform. Groups of natives are gathered about, carrying on their heads round shallow baskets like trays displaying fruit, eggs and _water_ for sale. These people seem very different from the Mexican Indians. They are blacker, their faces are more flat and stupid, and the women's dress is a straight piece of gay cotton cloth wound round the lower half of the body and secured at the waist with a scarf tied over. The only other encumbrance is a thin white cotton sacque, short and loose. The women immediately attack me with vociferous gibberish, offering me their wares. Mrs. Steele sends the Baron out to look after me, and when he has bought a basket full of pineapples, sappadillos, mangoes and grenadillas, he proposes a little walk up the road. We have twenty minutes yet, he says, and Mrs. Steele is stopping to buy some grass baskets and fans. We walk up the dusty little highway, and the burning sun beats down strong and hot in our unaccustomed faces. "How can people endure it?" I marvel, wiping away great drops of moisture. "See dthat big house all come down? Dthat ees eardthquake," explains my escort. "How dreadful! Look at the thatch roofs of those queer little huts--it makes me think of peaked Robinson Crusoe hats. Just see how they're pulled far down over the sun-burnt wall as if to shade their eyes from the scorching sun." "Robeen Crusa?" The Baron looks puzzled. "I know not dthat kind of hat. Ees it like vhat you tell me about vhen I first see you--dthat 'Robeen Hood'?" I stand still in the quiet street and wake a far-off echo with my laughter. The Peruvian gets red in the face and begins to look offended. "Please don't mind me; I think you've said something a little 'komisch'--but perhaps I've got a sunstroke and it acts like laughing gas. Don't be cross, Guillermo." I take his arm and notice covertly that he is mollified. "Blanca," he says, with a half smile, "dthat adobe house vidth vines look cool--suppose I buy dthat and ve stay here leedle vhile." I follow his eyes. "That mansion would hardly hold our party; it doesn't look as if it boasted more than two rooms." "Dthat vould be enough. Madame Steele vish much to see Guatemala; she go on and ve miss dthat train." "Brilliant scheme!" I admit, "but----" A shrill blast cuts through the air. "Heavens and earth! that's the whistle!"