“There may be legitimate reasons for the great difference in price. I am not going to look into that. It is not my task. But for once, in a little corner of our great country, there will be cheap bananas. Six hand bunches. You sell them to me for five cents a bunch and I will do the rest. How many may I have? Twenty thousand bunches?”
“Twenty-five thousand, _Senor_. On my three plantations there are this many small bunches. You may have them all. I will give you a note to my manager at Porte Zalaya. He will have them brought to the docks at once.”
“You will pay when your people pay you for the bananas,” said the generous Spaniard. “Send me a draft. If the money does not come to you, then it will never come to me.
“And now,” he said, “I must go. Come inside, and I will instruct my secretary about the note you are to carry to my manager at Porte Zalaya.”
Ten minutes later, stepping on air, Johnny made his way toward the railway station.
“Now,” he said to himself, “if only I can reach the _North Star_ before Captain Jorgensen contracts for another cargo, all is well. I’ll make it snappy.”
He had not lived in Central America long enough to know that in this little world of sudden revolution and many strange surprises, things are almost never done snappy. It is the land of _manana_ (tomorrow), a land where nearly everyone believes that _manana_ will do very well for all “snappy” business.
The moon was still casting a golden glow over the wonders of a tropical world when Pant and Kirk, closely followed by the giant Carib, emerging from the jungle caught their first look at the last Don’s plantation. With eager eyes they sought out the spot where the ancient castle had stood.
At a first startled glance Kirk cried out in dismay. Little wonder this, for where a noble edifice had stood a mournful sight now met their eyes. The magnificent, century old castle was now only a crumbled pile of broken timber, tumbled stone and crumbling mortar.
“It can’t be as bad as that,” said Pant. “At the first shock they would run from the house. Come on. Let’s get down there.”
No sooner said than done. Heedless of sharp stones that cut their shoes and sharper cacti that tore their flesh, they sprang away over the intervening space that lay between them and the tumbled pile of debris that had once been a very happy home.