MESSING AROUND IN MEXICO 



"They're probably hiding out," said he. 



Our pilot agreed. He hazarded the opinion 

 that the merry villagers were doubtless out 

 in the brush, hastily splitting kindling and 

 filing their teeth in preparation for our landing. 



Not until we came to anchor did we see a 

 movement; then a solitary figure appeared. 

 Soon another and another joined it, until there 

 were half a dozen. Eventually they entered 

 their boat and paddled out toward us. They 

 were shy, distrustful at first, but when they 

 recognized Salisbury they cackled like guinea 

 fowl and closed in. 



One's first impression of these people is 

 that they carry picturesqueness to the point 

 of vice ; not even in Greenwich Village can one 

 find such extremes of eccentricity in dress and 

 deportment. But as for being decrepit 

 Dempsey and Babe Ruth and Zbyszko are 

 similar wrecks. They are so big they run six 

 to the dozen; they have teeth like quartz 

 mills, and enough hair to stuff a mattress. 



They had brought along a woman and a 

 baby, for fear, I suppose, that we might not 

 treat them gently, but we felt no desire to 

 play rough with those boys. They had on 

 their sport clothes all that was mortal of 



273 



