THE STEAM-SHOVEL MAN
laughed at me all the voyage. He had made the others laugh at me. It is dangerous to make me so mad."
Walter began to comprehend. He had heartily disliked General Quesada on sight, and he had heard something of the coarse teasing to which Alfaro had been subjected.
"I suppose that is why you have flocked by yourself," he replied. "But you ought not to be so touchy."
At this moment General Quesada himself came waddling on deck, parrot-cage in hand, evidently intending to give his accomplished pet an early morning airing. He was a gross, ungainly man, heavy of countenance. At sight of the indignant Alfaro he shook with laughter and prodded the bird with his finger, which prompted it to screech:
"Viva Panama! Pobre Colombia! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The young man whom he had enjoyed taunting as a diversion of the voyage retorted with fiery Spanish abuse, which made the Panamanian scowl as if he had been stung by something sharp enough to penetrate his thick hide.
32
