initial commit of ebook 403HEADmain

2 files changed, 8998 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/soldf10.txt b/old/soldf10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..987a0a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/soldf10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8998 @@
+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Soldiers of Fortune, by Davis**
+#4 in our series by Richard Harding Davis
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+
+Soldiers of Fortune
+
+by Richard Harding Davis
+
+January, 1996 [Etext #403]
+
+
+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Soldiers of Fortune, by Davis**
+*****This file should be named soldf10.txt or soldf10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, soldf11.txt.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, soldf10a.txt.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $4
+million dollars per hour this year as we release some eight text
+files per month:  thus upping our productivity from $2 million.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by the December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is 10% of the expected number of computer users by the end
+of the year 2001.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/IBC", and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law ("IBC" is Illinois
+Benedictine College).  (Subscriptions to our paper newsletter go
+to IBC, too)
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails try our Michael S. Hart, Executive
+Director:
+hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (internet)   hart@uiucvmd   (bitnet)
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email
+(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).
+
+******
+If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please
+FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives:
+[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type]
+
+ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu
+login:  anonymous
+password:  your@login
+cd etext/etext90 through /etext96
+or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information]
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET INDEX?00.GUT
+for a list of books
+and
+GET NEW GUT for general information
+and
+MGET GUT* for newsletters.
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Illinois Benedictine College (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois
+     Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Illinois Benedictine College".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software
+donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226.
+Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com>
+
+
+
+
+SOLDIERS OF
+FORTUNE
+
+BY
+RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
+
+TO
+IRENE AND DANA GIBSON
+
+
+
+
+SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE
+
+I
+
+``It is so good of you to come early,'' said Mrs. Porter, as
+Alice Langham entered the drawing-room.  ``I want to ask a favor
+of you.  I'm sure you won't mind.  I would ask one of the
+debutantes, except that they're always so cross if one puts
+them next to men they don't know and who can't help them, and so
+I thought I'd just ask you, you're so good-natured.  You don't
+mind, do you?''
+
+``I mind being called good-natured,'' said Miss Langham, smiling.
+``Mind what, Mrs. Porter?'' she asked.
+
+``He is a friend of George's,'' Mrs. Porter explained, vaguely. 
+``He's a cowboy.  It seems he was very civil to George when he
+was out there shooting in New Mexico, or Old Mexico, I don't
+remember which.  He took George to his hut and gave him things to
+shoot, and all that, and now he is in New York with a letter of
+introduction.  It's just like George.  He may be a most
+impossible sort of man, but, as I said to Mr. Porter, the people
+I've asked can't complain, because I don't know anything more
+about him than they do.  He called to-day when I was out and left
+his card and George's letter of introduction, and as a man had
+failed me for to-night, I just thought I would kill two birds
+with one stone, and ask him to fill his place, and he's here. 
+And, oh, yes,'' Mrs. Porter added, ``I'm going to put him next to
+you, do you mind?''
+
+``Unless he wears leather leggings and long spurs I shall mind
+very much,'' said Miss Langham.
+
+``Well, that's very nice of you,'' purred Mrs. Porter, as she
+moved away.  ``He may not be so bad, after all; and I'll put
+Reginald King on your other side, shall I?'' she asked, pausing
+and glancing back.
+
+The look on Miss Langham's face, which had been one of amusement,
+changed consciously, and she smiled with polite acquiescence.
+
+``As you please, Mrs. Porter,'' she answered.  She raised her
+eyebrows slightly.  ``I am, as the politicians say, `in the hands
+of my friends.' ''
+
+``Entirely too much in the hands of my friends,'' she repeated,
+as she turned away.  This was the twelfth time during that same
+winter that she and Mr. King had been placed next to one another
+at dinner, and it had passed beyond the point when she could
+say that it did not matter what people thought as long as she and
+he understood.  It had now reached that stage when she was not
+quite sure that she understood either him or herself.  They had
+known each other for a very long time; too long, she sometimes
+thought, for them ever to grow to know each other any better. 
+But there was always the chance that he had another side, one
+that had not disclosed itself, and which she could not discover
+in the strict social environment in which they both lived.  And
+she was the surer of this because she had once seen him when he
+did not know that she was near, and he had been so different that
+it had puzzled her and made her wonder if she knew the real
+Reggie King at all.
+
+It was at a dance at a studio, and some French pantomimists gave
+a little play.  When it was over, King sat in the corner talking
+to one of the Frenchwomen, and while he waited on her he was
+laughing at her and at her efforts to speak English.  He was
+telling her how to say certain phrases and not telling her
+correctly, and she suspected this and was accusing him of it, and
+they were rhapsodizing and exclaiming over certain delightful
+places and dishes of which they both knew in Paris with the
+enthusiasm of two children.  Miss Langham saw him off his guard
+for the first time and instead of a somewhat bored and clever
+man of the world, he appeared as sincere and interested as a boy.
+
+When he joined her, later, the same evening, he was as
+entertaining as usual, and as polite and attentive as he had been
+to the Frenchwoman, but he was not greatly interested, and his
+laugh was modulated and not spontaneous.  She had wondered that
+night, and frequently since then, if, in the event of his asking
+her to marry him, which was possible, and of her accepting him,
+which was also possible, whether she would find him, in the
+closer knowledge of married life, as keen and lighthearted with
+her as he had been with the French dancer.  If he would but treat
+her more like a comrade and equal, and less like a prime minister
+conferring with his queen!  She wanted something more intimate
+than the deference that he showed her, and she did not like his
+taking it as an accepted fact that she was as worldly-wise as
+himself, even though it were true.
+
+She was a woman and wanted to be loved, in spite of the fact that
+she had been loved by many men--at least it was so supposed--and
+had rejected them.
+
+Each had offered her position, or had wanted her because she was
+fitted to match his own great state, or because he was ambitious,
+or because she was rich.  The man who could love her as she
+once believed men could love, and who could give her something
+else besides approval of her beauty and her mind, had not
+disclosed himself.  She had begun to think that he never would,
+that he did not exist, that he was an imagination of the
+playhouse and the novel.  The men whom she knew were careful to
+show her that they appreciated how distinguished was her
+position, and how inaccessible she was to them.  They seemed to
+think that by so humbling themselves, and by emphasizing her
+position they pleased her best, when it was what she wanted them
+to forget.  Each of them would draw away backward, bowing and
+protesting that he was unworthy to raise his eyes to such a
+prize, but that if she would only stoop to him, how happy his
+life would be.  Sometimes they meant it sincerely; sometimes they
+were gentlemanly adventurers of title, from whom it was a
+business proposition, and in either case she turned restlessly
+away and asked herself how long it would be before the man would
+come who would pick her up on his saddle and gallop off with her,
+with his arm around her waist and his horse's hoofs clattering
+beneath them, and echoing the tumult in their hearts.
+
+She had known too many great people in the world to feel
+impressed with her own position at home in America; but she
+sometimes compared herself to the Queen in ``In a Balcony,''
+and repeated to herself, with mock seriousness:--
+
+    ``And you the marble statue all the time
+      They praise and point at as preferred to life,
+      Yet leave for the first breathing woman's cheek,
+      First dancer's, gypsy's or street balladine's!''
+
+And if it were true, she asked herself, that the man she had
+imagined was only an ideal and an illusion, was not King the best
+of the others, the unideal and ever-present others?  Every one
+else seemed to think so.  The society they knew put them
+constantly together and approved.  Her people approved.  Her own
+mind approved, and as her heart was not apparently ever to be
+considered, who could say that it did not approve as well?  He
+was certainly a very charming fellow, a manly, clever companion,
+and one who bore about him the evidences of distinction and
+thorough breeding.  As far as family went, the Kings were as old
+as a young country could expect, and Reggie King was, moreover,
+in spite of his wealth, a man of action and ability.  His yacht
+journeyed from continent to continent, and not merely up the
+Sound to Newport, and he was as well known and welcome to the
+consuls along the coasts of Africa and South America as he was at
+Cowes or Nice.  His books of voyages were recognized by
+geographical societies and other serious bodies, who had given
+him permission to put long disarrangements of the alphabet after
+his name.  She liked him because she had grown to be at home with
+him, because it was good to know that there was some one who
+would not misunderstand her, and who, should she so indulge
+herself, would not take advantage of any appeal she might make to
+his sympathy, who would always be sure to do the tactful thing
+and the courteous thing, and who, while he might never do a great
+thing, could not do an unkind one.
+
+Miss Langham had entered the Porters' drawing-room after the
+greater number of the guests had arrived, and she turned from her
+hostess to listen to an old gentleman with a passion for golf, a
+passion in which he had for a long time been endeavoring to
+interest her.  She answered him and his enthusiasm in kind, and
+with as much apparent interest as she would have shown in a
+matter of state.  It was her principle to be all things to all
+men, whether they were great artists, great diplomats, or great
+bores.  If a man had been pleading with her to leave the
+conservatory and run away with him, and another had come up
+innocently and announced that it was his dance, she would have
+said:  ``Oh, is it?'' with as much apparent delight as though his
+coming had been the one bright hope in her life.
+
+She was growing enthusiastic over the delights of golf and
+unconsciously making a very beautiful picture of herself in her
+interest and forced vivacity, when she became conscious for the
+first time of a strange young man who was standing alone before
+the fireplace looking at her, and frankly listening to all the
+nonsense she was talking.  She guessed that he had been listening
+for some time, and she also saw, before he turned his eyes
+quickly away, that he was distinctly amused.  Miss Langham
+stopped gesticulating and lowered her voice, but continued to
+keep her eyes on the face of the stranger, whose own eyes were
+wandering around the room, to give her, so she guessed, the idea
+that he had not been listening, but that she had caught him at it
+in the moment he had first looked at her.  He was a tall, broad-
+shouldered youth, with a handsome face, tanned and dyed, either
+by the sun or by exposure to the wind, to a deep ruddy brown,
+which contrasted strangely with his yellow hair and mustache, and
+with the pallor of the other faces about him.  He was a stranger
+apparently to every one present, and his bearing suggested, in
+consequence, that ease of manner which comes to a person who is
+not only sure of himself, but who has no knowledge of the claims
+and pretensions to social distinction of those about him.  His
+most attractive feature was his eyes, which seemed to observe
+all that was going on, not only what was on the surface, but
+beneath the surface, and that not rudely or covertly but with the
+frank, quick look of the trained observer.  Miss Langham found it
+an interesting face to watch, and she did not look away from it. 
+She was acquainted with every one else in the room, and hence she
+knew this must be the cowboy of whom Mrs. Porter had spoken, and
+she wondered how any one who had lived the rough life of the West
+could still retain the look when in formal clothes of one who was
+in the habit of doing informal things in them.
+
+Mrs. Porter presented her cowboy simply as ``Mr. Clay, of whom I
+spoke to you,'' with a significant raising of the eyebrows, and
+the cowboy made way for King, who took Miss Langham in.  He
+looked frankly pleased, however, when he found himself next to
+her again, but did not take advantage of it throughout the first
+part of the dinner, during which time he talked to the young
+married woman on his right, and Miss Langham and King continued
+where they had left off at their last meeting.  They knew each
+other well enough to joke of the way in which they were thrown
+into each other's society, and, as she said, they tried to make
+the best of it.  But while she spoke, Miss Langham was
+continually conscious of the presence of her neighbor, who piqued
+her interest and her curiosity in different ways.  He seemed
+to be at his ease, and yet from the manner in which he glanced up
+and down the table and listened to snatches of talk on either
+side of him he had the appearance of one to whom it was all new,
+and who was seeing it for the first time.
+
+There was a jolly group at one end of the long table, and they
+wished to emphasize the fact by laughing a little more
+hysterically at their remarks than the humor of those witticisms
+seemed to justify.  A daughter-in-law of Mrs. Porter was their
+leader in this, and at one point she stopped in the middle of a
+story and waving her hand at the double row of faces turned in
+her direction, which had been attracted by the loudness of her
+voice, cried, gayly, ``Don't listen.  This is for private
+circulation.  It is not a jeune-fille story.''  The
+debutantes at the table continued talking again in steady,
+even tones, as though they had not heard the remark or the first
+of the story, and the men next to them appeared equally
+unconscious.  But the cowboy, Miss Langham noted out of the
+corner of her eye, after a look of polite surprise, beamed with
+amusement and continued to stare up and down the table as though
+he had discovered a new trait in a peculiar and interesting
+animal.  For some reason, she could not tell why, she felt
+annoyed with herself and with her friends, and resented the
+attitude which the new-comer assumed toward them.
+
+``Mrs. Porter tells me that you know her son George?'' she said. 
+He did not answer her at once, but bowed his head in assent, with
+a look of interrogation, as though, so it seemed to her, he had
+expected her, when she did speak, to say something less
+conventional.
+
+``Yes,'' he replied, after a pause, ``he joined us at Ayutla.  It
+was the terminus of the Jalisco and Mexican Railroad then.  He
+came out over the road and went in from there with an outfit
+after mountain lions.  I believe he had very good sport.''
+
+``That is a very wonderful road, I am told,'' said King, bending
+forward and introducing himself into the conversation with a nod
+of the head toward Clay; ``quite a remarkable feat of
+engineering.''
+
+``It will open up the country, I believe,'' assented the other,
+indifferently.
+
+``I know something of it,'' continued King, ``because I met the
+men who were putting it through at Pariqua, when we touched there
+in the yacht.  They shipped most of their plant to that port, and
+we saw a good deal of them.  They were a very jolly lot, and they
+gave me a most interesting account of their work and its
+difficulties.''
+
+Clay was looking at the other closely, as though he was
+trying to find something back of what he was saying, but as his
+glance seemed only to embarrass King he smiled freely again in
+assent, and gave him his full attention.
+
+``There are no men to-day, Miss Langham,'' King exclaimed,
+suddenly, turning toward her, ``to my mind, who lead as
+picturesque lives as do civil engineers.  And there are no men
+whose work is as little appreciated.''
+
+``Really?'' said Miss Langham, encouragingly.
+
+``Now those men I met,'' continued King, settling himself with
+his side to the table, ``were all young fellows of thirty or
+thereabouts, but they were leading the lives of pioneers and
+martyrs--at least that's what I'd call it.  They were marching
+through an almost unknown part of Mexico, fighting Nature at
+every step and carrying civilization with them.  They were doing
+better work than soldiers, because soldiers destroy things, and
+these chaps were creating, and making the way straight.  They had
+no banners either, nor brass bands.  They fought mountains and
+rivers, and they were attacked on every side by fever and the
+lack of food and severe exposure.  They had to sit down around a
+camp-fire at night and calculate whether they were to tunnel a
+mountain, or turn the bed of a river or bridge it.  And they knew
+all the time that whatever they decided to do out there in the
+wilderness meant thousands of dollars to the stockholders
+somewhere up in God's country, who would some day hold them to
+account for them.  They dragged their chains through miles and
+miles of jungle, and over flat alkali beds and cactus, and they
+reared bridges across roaring canons.  We know nothing about them
+and we care less.  When their work is done we ride over the road
+in an observation-car and look down thousands and thousands of
+feet into the depths they have bridged, and we never give them a
+thought.  They are the bravest soldiers of the present day, and
+they are the least recognized.  I have forgotten their names, and
+you never heard them.  But it seems to me the civil engineer, for
+all that, is the chief civilizer of our century.''
+
+Miss Langham was looking ahead of her with her eyes half-closed,
+as though she were going over in her mind the situation King had
+described.
+
+``I never thought of that,'' she said.  ``It sounds very fine. 
+As you say, the reward is so inglorious.  But that is what makes
+it fine.''
+
+The cowboy was looking down at the table and pulling at a flower
+in the centre-piece.  He had ceased to smile.  Miss Langham
+turned on him somewhat sharply, resenting his silence, and said,
+with a slight challenge in her voice:--
+
+``Do you agree, Mr. Clay,'' she asked, ``or do you prefer the
+chocolate-cream soldiers, in red coats and gold lace?''
+
+``Oh, I don't know,'' the young man answered, with some slight
+hesitation.  ``It's a trade for each of them.  The engineer's
+work is all the more absorbing, I imagine, when the difficulties
+are greatest.  He has the fun of overcoming them.''
+
+``You see nothing in it then,'' she asked, ``but a source of
+amusement?''
+
+``Oh, yes, a good deal more,'' he replied.  ``A livelihood, for
+one thing.  I--I have been an engineer all my life.  I built that
+road Mr. King is talking about.''
+
+
+An hour later, when Mrs. Porter made the move to go, Miss Langham
+rose with a protesting sigh.  ``I am so sorry,'' she said, ``it
+has been most interesting.  I never met two men who had visited
+so many inaccessible places and come out whole.  You have quite
+inspired Mr. King, he was never so amusing.  But I should like to
+hear the end of that adventure; won't you tell it to me in the
+other room?''
+
+Clay bowed.  ``If I haven't thought of something more interesting
+in the meantime,'' he said.
+
+``What I can't understand,'' said King, as he moved up into Miss
+Langham's place, ``is how you had time to learn so much of the
+rest of the world.  You don't act like a man who had spent
+his life in the brush.''
+
+``How do you mean?'' asked Clay, smiling--``that I don't use the
+wrong forks?''
+
+``No,'' laughed King, ``but you told us that this was your first
+visit East, and yet you're talking about England and Vienna and
+Voisin's.  How is it you've been there, while you have never been
+in New York?''
+
+``Well, that's partly due to accident and partly to design,''
+Clay answered.  ``You see I've worked for English and German and
+French companies, as well as for those in the States, and I go
+abroad to make reports and to receive instructions.  And then I'm
+what you call a self-made man; that is, I've never been to
+college.  I've always had to educate myself, and whenever I did
+get a holiday it seemed to me that I ought to put it to the best
+advantage, and to spend it where civilization was the furthest
+advanced--advanced, at least, in years.  When I settle down and
+become an expert, and demand large sums for just looking at the
+work other fellows have done, then I hope to live in New York,
+but until then I go where the art galleries are biggest and where
+they have got the science of enjoying themselves down to the very
+finest point.  I have enough rough work eight months of the year
+to make me appreciate that.  So whenever I get a few months
+to myself I take the Royal Mail to London, and from there to
+Paris or Vienna.  I think I like Vienna the best.  The directors
+are generally important people in their own cities, and they ask
+one about, and so, though I hope I am a good American, it happens
+that I've more friends on the Continent than in the United
+States.''
+
+``And how does this strike you?'' asked King, with a movement of
+his shoulder toward the men about the dismantled table.
+
+``Oh, I don't know,'' laughed Clay.  ``You've lived abroad
+yourself; how does it strike you?''
+
+Clay was the first man to enter the drawing-room.  He walked
+directly away from the others and over to Miss Langham, and,
+taking her fan out of her hands as though to assure himself of
+some hold upon her, seated himself with his back to every one
+else.
+
+``You have come to finish that story?'' she said, smiling.
+
+Miss Langham was a careful young person, and would not have
+encouraged a man she knew even as well as she knew King, to talk
+to her through dinner, and after it as well.  She fully
+recognized that because she was conspicuous certain innocent
+pleasures were denied her which other girls could enjoy without
+attracting attention or comment.  But Clay interested her beyond
+her usual self, and the look in his eyes was a tribute which
+she had no wish to put away from her.
+
+``I've thought of something more interesting to talk about,''
+said Clay.  ``I'm going to talk about you.  You see I've known
+you a long time.''
+
+``Since eight o'clock?'' asked Miss Langham.
+
+``Oh, no, since your coming out, four years ago.''
+
+``It's not polite to remember so far back,'' she said.  ``Were
+you one of those who assisted at that important function?  There
+were so many there I don't remember.''
+
+``No, I only read about it.  I remember it very well; I had
+ridden over twelve miles for the mail that day, and I stopped
+half-way back to the ranch and camped out in the shade of a rock
+and read all the papers and magazines through at one sitting,
+until the sun went down and I couldn't see the print.  One of the
+papers had an account of your coming out in it, and a picture of
+you, and I wrote East to the photographer for the original.  It
+knocked about the West for three months and then reached me at
+Laredo, on the border between Texas and Mexico, and I have had it
+with me ever since.''
+
+Miss Langham looked at Clay for a moment in silent dismay and
+with a perplexed smile.
+
+``Where is it now?'' she asked at last.
+
+``In my trunk at the hotel.''
+
+``Oh,'' she said, slowly.  She was still in doubt as to how to
+treat this act of unconventionality.  ``Not in your watch?'' she
+said, to cover up the pause.  ``That would have been more in
+keeping with the rest of the story.''
+
+The young man smiled grimly, and pulling out his watch pried back
+the lid and turned it to her so that she could see a photograph
+inside.  The face in the watch was that of a young girl in the
+dress of a fashion of several years ago.  It was a lovely, frank
+face, looking out of the picture into the world kindly and
+questioningly, and without fear.
+
+``Was I once like that?'' she said, lightly.  ``Well, go on.''
+
+``Well,'' he said, with a little sigh of relief, ``I became
+greatly interested in Miss Alice Langham, and in her comings out
+and goings in, and in her gowns.  Thanks to our having a press in
+the States that makes a specialty of personalities, I was able to
+follow you pretty closely, for, wherever I go, I have my papers
+sent after me.  I can get along without a compass or a medicine-
+chest, but I can't do without the newspapers and the magazines. 
+There was a time when I thought you were going to marry that
+Austrian chap, and I didn't approve of that.  I knew things about
+him in Vienna.  And then I read of your engagement to
+others--well--several others; some of them I thought worthy, and
+others not.  Once I even thought of writing you about it, and
+once I saw you in Paris.  You were passing on a coach.  The man
+with me told me it was you, and I wanted to follow the coach in a
+fiacre, but he said he knew at what hotel you were stopping, and
+so I let you go, but you were not at that hotel, or at any
+other--at least, I couldn't find you.''
+
+``What would you have done--?'' asked Miss Langham.  ``Never
+mind,'' she interrupted, ``go on.''
+
+``Well, that's all,'' said Clay, smiling.  ``That's all, at
+least, that concerns you.  That is the romance of this poor young
+man.''
+
+``But not the only one,'' she said, for the sake of saying
+something.
+
+``Perhaps not,'' answered Clay, ``but the only one that counts. 
+I always knew I was going to meet you some day.  And now I have
+met you.''
+
+``Well, and now that you have met me,'' said Miss Langham,
+looking at him in some amusement, ``are you sorry?''
+
+``No--'' said Clay, but so slowly and with such consideration
+that Miss Langham laughed and held her head a little higher. 
+``Not sorry to meet you, but to meet you in such surroundings.''
+
+``What fault do you find with my surroundings?''
+
+``Well, these people,'' answered Clay, ``they are so foolish, so
+futile.  You shouldn't be here.  There must be something else
+better than this.  You can't make me believe that you choose it. 
+In Europe you could have a salon, or you could influence
+statesmen.  There surely must be something here for you to turn
+to as well.  Something better than golf-sticks and salted
+almonds.''
+
+``What do you know of me?'' said Miss Langham, steadily.  ``Only
+what you have read of me in impertinent paragraphs.  How do you
+know I am fitted for anything else but just this?  You never
+spoke with me before to-night.''
+
+``That has nothing to do with it,'' said Clay, quickly.  ``Time
+is made for ordinary people.  When people who amount to anything
+meet they don't have to waste months in finding each other out. 
+It is only the doubtful ones who have to be tested again and
+again.  When I was a kid in the diamond mines in Kimberley, I
+have seen the experts pick out a perfect diamond from the heap at
+the first glance, and without a moment's hesitation.  It was the
+cheap stones they spent most of the afternoon over.  Suppose I
+HAVE only seen you to-night for the first time; suppose I
+shall not see you again, which is quite likely, for I sail 
+tomorrow for South America--what of that?  I am just as sure 
+of what you are as though I had known you for years.''
+
+Miss Langham looked at him for a moment in silence.  Her beauty
+was so great that she could take her time to speak.  She was not
+afraid of losing any one's attention.
+
+``And have you come out of the West, knowing me so well, just to
+tell me that I am wasting myself?'' she said.  ``Is that all?''
+
+``That is all,'' answered Clay.  ``You know the things I would
+like to tell you,'' he added, looking at her closely.
+
+``I think I like to be told the other things best,'' she said,
+``they are the easier to believe.''
+
+``You have to believe whatever I tell you,'' said Clay, smiling. 
+The girl pressed her hands together in her lap, and looked at him
+curiously.  The people about them were moving and making their
+farewells, and they brought her back to the present with a start.
+
+``I'm sorry you're going away,'' she said.  ``It has been so odd.
+You come suddenly up out of the wilderness, and set me to
+thinking and try to trouble me with questions about myself, and
+then steal away again without stopping to help me to settle them.
+Is it fair?''  She rose and put out her hand, and he took it
+and held it for a moment, while they stood looking at one
+another.
+
+``I am coming back,'' he said, ``and I will find that you have
+settled them for yourself.''
+
+``Good-by,'' she said, in so low a tone that the people standing
+near them could not hear.  ``You haven't asked me for it, you
+know, but--I think I shall let you keep that picture.''
+
+
+``Thank you,'' said Clay, smiling, ``I meant to.''
+
+``You can keep it,'' she continued, turning back, ``because it is
+not my picture.  It is a picture of a girl who ceased to exist
+four years ago, and whom you have never met.  Good-night.''
+
+Mr. Langham and Hope, his younger daughter, had been to the
+theatre.  The performance had been one which delighted Miss Hope,
+and which satisfied her father because he loved to hear her
+laugh.  Mr. Langham was the slave of his own good fortune.  By
+instinct and education he was a man of leisure and culture, but
+the wealth he had inherited was like an unruly child that needed
+his constant watching, and in keeping it well in hand he had
+become a man of business, with time for nothing else.
+
+Alice Langham, on her return from Mrs. Porter's dinner, found him
+in his study engaged with a game of solitaire, while Hope was
+kneeling on a chair beside him with her elbows on the table. 
+Mr. Langham had been troubled with insomnia of late, and so it
+often happened that when Alice returned from a ball she would
+find him sitting with a novel, or his game of solitaire, and
+Hope, who had crept downstairs from her bed, dozing in front of
+the open fire and keeping him silent company.  The father and the
+younger daughter were very close to one another, and had grown
+especially so since his wife had died and his son and heir had
+gone to college.  This fourth member of the family was a great
+bond of sympathy and interest between them, and his triumphs and
+escapades at Yale were the chief subjects of their conversation. 
+It was told by the directors of a great Western railroad, who had
+come to New York to discuss an important question with Mr.
+Langham, that they had been ushered downstairs one night into his
+basement, where they had found the President of the Board and his
+daughter Hope working out a game of football on the billiard
+table.  They had chalked it off into what corresponded to five-
+yard lines, and they were hurling twenty-two chess-men across it
+in ``flying wedges'' and practising the several tricks which
+young Langham had intrusted to his sister under an oath of
+secrecy.  The sight filled the directors with the horrible fear
+that business troubles had turned the President's mind, but
+after they had sat for half an hour perched on the high chairs
+around the table, while Hope excitedly explained the game to
+them, they decided that he was wiser than they knew, and each
+left the house regretting he had no son worthy enough to bring
+``that young girl'' into the Far West.
+
+``You are home early,'' said Mr. Langham, as Alice stood above
+him pulling at her gloves.  ``I thought you said you were going
+on to some dance.''
+
+``I was tired,'' his daughter answered.
+
+``Well, when I'm out,'' commented Hope, ``I won't come home at
+eleven o'clock.  Alice always was a quitter.''
+
+``A what?'' asked the older sister.
+
+``Tell us what you had for dinner,'' said Hope.  ``I know it
+isn't nice to ask,'' she added, hastily, ``but I always like to
+know.''
+
+``I don't remember,'' Miss Langham answered, smiling at her
+father, ``except that he was very much sunburned and had most
+perplexing eyes.''
+
+``Oh, of course,'' assented Hope, ``I suppose you mean by that
+that you talked with some man all through dinner.  Well, I think
+there is a time for everything.''
+
+``Father,'' interrupted Miss Langham, ``do you know many
+engineers--I mean do you come in contact with them through
+the railroads and mines you have an interest in?  I am rather
+curious about them,'' she said, lightly.  ``They seem to be a
+most picturesque lot of young men.''
+
+``Engineers?  Of course,'' said Mr. Langham, vaguely, with the
+ten of spades held doubtfully in air.  ``Sometimes we have to
+depend upon them altogether.  We decide from what the engineering
+experts tell us whether we will invest in a thing or not.''
+
+``I don't think I mean the big men of the profession,'' said his
+daughter, doubtfully.  ``I mean those who do the rough work.  The
+men who dig the mines and lay out the railroads.  Do you know any
+of them?''
+
+``Some of them,'' said Mr. Langham, leaning back and shuffling
+the cards for a new game.  ``Why?''
+
+``Did you ever hear of a Mr. Robert Clay?''
+
+Mr. Langham smiled as he placed the cards one above the other in
+even rows.  ``Very often,'' he said.  ``He sails to-morrow to
+open up the largest iron deposits in South America.  He goes for
+the Valencia Mining Company.  Valencia is the capital of Olancho,
+one of those little republics down there.''
+
+``Do you--are you interested in that company?'' asked Miss
+Langham, seating herself before the fire and holding out her
+hands toward it.  ``Does Mr. Clay know that you are?''
+
+``Yes--I am interested in it,'' Mr. Langham replied, studying the
+cards before him, ``but I don't think Clay knows it--nobody knows
+it yet, except the president and the other officers.''  He lifted
+a card and put it down again in some indecision.  ``It's
+generally supposed to be operated by a company, but all the stock
+is owned by one man.  As a matter of fact, my dear children,''
+exclaimed Mr. Langham, as he placed a deuce of clubs upon a deuce
+of spades with a smile of content, ``the Valencia Mining Company
+is your beloved father.''
+
+``Oh,'' said Miss Langham, as she looked steadily into the fire.
+
+Hope tapped her lips gently with the back of her hand to hide the
+fact that she was sleepy, and nudged her father's elbow.  ``You
+shouldn't have put the deuce there,'' she said, ``you should have
+used it to build with on the ace.''
+
+
+
+II
+
+A year before Mrs. Porter's dinner a tramp steamer on her way to
+the capital of Brazil had steered so close to the shores of
+Olancho that her solitary passenger could look into the caverns
+the waves had tunnelled in the limestone cliffs along the coast. 
+The solitary passenger was Robert Clay, and he made a guess that
+the white palisades which fringed the base of the mountains along
+the shore had been forced up above the level of the sea many
+years before by some volcanic action.  Olancho, as many people
+know, is situated on the northeastern coast of South America, and
+its shores are washed by the main equatorial current.  From the
+deck of a passing vessel you can obtain but little idea of
+Olancho or of the abundance and tropical beauty which lies hidden
+away behind the rampart of mountains on her shore.  You can see
+only their desolate dark-green front, and the white caves at
+their base, into which the waves rush with an echoing roar, and
+in and out of which fly continually thousands of frightened bats.
+
+The mining engineer on the rail of the tramp steamer observed
+this peculiar formation of the coast with listless interest,
+until he noted, when the vessel stood some thirty miles north of
+the harbor of Valencia, that the limestone formation had
+disappeared, and that the waves now beat against the base of the
+mountains themselves.  There were five of these mountains which
+jutted out into the ocean, and they suggested roughly the five
+knuckles of a giant hand clenched and lying flat upon the surface
+of the water.  They extended for seven miles, and then the
+caverns in the palisades began again and continued on down the
+coast to the great cliffs that guard the harbor of Olancho's
+capital.
+
+``The waves tunnelled their way easily enough until they ran up
+against those five mountains,'' mused the engineer, ``and then
+they had to fall back.''  He walked to the captain's cabin and
+asked to look at a map of the coast line.  ``I believe I won't go
+to Rio,'' he said later in the day; ``I think I will drop off
+here at Valencia.''
+
+So he left the tramp steamer at that place and disappeared into
+the interior with an ox-cart and a couple of pack-mules, and
+returned to write a lengthy letter from the Consul's office to a
+Mr. Langham in the United States, knowing he was largely
+interested in mines and in mining.  ``There are five mountains
+filled with ore,'' Clay wrote, ``which should be extracted by
+open-faced workings.  I saw great masses of red hematite lying
+exposed on the side of the mountain, only waiting a pick and
+shovel, and at one place there were five thousand tons in plain
+sight.  I should call the stuff first-class Bessemer ore, running
+about sixty-three per cent metallic iron.  The people know it is
+there, but have no knowledge of its value, and are too lazy to
+ever work it themselves.  As to transportation, it would only be
+necessary to run a freight railroad twenty miles along the sea-
+coast to the harbor of Valencia and dump your ore from your own
+pier into your own vessels.  It would not, I think, be possible
+to ship direct from the mines themselves, even though, as I say,
+the ore runs right down into the water, because there is no place
+at which it would be safe for a large vessel to touch.  I will
+look into the political side of it and see what sort of a
+concession I can get for you.  I should think ten per cent of the
+output would satisfy them, and they would, of course, admit
+machinery and plant free of duty.''
+
+Six months after this communication had arrived in New York City,
+the Valencia Mining Company was formally incorporated, and a man
+named Van Antwerp, with two hundred workmen and a half-dozen
+assistants, was sent South to lay out the freight railroad, to
+erect the dumping-pier, and to strip the five mountains of
+their forests and underbrush.  It was not a task for a holiday,
+but a stern, difficult, and perplexing problem, and Van Antwerp
+was not quite the man to solve it.  He was stubborn, self-
+confident, and indifferent by turns.  He did not depend upon his
+lieutenants, but jealously guarded his own opinions from the
+least question or discussion, and at every step he antagonized
+the easy-going people among whom he had come to work.  He had no
+patience with their habits of procrastination, and he was
+continually offending their lazy good-nature and their pride.  He
+treated the rich planters, who owned the land between the mines
+and the harbor over which the freight railroad must run, with as
+little consideration as he showed the regiment of soldiers which
+the Government had farmed out to the company to serve as laborers
+in the mines.  Six months after Van Antwerp had taken charge at
+Valencia, Clay, who had finished the railroad in Mexico, of which
+King had spoken, was asked by telegraph to undertake the work of
+getting the ore out of the mountains he had discovered, and
+shipping it North.  He accepted the offer and was given the title
+of General Manager and Resident Director, and an enormous salary,
+and was also given to understand that the rough work of
+preparation had been accomplished, and that the more
+important service of picking up the five mountains and
+putting them in fragments into tramp steamers would continue
+under his direction.  He had a letter of recall for Van Antwerp,
+and a letter of introduction to the Minister of Mines and
+Agriculture.  Further than that he knew nothing of the work
+before him, but he concluded, from the fact that he had been paid
+the almost prohibitive sum he had asked for his services, that it
+must be important, or that he had reached that place in his
+career when he could stop actual work and live easily, as an
+expert, on the work of others.
+
+Clay rolled along the coast from Valencia to the mines in a
+paddle-wheeled steamer that had served its usefulness on the
+Mississippi, and which had been rotting at the levees in New
+Orleans, when Van Antwerp had chartered it to carry tools and
+machinery to the mines and to serve as a private launch for
+himself.  It was a choice either of this steamer and landing in a
+small boat, or riding along the line of the unfinished railroad
+on horseback.  Either route consumed six valuable hours, and
+Clay, who was anxious to see his new field of action, beat
+impatiently upon the rail of the rolling tub as it wallowed in
+the sea.
+
+He spent the first three days after his arrival at the mines in
+the mountains, climbing them on foot and skirting their base on
+horseback, and sleeping where night overtook him.  Van
+Antwerp did not accompany him on his tour of inspection through
+the mines, but delegated that duty to an engineer named
+MacWilliams, and to Weimer, the United States Consul at Valencia,
+who had served the company in many ways and who was in its
+closest confidence.
+
+For three days the men toiled heavily over fallen trunks and
+trees, slippery with the moss of centuries, or slid backward on
+the rolling stones in the waterways, or clung to their ponies'
+backs to dodge the hanging creepers.  At times for hours together
+they walked in single file, bent nearly double, and seeing
+nothing before them but the shining backs and shoulders of the
+negroes who hacked out the way for them to go.  And again they
+would come suddenly upon a precipice, and drink in the soft cool
+breath of the ocean, and look down thousands of feet upon the
+impenetrable green under which they had been crawling, out to
+where it met the sparkling surface of the Caribbean Sea.  It was
+three days of unceasing activity while the sun shone, and of
+anxious questionings around the camp-fire when the darkness fell,
+and when there were no sounds on the mountain-side but that of
+falling water in a distant ravine or the calls of the night-
+birds.
+
+On the morning of the fourth day Clay and his attendants
+returned to camp and rode to where the men had just begun to
+blast away the sloping surface of the mountain.
+
+As Clay passed between the zinc sheds and palm huts of the
+soldier-workmen, they came running out to meet him, and one, who
+seemed to be a leader, touched his bridle, and with his straw
+sombrero in his hand begged for a word with el Senor the
+Director.
+
+The news of Clay's return had reached the opening, and the throb
+of the dummy-engines and the roar of the blasting ceased as the
+assistant-engineers came down the valley to greet the new
+manager.  They found him seated on his horse gazing ahead of him,
+and listening to the story of the soldier, whose fingers, as he
+spoke, trembled in the air, with all the grace and passion of his
+Southern nature, while back of him his companions stood humbly,
+in a silent chorus, with eager, supplicating eyes.  Clay answered
+the man's speech curtly, with a few short words, in the Spanish
+patois in which he had been addressed, and then turned and smiled
+grimly upon the expectant group of engineers.  He kept them
+waiting for some short space, while he looked them over
+carefully, as though he had never seen them before.
+
+``Well, gentlemen,'' he said, ``I'm glad to have you here all
+together.  I am only sorry you didn't come in time to hear
+what this fellow has had to say.  I don't as a rule listen that
+long to complaints, but he told me what I have seen for myself
+and what has been told me by others.  I have been here three days
+now, and I assure you, gentlemen, that my easiest course would be
+to pack up my things and go home on the next steamer.  I was sent
+down here to take charge of a mine in active operation, and I
+find--what?  I find that in six months you have done almost
+nothing, and that the little you have condescended to do has been
+done so badly that it will have to be done over again; that you
+have not only wasted a half year of time--and I can't tell how
+much money--but that you have succeeded in antagonizing all the
+people on whose good-will we are absolutely dependent; you have
+allowed your machinery to rust in the rain, and your workmen to
+rot with sickness.  You have not only done nothing, but you
+haven't a blue print to show me what you meant to do.  I have
+never in my life come across laziness and mismanagement and
+incompetency upon such a magnificent and reckless scale.  You
+have not built the pier, you have not opened the freight road,
+you have not taken out an ounce of ore.  You know more of
+Valencia than you know of these mines; you know it from the
+Alameda to the Canal.  You can tell me what night the band
+plays in the Plaza, but you can't give me the elevation of
+one of these hills.  You have spent your days on the pavements in
+front of cafe's, and your nights in dance-halls, and you have
+been drawing salaries every month.  I've more respect for these
+half-breeds that you've allowed to starve in this fever-bed than
+I have for you.  You have treated them worse than they'd treat a
+dog, and if any of them die, it's on your heads.  You have put
+them in a fever-camp which you have not even taken the trouble to
+drain.  Your commissariat is rotten, and you have let them drink
+all the rum they wanted.  There is not one of you--''
+
+The group of silent men broke, and one of them stepped forward
+and shook his forefinger at Clay.
+
+``No man can talk to me like that,'' he said, warningly, ``and
+think I'll work under him.  I resign here and now.''
+
+``You what--'' cried Clay, ``you resign?''
+
+He whirled his horse round with a dig of his spur and faced them.
+
+``How dare you talk of resigning?  I'll pack the whole lot of you
+back to New York on the first steamer, if I want to, and I'll
+give you such characters that you'll be glad to get a job
+carrying a transit.  You're in no position to talk of resigning
+yet--not one of you.  Yes,'' he added, interrupting himself,
+``one of you is MacWilliams, the man who had charge of the
+railroad.  It's no fault of his that the road's not working.  I
+understand that he couldn't get the right of way from the people
+who owned the land, but I have seen what he has done, and his
+plans, and I apologize to him--to MacWilliams.  As for the rest
+of you, I'll give you a month's trial.  It will be a month before
+the next steamer could get here anyway, and I'll give you that
+long to redeem yourselves.  At the end of that time we will have
+another talk, but you are here now only on your good behavior and
+on my sufferance.  Good-morning.''
+
+As Clay had boasted, he was not the man to throw up his position
+because he found the part he had to play was not that of leading
+man, but rather one of general utility, and although it had been
+several years since it had been part of his duties to oversee the
+setting up of machinery, and the policing of a mining camp, he
+threw himself as earnestly into the work before him as though to
+show his subordinates that it did not matter who did the work, so
+long as it was done.  The men at first were sulky, resentful, and
+suspicious, but they could not long resist the fact that Clay was
+doing the work of five men and five different kinds of work, not
+only without grumbling, but apparently with the keenest pleasure.
+
+He conciliated the rich coffee planters who owned the land
+which he wanted for the freight road by calls of the most formal
+state and dinners of much less formality, for he saw that the
+iron mine had its social as well as its political side.  And with
+this fact in mind, he opened the railroad with great ceremony,
+and much music and feasting, and the first piece of ore taken out
+of the mine was presented to the wife of the Minister of the
+Interior in a cluster of diamonds, which made the wives of the
+other members of the Cabinet regret that their husbands had not
+chosen that portfolio.  Six months followed of hard, unremitting
+work, during which time the great pier grew out into the bay from
+MacWilliams' railroad, and the face of the first mountain was
+scarred and torn of its green, and left in mangled nakedness,
+while the ringing of hammers and picks, and the racking blasts of
+dynamite, and the warning whistles of the dummy-engines drove
+away the accumulated silence of centuries.
+
+It had been a long uphill fight, and Clay had enjoyed it
+mightily.  Two unexpected events had contributed to help it.  One
+was the arrival in Valencia of young Teddy Langham, who came
+ostensibly to learn the profession of which Clay was so
+conspicuous an example, and in reality to watch over his father's
+interests.  He was put at Clay's elbow, and Clay made him learn
+in spite of himself, for he ruled him and MacWilliams of both
+of whom he was very fond, as though, so they complained, they
+were the laziest and the most rebellious members of his entire
+staff.  The second event of importance was the announcement made
+one day by young Langham that his father's physician had ordered
+rest in a mild climate, and that he and his daughters were coming
+in a month to spend the winter in Valencia, and to see how the
+son and heir had developed as a man of business.
+
+The idea of Mr. Langham's coming to visit Olancho to inspect his
+new possessions was not a surprise to Clay.  It had occurred to
+him as possible before, especially after the son had come to join
+them there.  The place was interesting and beautiful enough in
+itself to justify a visit, and it was only a ten days' voyage
+from New York.  But he had never considered the chance of Miss
+Langham's coming, and when that was now not only possible but a
+certainty, he dreamed of little else.  He lived as earnestly and
+toiled as indefatigably as before, but the place was utterly
+transformed for him.  He saw it now as she would see it when she
+came, even while at the same time his own eyes retained their
+point of view.  It was as though he had lengthened the focus of a
+glass, and looked beyond at what was beautiful and picturesque,
+instead of what was near at hand and practicable.  He found
+himself smiling with anticipation of her pleasure in the orchids
+hanging from the dead trees, high above the opening of the mine,
+and in the parrots hurling themselves like gayly colored missiles
+among the vines; and he considered the harbor at night with its
+colored lamps floating on the black water as a scene set for her
+eyes.  He planned the dinners that he would give in her honor on
+the balcony of the great restaurant in the Plaza on those nights
+when the band played, and the senoritas circled in long lines
+between admiring rows of officers and caballeros.  And he
+imagined how, when the ore-boats had been filled and his work had
+slackened, he would be free to ride with her along the rough
+mountain roads, between magnificent pillars of royal palms, or to
+venture forth in excursions down the bay, to explore the caves
+and to lunch on board the rolling paddle-wheel steamer, which he
+would have re painted and gilded for her coming.  He pictured
+himself acting as her guide over the great mines, answering her
+simple questions about the strange machinery, and the crew of
+workmen, and the local government by which he ruled two thousand
+men.  It was not on account of any personal pride in the mines
+that he wanted her to see them, it was not because he had
+discovered and planned and opened them that he wished to show
+them to her, but as a curious spectacle that he hoped would
+give her a moment's interest.
+
+But his keenest pleasure was when young Langham suggested that
+they should build a house for his people on the edge of the hill
+that jutted out over the harbor and the great ore pier.  If this
+were done, Langham urged, it would be possible for him to see
+much more of his family than he would be able to do were they
+installed in the city, five miles away.
+
+``We can still live in the office at this end of the railroad,''
+the boy said, ``and then we shall have them within call at night
+when we get back from work; but if they are in Valencia, it will
+take the greater part of the evening going there and all of the
+night getting back, for I can't pass that club under three hours.
+It will keep us out of temptation.''
+
+``Yes, exactly,'' said Clay, with a guilty smile, ``it will keep
+us out of temptation.''
+
+So they cleared away the underbrush, and put a double force of
+men to work on what was to be the most beautiful and comfortable
+bungalow on the edge of the harbor.  It had blue and green and
+white tiles on the floors, and walls of bamboo, and a red roof of
+curved tiles to let in the air, and dragons' heads for water-
+spouts, and verandas as broad as the house itself.  There was an
+open court in the middle hung with balconies looking down
+upon a splashing fountain, and to decorate this patio, they
+levied upon people for miles around for tropical plants and
+colored mats and awnings.  They cut down the trees that hid the
+view of the long harbor leading from the sea into Valencia, and
+planted a rampart of other trees to hide the iron-ore pier, and
+they sodded the raw spots where the men had been building, until
+the place was as completely transformed as though a fairy had
+waved her wand above it.
+
+It was to be a great surprise, and they were all--Clay,
+MacWilliams, and Langham--as keenly interested in it as though
+each were preparing it for his honeymoon.  They would be walking
+together in Valencia when one would say, ``We ought to have that
+for the house,'' and without question they would march into the
+shop together and order whatever they fancied to be sent out to
+the house of the president of the mines on the hill.  They
+stocked it with wine and linens, and hired a volante and six
+horses, and fitted out the driver with a new pair of boots that
+reached above his knees, and a silver jacket and a sombrero that
+was so heavy with braid that it flashed like a halo about his
+head in the sunlight, and he was ordered not to wear it until the
+ladies came, under penalty of arrest.  It delighted Clay to find
+that it was only the beautiful things and the fine things of
+his daily routine that suggested her to him, as though she could
+not be associated in his mind with anything less worthy, and he
+kept saying to himself, ``She will like this view from the end of
+the terrace,'' and ``This will be her favorite walk,'' or ``She
+will swing her hammock here,'' and ``I know she will not fancy
+the rug that Weimer chose.''
+
+While this fairy palace was growing the three men lived as
+roughly as before in the wooden hut at the terminus of the
+freight road, three hundred yards below the house, and hidden
+from it by an impenetrable rampart of brush and Spanish bayonet. 
+There was a rough road leading from it to the city, five miles
+away, which they had extended still farther up the hill to the
+Palms, which was the name Langham had selected for his father's
+house.  And when it was finally finished, they continued to live
+under the corrugated zinc roof of their office building, and
+locking up the Palms, left it in charge of a gardener and a
+watchman until the coming of its rightful owners.
+
+It had been a viciously hot, close day, and even now the air came
+in sickening waves, like a blast from the engine-room of a
+steamer, and the heat lightning played round the mountains over
+the harbor and showed the empty wharves, and the black outlines
+of the steamers, and the white front of the Custom-House, and
+the long half-circle of twinkling lamps along the quay. 
+MacWilliams and Langham sat panting on the lower steps of the
+office-porch considering whether they were too lazy to clean
+themselves and be rowed over to the city, where, as it was Sunday
+night, was promised much entertainment.  They had been for the
+last hour trying to make up their minds as to this, and appealing
+to Clay to stop work and decide for them.  But he sat inside at a
+table figuring and writing under the green shade of a student's
+lamp and made no answer.  The walls of Clay's office were of
+unplaned boards, bristling with splinters, and hung with blue
+prints and outline maps of the mine.  A gaudily colored portrait
+of Madame la Presidenta, the noble and beautiful woman whom
+Alvarez, the President of Olancho, had lately married in Spain,
+was pinned to the wall above the table.  This table, with its
+green oil-cloth top, and the lamp, about which winged insects
+beat noisily, and an earthen water-jar--from which the water
+dripped as regularly as the ticking of a clock--were the only
+articles of furniture in the office.  On a shelf at one side of
+the door lay the men's machetes, a belt of cartridges, and a
+revolver in a holster.
+
+Clay rose from the table and stood in the light of the open door,
+stretching himself gingerly, for his joints were sore and
+stiff with fording streams and climbing the surfaces of rocks. 
+The red ore and yellow mud of the mines were plastered over his
+boots and riding-breeches, where he had stood knee-deep in the
+water, and his shirt stuck to him like a wet bathing-suit,
+showing his ribs when he breathed and the curves of his broad
+chest.  A ring of burning paper and hot ashes fell from his
+cigarette to his breast and burnt a hole through the cotton
+shirt, and he let it lie there and watched it burn with a grim
+smile.
+
+``I wanted to see,'' he explained, catching the look of listless
+curiosity in MacWilliams's eye, ``whether there was anything
+hotter than my blood.  It's racing around like boiling water in a
+pot.''
+
+``Listen,'' said Langham, holding up his hand.  ``There goes the
+call for prayers in the convent, and now it's too late to go to
+town.  I am glad, rather.  I'm too tired to keep awake, and
+besides, they don't know how to amuse themselves in a civilized
+way--at least not in my way.  I wish I could just drop in at home
+about now; don't you, MacWilliams?  Just about this time up in
+God's country all the people are at the theatre, or they've just
+finished dinner and are sitting around sipping cool green mint,
+trickling through little lumps of ice.  What I'd like--'' he
+stopped and shut one eye and gazed, with his head on one side, at
+the unimaginative MacWilliams--``what I'd like to do now,''
+he continued, thoughtfully, ``would be to sit in the front row at
+a comic opera, ON THE AISLE.  The prima donna must be very,
+very beautiful, and sing most of her songs at me, and there must
+be three comedians, all good, and a chorus entirely composed of
+girls.  I never could see why they have men in the chorus,
+anyway.  No one ever looks at them.  Now that's where I'd like to
+be.  What would you like, MacWilliams?''
+
+MacWilliams was a type with which Clay was intimately familiar,
+but to the college-bred Langham he was a revelation and a joy. 
+He came from some little town in the West, and had learned what
+he knew of engineering at the transit's mouth, after he had first
+served his apprenticeship by cutting sage-brush and driving
+stakes.  His life had been spent in Mexico and Central America,
+and he spoke of the home he had not seen in ten years with the
+aggressive loyalty of the confirmed wanderer, and he was known to
+prefer and to import canned corn and canned tomatoes in
+preference to eating the wonderful fruits of the country, because
+the former came from the States and tasted to him of home.  He
+had crowded into his young life experiences that would have
+shattered the nerves of any other man with a more sensitive
+conscience and a less happy sense of humor; but these same
+experiences had only served to make him shrewd and self-
+confident and at his ease when the occasion or difficulty came.
+
+He pulled meditatively on his pipe and considered Langham's
+question deeply, while Clay and the younger boy sat with their
+arms upon their knees and waited for his decision in thoughtful
+silence.
+
+``I'd like to go to the theatre, too,'' said MacWilliams, with an
+air as though to show that he also was possessed of artistic
+tastes.  ``I'd like to see a comical chap I saw once in '80--oh,
+long ago--before I joined the P. Q. & M.  He WAS funny.  His
+name was Owens; that was his name, John E. Owens--''
+
+``Oh, for heaven's sake, MacWilliams,'' protested Langham, in
+dismay; ``he's been dead for five years.''
+
+``Has he?'' said MacWilliams, thoughtfully.  ``Well--'' he
+concluded, unabashed, ``I can't help that, he's the one I'd like
+to see best.''
+
+``You can have another wish, Mac, you know,'' urged Langham,
+``can't he, Clay?''
+
+Clay nodded gravely, and MacWilliams frowned again in thought. 
+``No,'' he said after an effort, ``Owens, John E. Owens; that's
+the one I want to see.''
+
+``Well, now I want another wish, too,'' said Langham.  ``I
+move we can each have two wishes. I wish--''
+
+``Wait until I've had mine,'' said Clay.  ``You've had one turn. 
+I want to be in a place I know in Vienna.  It's not hot like
+this, but cool and fresh.  It's an open, out-of-door concert-
+garden, with hundreds of colored lights and trees, and there's
+always a breeze coming through.  And Eduard Strauss, the son, you
+know, leads the orchestra there, and they play nothing but
+waltzes, and he stands in front of them, and begins by raising
+himself on his toes, and then he lifts his shoulders gently--and
+then sinks back again and raises his baton as though he were
+drawing the music out after it, and the whole place seems to rock
+and move.  It's like being picked up and carried on the deck of a
+yacht over great waves; and all around you are the beautiful
+Viennese women and those tall Austrian officers in their long,
+blue coats and flat hats and silver swords.  And there are cool
+drinks--'' continued Clay, with his eyes fixed on the coming
+storm--``all sorts of cool drinks--in high, thin glasses, full of
+ice, all the ice you want--''
+
+``Oh, drop it, will you?'' cried Langham, with a shrug of his
+damp shoulders.  ``I can't stand it.  I'm parching.''
+
+``Wait a minute,'' interrupted MacWilliams, leaning forward
+and looking into the night.  ``Some one's coming.''  There was a
+sound down the road of hoofs and the rattle of the land-crabs as
+they scrambled off into the bushes, and two men on horseback came
+suddenly out of the darkness and drew rein in the light from the
+open door.  The first was General Mendoza, the leader of the
+Opposition in the Senate, and the other, his orderly.  The
+General dropped his Panama hat to his knee and bowed in the
+saddle three times.
+
+``Good-evening, your Excellency,'' said Clay, rising.  ``Tell
+that peon to get my coat, will you?'' he added, turning to
+Langham.  Langham clapped his hands, and the clanging of a guitar
+ceased, and their servant and cook came out from the back of the
+hut and held the General's horse while he dismounted.  ``Wait
+until I get you a chair,'' said Clay.  ``You'll find those steps
+rather bad for white duck.''
+    
+``I am fortunate in finding you at home,'' said the officer,
+smiling, and showing his white teeth.  ``The telephone is not
+working.  I tried at the club, but I could not call you.''
+    
+``It's the storm, I suppose,'' Clay answered, as he struggled
+into his jacket.  ``Let me offer you something to drink.''  He
+entered the house, and returned with several bottles on a tray
+and a bundle of cigars.  The Spanish-American poured himself
+out a glass of water, mixing it with Jamaica rum, and said,
+smiling again, ``It is a saying of your countrymen that when a
+man first comes to Olancho he puts a little rum into his water,
+and that when he is here some time he puts a little water in his
+rum.''
+
+``Yes,'' laughed Clay.  ``I'm afraid that's true.''
+    
+There was a pause while the men sipped at their glasses, and
+looked at the horses and the orderly.  The clanging of the guitar
+began again from the kitchen.  ``You have a very beautiful view
+here of the harbor, yes,'' said Mendoza.  He seemed to enjoy the
+pause after his ride, and to be in no haste to begin on the
+object of his errand.  MacWilliams and Langham eyed each other
+covertly, and Clay examined the end of his cigar, and they all
+waited.
+    
+``And how are the mines progressing, eh?'' asked the officer,
+genially.  ``You find much good iron in them, they tell me.''
+    
+``Yes, we are doing very well,'' Clay assented; ``it was
+difficult at first, but now that things are in working order, we
+are getting out about ten thousand tons a month.  We hope to
+increase that soon to twenty thousand when the new openings are
+developed and our shipping facilities are in better shape.''
+
+``So much!'' exclaimed the General, pleasantly.
+
+``Of which the Government of my country is to get its share of
+ten per cent--one thousand tons!  It is munificent!''  He laughed
+and shook his head slyly at Clay, who smiled in dissent.
+
+``But you see, sir,'' said Clay, ``you cannot blame us.  The
+mines have always been there, before this Government came in,
+before the Spaniards were here, before there was any Government
+at all, but there was not the capital to open them up, I suppose,
+or--and it needed a certain energy to begin the attack.  Your
+people let the chance go, and, as it turned out, I think they
+were very wise in doing so.  They get ten per cent of the output.
+That's ten per cent on nothing, for the mines really didn't
+exist, as far as you were concerned, until we came, did they? 
+They were just so much waste land, and they would have remained
+so.  And look at the price we paid down before we cut a tree. 
+Three millions of dollars; that's a good deal of money.  It will
+be some time before we realize anything on that investment.''
+
+Mendoza shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.  ``I will be
+frank with you,'' he said, with the air of one to whom
+dissimulation is difficult.  ``I come here to-night on an
+unpleasant errand, but it is with me a matter of duty, and I am a
+soldier, to whom duty is the foremost ever.  I have come to tell
+you, Mr. Clay, that we, the Opposition, are not satisfied
+with the manner in which the Government has disposed of these
+great iron deposits.  When I say not satisfied, my dear friend, I
+speak most moderately.  I should say that we are surprised and
+indignant, and we are determined the wrong it has done our
+country shall be righted.  I have the honor to have been chosen
+to speak for our party on this most important question, and on
+next Tuesday, sir,'' the General stood up and bowed, as though he
+were before a great assembly, ``I will rise in the Senate and
+move a vote of want of confidence in the Government for the
+manner in which it has given away the richest possessions in the
+storehouse of my country, giving it not only to aliens, but for a
+pittance, for a share which is not a share, but a bribe, to blind
+the eyes of the people.  It has been a shameful bargain, and I
+cannot say who is to blame; I accuse no one.  But I suspect, and
+I will demand an investigation; I will demand that the value not
+of one-tenth, but of one-half of all the iron that your company
+takes out of Olancho shall be paid into the treasury of the
+State.  And I come to you to-night, as the Resident Director, to
+inform you beforehand of my intention.  I do not wish to take you
+unprepared.  I do not blame your people; they are business men,
+they know how to make good bargains, they get what they best
+can.  That is the rule of trade, but they have gone too far, and
+I advise you to communicate with your people in New York and
+learn what they are prepared to offer now--now that they have to
+deal with men who do not consider their own interests but the
+interests of their country.''
+
+Mendoza made a sweeping bow and seated himself, frowning
+dramatically, with folded arms.  His voice still hung in the air,
+for he had spoken as earnestly as though he imagined himself
+already standing in the hall of the Senate championing the cause
+of the people.
+
+MacWilliams looked up at Clay from where he sat on the steps
+below him, but Clay did not notice him, and there was no sound,
+except the quick sputtering of the nicotine in Langham's pipe, at
+which he pulled quickly, and which was the only outward sign the
+boy gave of his interest.  Clay shifted one muddy boot over the
+other and leaned back with his hands stuck in his belt.
+
+``Why didn't you speak of this sooner?'' he asked.
+
+``Ah, yes, that is fair,'' said the General, quickly.  ``I know
+that it is late, and I regret it, and I see that we cause you
+inconvenience; but how could I speak sooner when I was ignorant
+of what was going on?  I have been away with my troops.  I am a
+soldier first, a politician after.  During the last year I
+have been engaged in guarding the frontier.  No news comes to a
+General in the field moving from camp to camp and always in the
+saddle; but I may venture to hope, sir, that news has come to you
+of me?''
+
+Clay pressed his lips together and bowed his head.
+
+``We have heard of your victories, General, yes,'' he said; ``and
+on your return you say you found things had not been going to
+your liking?''
+
+``That is it,'' assented the other, eagerly.  ``I find that
+indignation reigns on every side.  I find my friends complaining
+of the railroad which you run across their land.  I find that
+fifteen hundred soldiers are turned into laborers, with picks and
+spades, working by the side of negroes and your Irish; they have
+not been paid their wages, and they have been fed worse than
+though they were on the march; sickness and--''
+
+Clay moved impatiently and dropped his boot heavily on the porch.
+
+``That was true at first,'' he interrupted, ``but it is not so
+now.  I should be glad, General, to take you over the men's
+quarters at any time.  As for their not having been paid, they
+were never paid by their own Government before they came to us
+and for the same reason, because the petty officers kept back the
+money, just as they have always done.  But the men are paid
+now.  However, this is not of the most importance.  Who is it
+that complains of the terms of our concession?''
+
+``Every one!'' exclaimed Mendoza, throwing out his arms, ``and
+they ask, moreover, this: they ask why, if this mine is so rich,
+why was not the stock offered here to us in this country?  Why
+was it not put on the market, that any one might buy?  We have
+rich men in Olancho, why should not they benefit first of all
+others by the wealth of their own lands?  But no! we are not
+asked to buy.  All the stock is taken in New York, no one
+benefits but the State, and it receives only ten per cent.  It is
+monstrous!''
+
+``I see,'' said Clay, gravely.  ``That had not occurred to me
+before.  They feel they have been slighted.  I see.''  He paused
+for a moment as if in serious consideration.  ``Well,'' he added,
+``that might be arranged.''
+
+He turned and jerked his head toward the open door.  ``If you
+boys mean to go to town to-night, you'd better be moving,'' he
+said.  The two men rose together and bowed silently to their
+guest.
+
+``I should like if Mr. Langham would remain a moment with us,''
+said Mendoza, politely.  ``I understand that it is his father who
+controls the stock of the company.  If we discuss any arrangement
+it might be well if he were here.''
+
+Clay was sitting with his chin on his breast, and he did not look
+up, nor did the young man turn to him for any prompting.  ``I'm
+not down here as my father's son,'' he said, ``I am an employee
+of Mr. Clay's.  He represents the company.  Good-night, sir.''
+
+``You think, then,'' said Clay, ``that if your friends were given
+an opportunity to subscribe to the stock they would feel less
+resentful toward us?  They would think it was fairer to all?''
+
+``I know it,'' said Mendoza; ``why should the stock go out of the
+country when those living here are able to buy it?''
+
+``Exactly,'' said Clay, ``of course.  Can you tell me this,
+General?  Are the gentlemen who want to buy stock in the mine the
+same men who are in the Senate?  The men who are objecting to the
+terms of our concession?''
+
+``With a few exceptions they are the same men.''
+
+Clay looked out over the harbor at the lights of the town, and
+the General twirled his hat around his knee and gazed with
+appreciation at the stars above him.
+
+``Because if they are,'' Clay continued, ``and they succeed in
+getting our share cut down from ninety per cent to fifty per
+cent, they must see that the stock would be worth just forty per
+cent less than it is now.''
+
+``That is true,'' assented the other.  ``I have thought of that,
+and if the Senators in Opposition were given a chance to
+subscribe, I am sure they would see that it is better wisdom to
+drop their objections to the concession, and as stockholders
+allow you to keep ninety per cent of the output.  And, again,''
+continued Mendoza, ``it is really better for the country that the
+money should go to its people than that it should be stored up in
+the vaults of the treasury, when there is always the danger that
+the President will seize it; or, if not this one, the next one.''
+
+``I should think--that is--it seems to me,'' said Clay with
+careful consideration, ``that your Excellency might be able to
+render us great help in this matter yourself.  We need a friend
+among the Opposition.  In fact--I see where you could assist us
+in many ways, where your services would be strictly in the line
+of your public duty and yet benefit us very much.  Of course I
+cannot speak authoritatively without first consulting Mr.
+Langham; but I should think he would allow you personally to
+purchase as large a block of the stock as you could wish, either
+to keep yourself or to resell and distribute among those of your
+friends in Opposition where it would do the most good.''
+
+Clay looked over inquiringly to where Mendoza sat in the light of
+the open door, and the General smiled faintly, and emitted a
+pleased little sigh of relief.  ``Indeed,'' continued Clay, ``I
+should think Mr. Langham might even save you the formality of
+purchasing the stock outright by sending you its money
+equivalent.  I beg your pardon,'' he asked, interrupting himself,
+``does your orderly understand English?''
+
+``He does not,'' the General assured him, eagerly, dragging his
+chair a little closer.
+
+``Suppose now that Mr. Langham were to put fifty or let us say
+sixty thousand dollars to your account in the Valencia Bank, do
+you think this vote of want of confidence in the Government on
+the question of our concession would still be moved?''
+
+``I am sure it would not,'' exclaimed the leader of the
+Opposition, nodding his head violently.
+
+``Sixty thousand dollars,'' repeated Clay, slowly, ``for
+yourself; and do you think, General, that were you paid that sum
+you would be able to call off your friends, or would they make a
+demand for stock also?''
+
+``Have no anxiety at all, they do just what I say,'' returned
+Mendoza, in an eager whisper.  ``If I say `It is all right, I am
+satisfied with what the Government has done in my absence,' it is
+enough.  And I will say it, I give you the word of a soldier, I
+will say it.  I will not move a vote of want of confidence on
+Tuesday.  You need go no farther than myself.  I am glad that I
+am powerful enough to serve you, and if you doubt me''--he struck
+his heart and bowed with a deprecatory smile--``you need not pay
+in the money in exchange for the stock all at the same time.  You
+can pay ten thousand this year, and next year ten thousand more
+and so on, and so feel confident that I shall have the interests
+of the mine always in my heart.  Who knows what may not happen in
+a year?  I may be able to serve you even more.  Who knows how
+long the present Government will last?  But I give you my word of
+honor, no matter whether I be in Opposition or at the head of the
+Government, if I receive every six months the retaining fee of
+which you speak, I will be your representative.  And my friends
+can do nothing.  I despise them.  _I_ am the Opposition.  You
+have done well, my dear sir, to consider me alone.''
+
+Clay turned in his chair and looked back of him through the
+office to the room beyond.
+
+``Boys,'' he called, ``you can come out now.''
+
+He rose and pushed his chair away and beckoned to the orderly who
+sat in the saddle holding the General's horse.  Langham and
+MacWilliams came out and stood in the open door, and Mendoza rose
+and looked at Clay.
+
+``You can go now,'' Clay said to him, quietly.  ``And you can
+rise in the Senate on Tuesday and move your vote of want of
+confidence and object to our concession, and when you have
+resumed your seat the Secretary of Mines will rise in his turn
+and tell the Senate how you stole out here in the night and tried
+to blackmail me, and begged me to bribe you to be silent, and
+that you offered to throw over your friends and to take all that
+we would give you and keep it yourself.  That will make you
+popular with your friends, and will show the Government just what
+sort of a leader it has working against it.''
+
+Clay took a step forward and shook his finger in the officer's
+face.  ``Try to break that concession; try it.  It was made by
+one Government to a body of honest, decent business men, with a
+Government of their own back of them, and if you interfere with
+our conceded rights to work those mines, I'll have a man-of-war
+down here with white paint on her hull, and she'll blow you and
+your little republic back up there into the mountains.  Now you
+can go.''
+
+Mendoza had straightened with surprise when Clay first began to
+speak, and had then bent forward slightly as though he meant to
+interrupt him.  His eyebrows were lowered in a straight line, and
+his lips moved quickly.
+
+``You poor--'' he began, contemptuously.  ``Bah,'' he exclaimed,
+``you're a fool; I should have sent a servant to talk with you. 
+You are a child--but you are an insolent child,'' he cried,
+suddenly, his anger breaking out, ``and I shall punish you.  You
+dare to call me names!  You shall fight me, you shall fight me
+to-morrow.  You have insulted an officer, and you shall meet me
+at once, to-morrow.''
+
+``If I meet you to-morrow,'' Clay replied, ``I will thrash you
+for your impertinence.  The only reason I don't do it now is
+because you are on my doorstep.  You had better not meet me 
+tomorrow, or at any other time.  And I have no leisure to fight
+duels with anybody.''
+
+``You are a coward,'' returned the other, quietly, ``and I tell
+you so before my servant.''
+
+Clay gave a short laugh and turned to MacWilliams in the doorway.
+
+``Hand me my gun, MacWilliams,'' he said, ``it's on the shelf to
+the right.''
+
+MacWilliams stood still and shook his head.  ``Oh, let him
+alone,'' he said.  ``You've got him where you want him.''
+
+``Give me the gun, I tell you,'' repeated Clay.  ``I'm not going
+to hurt him, I'm only going to show him how I can shoot.''
+
+MacWilliams moved grudgingly across the porch and brought back
+the revolver and handed it to Clay. ``Look out now,'' he said,
+``it's loaded.''
+
+At Clay's words the General had retreated hastily to his horse's
+head and had begun unbuckling the strap of his holster, and the
+orderly reached back into the boot for his carbine.  Clay told
+him in Spanish to throw up his hands, and the man, with a
+frightened look at his officer, did as the revolver suggested. 
+Then Clay motioned with his empty hand for the other to desist. 
+``Don't do that,'' he said, ``I'm not going to hurt you; I'm only
+going to frighten you a little.''
+
+He turned and looked at the student lamp inside, where it stood
+on the table in full view.  Then he raised his revolver.  He did
+not apparently hold it away from him by the butt, as other men
+do, but let it lie in the palm of his hand, into which it seemed
+to fit like the hand of a friend.  His first shot broke the top
+of the glass chimney, the second shattered the green globe around
+it, the third put out the light, and the next drove the lamp
+crashing to the floor.  There was a wild yell of terror from the
+back of the house, and the noise of a guitar falling down a
+flight of steps.  ``I have probably killed a very good cook,''
+said Clay, ``as I should as certainly kill you, if I were to
+meet you.  Langham,'' he continued, ``go tell that cook to come
+back.''
+
+The General sprang into his saddle, and the altitude it gave him
+seemed to bring back some of the jauntiness he had lost.
+
+``That was very pretty,'' he said; ``you have been a cowboy, so
+they tell me.  It is quite evident by your manners.  No matter,
+if we do not meet to-morrow it will be because I have more
+serious work to do.  Two months from to-day there will be a new
+Government in Olancho and a new President, and the mines will
+have a new director.  I have tried to be your friend, Mr. Clay. 
+See how you like me for an enemy.  Goodnight, gentlemen.''
+
+``Good-night,'' said MacWilliams, unmoved.  ``Please ask your man
+to close the gate after you.''
+
+When the sound of the hoofs had died away the men still stood in
+an uncomfortable silence, with Clay twirling the revolver around
+his middle finger.  ``I'm sorry I had to make a gallery play of
+that sort,'' he said.  ``But it was the only way to make that
+sort of man understand.''
+
+Langham sighed and shook his head ruefully.
+
+``Well,'' he said, ``I thought all the trouble was over, but it
+looks to me as though it had just begun.  So far as I can see
+they're going to give the governor a run for his money yet.''
+
+Clay turned to MacWilliams.
+
+``How many of Mendoza's soldiers have we in the mines, Mac?'' he
+asked.
+
+``About fifteen hundred,'' MacWilliams answered.  ``But you ought
+to hear the way they talk of him.''
+
+``They do, eh?'' said Clay, with a smile of satisfaction. 
+``That's good.  `Six hundred slaves who hate their masters.' 
+What do they say about me?''
+
+``Oh, they think you're all right.  They know you got them their
+pay and all that.  They'd do a lot for you.''
+
+``Would they fight for me?'' asked Clay.
+
+MacWilliams looked up and laughed uneasily.  ``I don't know,'' he
+said.  ``Why, old man?  What do you mean to do?''
+
+``Oh, I don't know,'' Clay answered.  ``I was just wondering
+whether I should like to be President of Olancho.''
+
+
+
+III
+
+The Langhams were to arrive on Friday, and during the week before
+that day Clay went about with a long slip of paper in his pocket
+which he would consult earnestly in corners, and upon which he
+would note down the things that they had left undone.  At night
+he would sit staring at it and turning it over in much concern,
+and would beg Langham to tell him what he could have meant when
+he wrote ``see Weimer,'' or ``clean brasses,'' or ``S. Q. M.'' 
+``Why should I see Weimer,'' he would exclaim, ``and which
+brasses, and what does S. Q. M. stand for, for heaven's sake?''
+
+They held a full-dress rehearsal in the bungalow to improve its
+state of preparation, and drilled the servants and talked English
+to them, so that they would know what was wanted when the young
+ladies came.  It was an interesting exercise, and had the three
+young men been less serious in their anxiety to welcome the
+coming guests they would have found themselves very amusing--as
+when Langham would lean over the balcony in the court and
+shout back into the kitchen, in what was supposed to be an
+imitation of his sister's manner, ``Bring my coffee and rolls--
+and don't take all day about it either,'' while Clay and
+MacWilliams stood anxiously below to head off the servants when
+they carried in a can of hot water instead of bringing the horses
+round to the door, as they had been told to do.
+
+``Of course it's a bit rough and all that,'' Clay would say,
+``but they have only to tell us what they want changed and we can
+have it ready for them in an hour.''
+
+``Oh, my sisters are all right,'' Langham would reassure him;
+``they'll think it's fine.  It will be like camping-out to them,
+or a picnic.  They'll understand.''
+
+But to make sure, and to ``test his girders,'' as Clay put it,
+they gave a dinner, and after that a breakfast.  The President
+came to the first, with his wife, the Countess Manuelata, Madame
+la Presidenta, and Captain Stuart, late of the Gordon
+Highlanders, and now in command of the household troops at the
+Government House and of the body-guard of the President.  He was
+a friend of Clay's and popular with every one present, except for
+the fact that he occupied this position, instead of serving his
+own Government in his own army.  Some people said he had been
+crossed in love, others, less sentimental, that he had forged a
+check, or mixed up the mess accounts of his company.  But Clay
+and MacWilliams said it concerned no one why he was there, and
+then emphasized the remark by picking a quarrel with a man who
+had given an unpleasant reason for it.  Stuart, so far as they
+were concerned, could do no wrong.
+
+The dinner went off very well, and the President consented to
+dine with them in a week, on the invitation of young Langham to
+meet his father.
+
+``Miss Langham is very beautiful, they tell me,'' Madame Alvarez
+said to Clay.  ``I heard of her one winter in Rome; she was
+presented there and much admired.''
+
+``Yes, I believe she is considered very beautiful,'' Clay said. 
+``I have only just met her, but she has travelled a great deal
+and knows every one who is of interest, and I think you will like
+her very much.''
+
+``I mean to like her,'' said the woman.  ``There are very few of
+the native ladies who have seen much of the world beyond a trip
+to Paris, where they live in their hotels and at the dressmaker's
+while their husbands enjoy themselves; and sometimes I am rather
+heart-sick for my home and my own people.  I was overjoyed when I
+heard Miss Langham was to be with us this winter.  But you
+must not keep her out here to yourselves.  It is too far and too
+selfish.  She must spend some time with me at the Government
+House.''
+
+``Yes,'' said Clay, ``I am afraid of that.  I am afraid the young
+ladies will find it rather lonely out here.''
+
+``Ah, no,'' exclaimed the woman, quickly.  ``You have made it
+beautiful, and it is only a half-hour's ride, except when it
+rains,'' she added, laughing, ``and then it is almost as easy to
+row as to ride.''
+
+``I will have the road repaired,'' interrupted the President. 
+``It is my wish, Mr. Clay, that you will command me in every way;
+I am most desirous to make the visit of Mr. Langham agreeable to
+him, he is doing so much for us.''
+
+The breakfast was given later in the week, and only men were
+present.  They were the rich planters and bankers of Valencia,
+generals in the army, and members of the Cabinet, and officers
+from the tiny war-ship in the harbor.  The breeze from the bay
+touched them through the open doors, the food and wine cheered
+them, and the eager courtesy and hospitality of the three
+Americans pleased and flattered them.  They were of a people who
+better appreciate the amenities of life than its sacrifices.
+
+The breakfast lasted far into the afternoon, and, inspired by
+the success of the banquet, Clay quite unexpectedly found himself
+on his feet with his hand on his heart, thanking the guests for
+the good-will and assistance which they had given him in his
+work.  ``I have tramped down your coffee plants, and cut away
+your forests, and disturbed your sleep with my engines, and you
+have not complained,'' he said, in his best Spanish, ``and we
+will show that we are not ungrateful.''
+
+Then Weimer, the Consul, spoke, and told them that in his Annual
+Consular Report, which he had just forwarded to the State
+Department, he had related how ready the Government of Olancho
+had been to assist the American company.  ``And I hope,'' he
+concluded, ``that you will allow me, gentlemen, to propose the
+health of President Alvarez and the members of his Cabinet.''
+
+The men rose to their feet, one by one, filling their glasses and
+laughing and saying, ``Viva el Gobernador,'' until they were all
+standing.  Then, as they looked at one another and saw only the
+faces of friends, some one of them cried, suddenly, ``To
+President Alvarez, Dictator of Olancho!''
+
+The cry was drowned in a yell of exultation, and men sprang
+cheering to their chairs waving their napkins above their heads,
+and those who wore swords drew them and flashed them in the
+air, and the quiet, lazy good-nature of the breakfast was turned
+into an uproarious scene of wild excitement.  Clay pushed back
+his chair from the head of the table with an anxious look at the
+servants gathered about the open door, and Weimer clutched
+frantically at Langham's elbow and whispered, ``What did I say? 
+For heaven's sake, how did it begin?''
+
+The outburst ceased as suddenly as it had started, and old
+General Rojas, the Vice-President, called out, ``What is said is
+said, but it must not be repeated.''
+
+Stuart waited until after the rest had gone, and Clay led him out
+to the end of the veranda.  ``Now will you kindly tell me what
+that was?'' Clay asked.  ``It didn't sound like champagne.''
+
+``No,'' said the other, ``I thought you knew.  Alvarez means to
+proclaim himself Dictator, if he can, before the spring
+elections.''
+
+``And are you going to help him?''
+
+``Of course,'' said the Englishman, simply.
+
+``Well, that's all right,'' said Clay, ``but there's no use
+shouting the fact all over the shop like that--and they shouldn't
+drag me into it.''
+
+Stuart laughed easily and shook his head.  ``It won't be long
+before you'll be in it yourself,'' he said.
+
+Clay awoke early Friday morning to hear the shutters beating
+viciously against the side of the house, and the wind rushing
+through the palms, and the rain beating in splashes on the zinc
+roof.  It did not come soothingly and in a steady downpour, but
+brokenly, like the rush of waves sweeping over a rough beach.  He
+turned on the pillow and shut his eyes again with the same
+impotent and rebellious sense of disappointment that he used to
+feel when he had wakened as a boy and found it storming on his
+holiday, and he tried to sleep once more in the hope that when he
+again awoke the sun would be shining in his eyes; but the storm
+only slackened and did not cease, and the rain continued to fall
+with dreary, relentless persistence.  The men climbed the muddy
+road to the Palms, and viewed in silence the wreck which the
+night had brought to their plants and garden paths.  Rivulets of
+muddy water had cut gutters over the lawn and poured out from
+under the veranda, and plants and palms lay bent and broken, with
+their broad leaves bedraggled and coated with mud.  The harbor
+and the encircling mountains showed dimly through a curtain of
+warm, sticky rain.  To something that Langham said of making the
+best of it, MacWilliams replied, gloomily, that he would not be
+at all surprised if the ladies refused to leave the ship and
+demanded to be taken home immediately.  ``I am sorry,'' Clay
+said, simply; ``I wanted them to like it.''
+
+The men walked back to the office in grim silence, and took turns
+in watching with a glass the arms of the semaphore, three miles
+below, at the narrow opening of the bay.  Clay smiled nervously
+at himself, with a sudden sinking at the heart, and with a hot
+blush of pleasure, as he thought of how often he had looked at
+its great arms out lined like a mast against the sky, and thanked
+it in advance for telling him that she was near.  In the harbor
+below, the vessels lay with bare yards and empty decks, the
+wharves were deserted, and only an occasional small boat moved
+across the beaten surface of the bay.
+
+But at twelve o'clock MacWilliams lowered the glass quickly, with
+a little gasp of excitement, rubbed its moist lens on the inside
+of his coat and turned it again toward a limp strip of bunting
+that was crawling slowly up the halyards of the semaphore.  A
+second dripping rag answered it from the semaphore in front of
+the Custom-House, and MacWilliams laughed nervously and shut the
+glass.
+
+``It's red,'' he said; ``they've come.''
+
+They had planned to wear white duck suits, and go out in a launch
+with a flag flying, and they had made MacWilliams purchase a red
+cummerbund and a pith helmet; but they tumbled into the
+launch now, wet and bedraggled as they were, and raced Weimer in
+his boat, with the American flag clinging to the pole, to the
+side of the big steamer as she drew slowly into the bay.  Other
+row-boats and launches and lighters began to push out from the
+wharves, men appeared under the sagging awnings of the bare
+houses along the river-front, and the custom and health officers
+in shining oil-skins and puffing damp cigars clambered over the
+side.
+
+``I see them,'' cried Langham, jumping up and rocking the boat in
+his excitement.  ``There they are in the bow.  That's Hope
+waving.  Hope! hullo, Hope!'' he shouted, ``hullo!'' Clay
+recognized her standing between the younger sister and her
+father, with the rain beating on all of them, and waving her hand
+to Langham.  The men took off their hats, and as they pulled up
+alongside she bowed to Clay and nodded brightly.  They sent
+Langham up the gangway first, and waited until he had made his
+greetings to his family alone.
+
+``We have had a terrible trip, Mr. Clay,'' Miss Langham said to
+him, beginning, as people will, with the last few days, as though
+they were of the greatest importance; ``and we could see nothing
+of you at the mines at all as we passed--only a wet flag, and
+a lot of very friendly workmen, who cheered and fired off pans of
+dynamite.''
+
+``They did, did they?'' said Clay, with a satisfied nod. 
+``That's all right, then.  That was a royal salute in your honor.
+Kirkland had that to do.  He's the foreman of A opening.  I am
+awfully sorry about this rain--it spoils everything.''
+
+``I hope it hasn't spoiled our breakfast,'' said Mr. Langham. 
+``We haven't eaten anything this morning, because we wanted a
+change of diet, and the captain told us we should be on shore
+before now.''
+
+``We have some carriages for you at the wharf, and we will drive
+you right out to the Palms,'' said young Langham.  ``It's shorter
+by water, but there's a hill that the girls couldn't climb today.
+That's the house we built for you, Governor, with the flag-pole,
+up there on the hill; and there's your ugly old pier; and that's
+where we live, in the little shack above it, with the tin roof;
+and that opening to the right is the terminus of the railroad
+MacWilliams built.  Where's MacWilliams?  Here, Mac, I want you
+to know my father.  This is MacWilliams, sir, of whom I wrote
+you.''
+
+There was some delay about the baggage, and in getting the party
+together in the boats that Langham and the Consul had brought;
+and after they had stood for some time on the wet dock,
+hungry and damp, it was rather aggravating to find that the
+carriages which Langham had ordered to be at one pier had gone to
+another.  So the new arrivals sat rather silently under the shed
+of the levee on a row of cotton-bales, while Clay and MacWilliams
+raced off after the carriages.
+
+``I wish we didn't have to keep the hood down,'' young Langham
+said, anxiously, as they at last proceeded heavily up the muddy
+streets; ``it makes it so hot, and you can't see anything.  Not
+that it's worth seeing in all this mud and muck, but it's great
+when the sun shines.  We had planned it all so differently.''
+
+He was alone with his family now in one carriage, and the other
+men and the servants were before them in two others.  It seemed
+an interminable ride to them all--to the strangers, and to the
+men who were anxious that they should be pleased.  They left the
+city at last, and toiled along the limestone road to the Palms,
+rocking from side to side and sinking in ruts filled with rushing
+water.  When they opened the flap of the hood the rain beat in on
+them, and when they closed it they stewed in a damp, warm
+atmosphere of wet leather and horse-hair.
+
+``This is worse than a Turkish bath,'' said Hope, faintly. 
+``Don't you live anywhere, Ted?''
+
+``Oh, it's not far now,'' said the younger brother, dismally; but
+even as he spoke the carriage lurched forward and plunged to one
+side and came to a halt, and they could hear the streams rushing
+past the wheels like the water at the bow of a boat.  A wet,
+black face appeared at the opening of the hood, and a man spoke
+despondently in Spanish.
+
+``He says we're stuck in the mud,'' explained Langham.  He looked
+at them so beseechingly and so pitifully, with the perspiration
+streaming down his face, and his clothes damp and bedraggled,
+that Hope leaned back and laughed, and his father patted him on
+the knee.  ``It can't be any worse,'' he said, cheerfully; ``it
+must mend now.  It is not your fault, Ted, that we're starving
+and lost in the mud.''
+
+Langham looked out to find Clay and MacWilliams knee-deep in the
+running water, with their shoulders against the muddy wheels, and
+the driver lashing at the horses and dragging at their bridles. 
+He sprang out to their assistance, and Hope, shaking off her
+sister's detaining hands, jumped out after him, laughing.  She
+splashed up the hill to the horses' heads, motioning to the
+driver to release his hold on their bridles.
+
+``That is not the way to treat a horse,'' she said.  ``Let me
+have them.  Are you men all ready down there?'' she called. 
+Each of the three men glued a shoulder to a wheel, and clenched
+his teeth and nodded.  ``All right, then,'' Hope called back. 
+She took hold of the huge Mexican bits close to the mouth, where
+the pressure was not so cruel, and then coaxing and tugging by
+turns, and slipping as often as the horses themselves, she drew
+them out of the mud, and with the help of the men back of the
+carriage pulled it clear until it stood free again at the top of
+the hill.  Then she released her hold on the bridles and looked
+down, in dismay, at her frock and hands, and then up at the three
+men.  They appeared so utterly miserable and forlorn in their
+muddy garments, and with their faces washed with the rain and
+perspiration, that the girl gave way suddenly to an
+uncontrollable shriek of delight.  The men stared blankly at her
+for a moment, and then inquiringly at one another, and as the
+humor of the situation struck them they burst into an echoing
+shout of laughter, which rose above the noise of the wind and
+rain, and before which the disappointments and trials of the
+morning were swept away.  Before they reached the Palms the sun
+was out and shining with fierce brilliancy, reflecting its rays
+on every damp leaf, and drinking up each glistening pool of
+water.
+
+MacWilliams and Clay left the Langhams alone together, and
+returned to the office, where they assured each other again and
+again that there was no doubt, from what each had heard different
+members of the family say, that they were greatly pleased with
+all that had been prepared for them.
+
+``They think it's fine!'' said young Langham, who had run down
+the hill to tell them about it.  ``I tell you, they are pleased. 
+I took them all over the house, and they just exclaimed every
+minute.  Of course,'' he said, dispassionately, ``I thought
+they'd like it, but I had no idea it would please them as much as
+it has.  My Governor is so delighted with the place that he's
+sitting out there on the veranda now, rocking himself up and down
+and taking long breaths of sea-air, just as though he owned the
+whole coast-line.''
+
+Langham dined with his people that night, Clay and MacWilliams
+having promised to follow him up the hill later.  It was a night
+of much moment to them all, and the two men ate their dinner in
+silence, each considering what the coming of the strangers might
+mean to him.
+
+As he was leaving the room MacWilliams stopped and hovered
+uncertainly in the doorway.
+
+``Are you going to get yourself into a dress-suit to-night?'' he
+asked.  Clay said that he thought he would; he wanted to feel
+quite clean once more.
+
+``Well, all right, then,'' the other returned, reluctantly. 
+``I'll do it for this once, if you mean to, but you needn't think
+I'm going to make a practice of it, for I'm not.  I haven't worn
+a dress-suit,'' he continued, as though explaining his principles
+in the matter, ``since your spread when we opened the railroad--
+that's six months ago; and the time before that I wore one at
+MacGolderick's funeral.  MacGolderick blew himself up at Puerto
+Truxillo, shooting rocks for the breakwater.  We never found all
+of him, but we gave what we could get together as fine a funeral
+as those natives ever saw.  The boys, they wanted to make him
+look respectable, so they asked me to lend them my dress-suit,
+but I told them I meant to wear it myself.  That's how I came to
+wear a dress-suit at a funeral.  It was either me or
+MacGolderick.''
+
+``MacWilliams,'' said Clay, as he stuck the toe of one boot into
+the heel of the other, ``if I had your imagination I'd give up
+railroading and take to writing war clouds for the newspapers.''
+
+``Do you mean you don't believe that story?'' MacWilliams
+demanded, sternly.
+
+``I do,'' said Clay, ``I mean I don't.''
+
+``Well, let it go,'' returned MacWilliams, gloomily; ``but
+there's been funerals for less than that, let me tell you.''
+
+A half-hour later MacWilliams appeared in the door and stood
+gazing attentively at Clay arranging his tie before a hand-glass,
+and then at himself in his unusual apparel.
+
+``No wonder you voted to dress up,'' he exclaimed finally, in a
+tone of personal injury.  ``That's not a dress-suit you've got on
+anyway.  It hasn't any tails.  And I hope for your sake, Mr.
+Clay,'' he continued, his voice rising in plaintive indignation,
+``that you are not going to play that scarf on us for a vest. 
+And you haven't got a high collar on, either.  That's only a
+rough blue print of a dress-suit.  Why, you look just as
+comfortable as though you were going to enjoy yourself--and you
+look cool, too.''
+
+``Well, why not?'' laughed Clay.
+
+``Well, but look at me,'' cried the other.  ``Do I look cool?  Do
+I look happy or comfortable?  No, I don't.  I look just about the
+way I feel, like a fool undertaker.  I'm going to take this thing
+right off.  You and Ted Langham can wear your silk scarfs and
+bobtail coats, if you like, but if they don't want me in white
+duck they don't get me.''
+
+When they reached the Palms, Clay asked Miss Langham if she did
+not want to see his view.  ``And perhaps, if you appreciate it
+properly, I will make you a present of it,'' he said, as he
+walked before her down the length of the veranda.
+
+``It would be very selfish to keep it all to my self,'' she said.
+
+``Couldn't we share it?''  They had left the others seated facing
+the bay, with MacWilliams and young Langham on the broad steps of
+the veranda, and the younger sister and her father sitting in
+long bamboo steamer-chairs above them.
+
+Clay and Miss Langham were quite alone.  From the high cliff on
+which the Palms stood they could look down the narrow inlet that
+joined the ocean and see the moonlight turning the water into a
+rippling ladder of light and gilding the dark green leaves of the
+palms near them with a border of silver.  Directly below them lay
+the waters of the bay, reflecting the red and green lights of the
+ships at anchor, and beyond them again were the yellow lights of
+the town, rising one above the other as the city crept up the
+hill.  And back of all were the mountains, grim and mysterious,
+with white clouds sleeping in their huge valleys, like masses of
+fog.
+
+Except for the ceaseless murmur of the insect life about them the
+night was absolutely still--so still that the striking of the
+ships' bells in the harbor came to them sharply across the
+surface of the water, and they could hear from time to time the
+splash of some great fish and the steady creaking of an oar in a
+rowlock that grew fainter and fainter as it grew further
+away, until it was drowned in the distance.  Miss Langham was for
+a long time silent.  She stood with her hands clasped behind her,
+gazing from side to side into the moonlight, and had apparently
+forgotten that Clay was present.
+
+``Well,'' he said at last, ``I think you appreciate it properly. 
+I was afraid you would exclaim about it, and say it was fine, or
+charming, or something.''
+
+Miss Langham turned to him and smiled slightly.  ``And you told
+me once that you knew me so very well,'' she said.
+
+Clay chose to forget much that he had said on that night when he
+had first met her.  He knew that he had been bold then, and had
+dared to be so because he did not think he would see her again;
+but, now that he was to meet her every day through several
+months, it seemed better to him that they should grow to know
+each other as they really were, simply and sincerely, and without
+forcing the situation in any way.
+
+So he replied, ``I don't know you so well now.  You must remember
+I haven't seen you for a year.''
+
+``Yes, but you hadn't seen me for twenty-two years then,'' she
+answered.  ``I don't think you have changed much,'' she went on. 
+``I expected to find you gray with cares.  Ted wrote us about
+the way you work all day at the mines and sit up all night over
+calculations and plans and reports.  But you don't show it.  When
+are you going to take us over the mines?  To-morrow?  I am very
+anxious to see them, but I suppose father will want to inspect
+them first.  Hope knows all about them, I believe; she knows
+their names, and how much you have taken out, and how much you
+have put in, too, and what MacWilliams's railroad cost, and who
+got the contract for the ore pier.  Ted told us in his letters,
+and she used to work it out on the map in father's study.  She is
+a most energetic child; I think sometimes she should have been a
+boy.  I wish I could be the help to any one that she is to my
+father and to me.  Whenever I am blue or down she makes fun of
+me, and--''
+
+``Why should you ever be blue?'' asked Clay, abruptly.
+
+``There is no real reason, I suppose,'' the girl answered,
+smiling, ``except that life is so very easy for me that I have to
+invent some woes.  I should be better for a few reverses.''  And
+then she went on in a lower voice, and turning her head away,
+``In our family there is no woman older than I am to whom I can
+go with questions that trouble me.  Hope is like a boy, as I
+said, and plays with Ted, and my father is very busy with his
+affairs, and since my mother died I have been very much
+alone.  A man cannot understand.  And I cannot understand why I
+should be speaking to you about myself and my troubles,
+except--'' she added, a little wistfully, ``that you once said
+you were interested in me, even if it was as long as a year ago. 
+And because I want you to be very kind to me, as you have been to
+Ted, and I hope that we are going to be very good friends.''
+
+She was so beautiful, standing in the shadow with the moonlight
+about her and with her hand held out to him, that Clay felt as
+though the scene were hardly real.  He took her hand in his and
+held it for a moment.  His pleasure in the sweet friendliness of
+her manner and in her beauty was so great that it kept him
+silent.
+
+``Friends!'' he laughed under his breath.  ``I don't think there
+is much danger of our not being friends.  The danger lies,'' he
+went on, smiling, ``in my not being able to stop there.''
+
+Miss Langham made no sign that she had heard him, but turned and
+walked out into the moonlight and down the porch to where the
+others were sitting.
+
+Young Langham had ordered a native orchestra of guitars and reed
+instruments from the town to serenade his people, and they were
+standing in front of the house in the moonlight as Miss
+Langham and Clay came forward.  They played the shrill, eerie
+music of their country with a passion and feeling that filled out
+the strange tropical scene around them; but Clay heard them only
+as an accompaniment to his own thoughts, and as a part of the
+beautiful night and the tall, beautiful girl who had dominated
+it.  He watched her from the shadow as she sat leaning easily
+forward and looking into the night.  The moonlight fell full upon
+her, and though she did not once look at him or turn her head in
+his direction, he felt as though she must be conscious of his
+presence, as though there were already an understanding between
+them which she herself had established.  She had asked him to be
+her friend.  That was only a pretty speech, perhaps; but she had
+spoken of herself, and had hinted at her perplexities and her
+loneliness, and he argued that while it was no compliment to be
+asked to share another's pleasure, it must mean something when
+one was allowed to learn a little of another's troubles.
+
+And while his mind was flattered and aroused by this promise of
+confidence between them, he was rejoicing in the rare quality of
+her beauty, and in the thought that she was to be near him, and
+near him here, of all places.  It seemed a very wonderful thing
+to Clay--something that could only have happened in a novel or a
+play.  For while the man and the hour frequently appeared
+together, he had found that the one woman in the world and the
+place and the man was a much more difficult combination to bring
+into effect.  No one, he assured himself thankfully, could have
+designed a more lovely setting for his love-story, if it was to
+be a love-story, and he hoped it was, than this into which she
+had come of her own free will.  It was a land of romance and
+adventure, of guitars and latticed windows, of warm brilliant
+days and gorgeous silent nights, under purple heavens and white
+stars.  And he was to have her all to himself, with no one near
+to interrupt, no other friends, even, and no possible rival.  She
+was not guarded now by a complex social system, with its
+responsibilities.  He was the most lucky of men.  Others had only
+seen her in her drawing-room or in an opera-box, but he was free
+to ford mountain-streams at her side, or ride with her under
+arches of the great palms, or to play a guitar boldly beneath her
+window.  He was free to come and go at any hour; not only free to
+do so, but the very nature of his duties made it necessary that
+they should be thrown constantly together.
+
+The music of the violins moved him and touched him deeply, and
+stirred depths at which he had not guessed.  It made him humble
+and deeply grateful, and he felt how mean and unworthy he was
+of such great happiness.  He had never loved any woman as he felt
+that he could love this woman, as he hoped that he was to love
+her.  For he was not so far blinded by her beauty and by what he
+guessed her character to be, as to imagine that he really knew
+her.  He only knew what he hoped she was, what he believed the
+soul must be that looked out of those kind, beautiful eyes, and
+that found utterance in that wonderful voice which could control
+him and move him by a word.
+
+He felt, as he looked at the group before him, how lonely his own
+life had been, how hard he had worked for so little--for what
+other men found ready at hand when they were born into the world.
+
+He felt almost a touch of self-pity at his own imperfectness; and
+the power of his will and his confidence in himself, of which he
+was so proud, seemed misplaced and little.  And then he wondered
+if he had not neglected chances; but in answer to this his
+injured self-love rose to rebut the idea that he had wasted any
+portion of his time, and he assured himself that he had done the
+work that he had cut out for himself to do as best he could; no
+one but himself knew with what courage and spirit.  And so he sat
+combating with himself, hoping one moment that she would
+prove what he believed her to be, and the next, scandalized at
+his temerity in daring to think of her at all.
+
+The spell lifted as the music ceased, and Clay brought himself
+back to the moment and looked about him as though he were waking
+from a dream and had expected to see the scene disappear and the
+figures near him fade into the moonlight.
+
+Young Langham had taken a guitar from one of the musicians and
+pressed it upon MacWilliams, with imperative directions to sing
+such and such songs, of which, in their isolation, they had grown
+to think most highly, and MacWilliams was protesting in much
+embarrassment.
+
+MacWilliams had a tenor voice which he maltreated in the most
+villanous manner by singing directly through his nose.  He had a
+taste for sentimental songs, in which ``kiss'' rhymed with
+``bliss,'' and in which ``the people cry'' was always sure to be
+followed with ``as she goes by, that's pretty Katie Moody,'' or
+``Rosie McIntyre.''  He had gathered his songs at the side of
+camp-fires, and in canteens at the first section-house of a new
+railroad, and his original collection of ballads had had but few
+additions in several years.  MacWilliams at first was shy, which
+was quite a new development, until he made them promise to
+laugh if they wanted to laugh, explaining that he would not
+mind that so much as he would the idea that he thought he was
+serious.
+
+The song of which he was especially fond was one called ``He
+never cares to wander from his own Fireside,'' which was
+especially appropriate in coming from a man who had visited
+almost every spot in the three Americas, except his home, in ten
+years.  MacWilliams always ended the evening's entertainment with
+this chorus, no matter how many times it had been sung
+previously, and seemed to regard it with much the same veneration
+that the true Briton feels for his national anthem.
+
+The words of the chorus were:
+
+    ``He never cares to wander from his own fireside,
+      He never cares to wander or to roam.
+      With his babies on his knee,
+      He's as happy as can be,
+      For there's no place like Home, Sweet Home.''
+
+MacWilliams loved accidentals, and what he called ``barber-shop
+chords.''  He used a beautiful accidental at the word ``be,'' of
+which he was very fond, and he used to hang on that note for a
+long time, so that those in the extreme rear of the hall, as he
+was wont to explain, should get the full benefit of it.  And it
+was his custom to emphasize ``for'' in the last line by
+speaking instead of singing it, and then coming to a full stop
+before dashing on again with the excellent truth that ``there is
+NO place like Home, Sweet Home.''
+
+The men at the mines used to laugh at him and his song at first,
+but they saw that it was not to be so laughed away, and that he
+regarded it with some peculiar sentiment.  So they suffered him
+to sing it in peace.
+
+MacWilliams went through his repertoire to the unconcealed
+amusement of young Langham and Hope.  When he had finished he
+asked Hope if she knew a comic song of which he had only heard by
+reputation.  One of the men at the mines had gained a certain
+celebrity by claiming to have heard it in the States, but as he
+gave a completely new set of words to the tune of the ``Wearing
+of the Green'' as the true version, his veracity was doubted. 
+Hope said she knew it, of course, and they all went into the
+drawing-room, where the men grouped themselves about the piano. 
+It was a night they remembered long afterward.  Hope sat at the
+piano protesting and laughing, but singing the songs of which the
+new-comers had become so weary, but which the three men heard
+open-eyed, and hailed with shouts of pleasure.  The others
+enjoyed them and their delight, as though they were people in a
+play expressing themselves in this extravagant manner for
+their entertainment, until they understood how poverty-stricken
+their lives had been and that they were not only enjoying the
+music for itself, but because it was characteristic of all that
+they had left behind them.  It was pathetic to hear them boast of
+having read of a certain song in such a paper, and of the fact
+that they knew the plot of a late comic opera and the names of
+those who had played in it, and that it had or had not been
+acceptable to the New York public.
+
+``Dear me,'' Hope would cry, looking over her shoulder with a
+despairing glance at her sister and father, ``they don't even
+know `Tommy Atkins'!''
+
+It was a very happy evening for them all, foreshadowing, as it
+did, a continuation of just such evenings.  Young Langham was
+radiant with pleasure at the good account which Clay had given of
+him to his father, and Mr. Langham was gratified, and proud of
+the manner in which his son and heir had conducted himself; and
+MacWilliams, who had never before been taken so simply and
+sincerely by people of a class that he had always held in
+humorous awe, felt a sudden accession of dignity, and an unhappy
+fear that when they laughed at what he said, it was because its
+sense was so utterly different from their point of view, and not
+because they saw the humor of it.  He did not know what the word
+``snob'' signified, and in his roughened, easy-going nature there
+was no touch of false pride; but he could not help thinking how
+surprised his people would be if they could see him, whom they
+regarded as a wanderer and renegade on the face of the earth and
+the prodigal of the family, and for that reason the best loved,
+leaning over a grand piano, while one daughter of his
+much-revered president played comic songs for his delectation,
+and the other, who according to the newspapers refused princes
+daily, and who was the most wonderful creature he had ever seen,
+poured out his coffee and brought it to him with her own hands.
+
+The evening came to an end at last, and the new arrivals
+accompanied their visitors to the veranda as they started to
+their cabin for the night.  Clay was asking Mr. Langham when he
+wished to visit the mines, and the others were laughing over
+farewell speeches, when young Langham startled them all by
+hurrying down the length of the veranda and calling on them to
+follow.
+
+``Look!'' he cried, pointing down the inlet.  ``Here comes a man-
+of-war, or a yacht.  Isn't she smart-looking?  What can she want
+here at this hour of the night?  They won't let them land.  Can
+you make her out, MacWilliams?''
+
+A long, white ship was steaming slowly up the inlet, and
+passed within a few hundred feet of the cliff on which they were
+standing.
+
+``Why, it's the `Vesta'!'' exclaimed Hope, wonderingly.  ``I
+thought she wasn't coming for a week?''
+
+``It can't be the `Vesta'!'' said the elder sister; ``she was not
+to have sailed from Havana until to-day.''
+
+``What do you mean?'' asked Langham.  ``Is it King's boat?  Do
+you expect him here?  Oh, what fun!  I say, Clay, here's the
+`Vesta,' Reggie King's yacht, and he's no end of a sport.  We can
+go all over the place now, and he can land us right at the door
+of the mines if we want to.''
+
+``Is it the King I met at dinner that night?'' asked Clay,
+turning to Miss Langham.
+
+``Yes,'' she said.  ``He wanted us to come down on the yacht, but
+we thought the steamer would be faster; so he sailed without us
+and was to have touched at Havana, but he has apparently changed
+his course.  Doesn't she look like a phantom ship in the
+moonlight?''
+
+Young Langham thought he could distinguish King among the white
+figures on the bridge, and tossed his hat and shouted, and a man
+in the stern of the yacht replied with a wave of his hand.
+
+``That must be Mr. King,'' said Hope.  ``He didn't bring any
+one with him, and he seems to be the only man aft.''
+
+They stood watching the yacht as she stopped with a rattle of
+anchor-chains and a confusion of orders that came sharply across
+the water, and then the party separated and the three men walked
+down the hill, Langham eagerly assuring the other two that King
+was a very good sort, and telling them what a treasure-house his
+yacht was, and how he would have probably brought the latest
+papers, and that he would certainly give a dance on board in
+their honor.
+
+The men stood for some short time together, after they had
+reached the office, discussing the great events of the day, and
+then with cheerful good-nights disappeared into their separate
+rooms.
+
+An hour later Clay stood without his coat, and with a pen in his
+hand, at MacWilliams's bedside and shook him by the shoulder.
+
+``I'm not asleep,'' said MacWilliams, sitting up; ``what is it? 
+What have you been doing?'' he demanded.  ``Not working?''
+
+``There were some reports came in after we left,'' said Clay,
+``and I find I will have to see Kirkland to-morrow morning.  Send
+them word to run me down on an engine at five-thirty, will you? 
+I am sorry to have to wake you, but I couldn't remember in
+which shack that engineer lives.''
+
+MacWilliams jumped from his bed and began kicking about the floor
+for his boots.  ``Oh, that's all right,'' he said.  ``I wasn't
+asleep, I was just--'' he lowered his voice that Langham might
+not hear him through the canvas partitions--``I was just lying
+awake playing duets with the President, and racing for the
+International Cup in my new centre-board yacht, that's all!''
+
+MacWilliams buttoned a waterproof coat over his pajamas and
+stamped his bare feet into his boots.  ``Oh, I tell you, Clay,''
+he said with a grim chuckle, ``we're mixing right in with the
+four hundred, we are!  I'm substitute and understudy when anybody
+gets ill.  We're right in our own class at last!  Pure amateurs
+with no professional record against us.  Me and President
+Langham, I guess!'' He struck a match and lit the smoky wick in a
+tin lantern.
+
+``But now,'' he said, cheerfully, ``my time being too valuable
+for me to sleep, I will go wake up that nigger engine-driver and
+set his alarm clock at five-thirty.  Five-thirty, I believe you
+said.  All right; good-night.''  And whistling cheerfully to
+himself MacWilliams disappeared up the hill, his body hidden in
+the darkness and his legs showing fantastically in the light
+of the swinging lantern.
+
+Clay walked out upon the veranda and stood with his back to one
+of the pillars.  MacWilliams and his pleasantries disturbed and
+troubled him.  Perhaps, after all, the boy was right.  It seemed
+absurd, but it was true.  They were only employees of Langham--
+two of the thousands of young men who were working all over the
+United States to please him, to make him richer, to whom he was
+only a name and a power, which meant an increase of salary or the
+loss of place.
+
+Clay laughed and shrugged his shoulders.  He knew that he was not
+in that class; if he did good work it was because his self-
+respect demanded it of him; he did not work for Langham or the
+Olancho Mining Company (Limited).  And yet he turned with almost
+a feeling of resentment toward the white yacht lying calmly in
+magnificent repose a hundred yards from his porch.
+
+He could see her as clearly in her circle of electric lights as
+though she were a picture and held in the light of a stereopticon
+on a screen.  He could see her white decks, and the rails of
+polished brass, and the comfortable wicker chairs and gay
+cushions and flat coils of rope, and the tapering masts and
+intricate rigging.  How easy it was made for some men!  This
+one had come like the prince in the fairy tale on his magic
+carpet.  If Alice Langham were to leave Valencia that next day,
+Clay could not follow her.  He had his duties and
+responsibilities; he was at another man's bidding.
+
+But this Prince Fortunatus had but to raise anchor and start in
+pursuit, knowing that he would be welcome wherever he found her. 
+That was the worst of it to Clay, for he knew that men did not
+follow women from continent to continent without some assurance
+of a friendly greeting.  Clay's mind went back to the days when
+he was a boy, when his father was absent fighting for a lost
+cause; when his mother taught in a little schoolhouse under the
+shadow of Pike's Peak, and when Kit Carson was his hero.  He
+thought of the poverty of those days poverty so mean and hopeless
+that it was almost something to feel shame for; of the days that
+followed when, an orphan and without a home, he had sailed away
+from New Orleans to the Cape.  How the mind of the mathematician,
+which he had inherited from the Boston schoolmistress, had been
+swayed by the spirit of the soldier, which he had inherited from
+his father, and which led him from the mines of South Africa to
+little wars in Madagascar, Egypt, and Algiers.  It had been a
+life as restless as the seaweed on a rock.  But as he looked
+back to its poor beginnings and admitted to himself its later
+successes, he gave a sigh of content, and shaking off the mood
+stood up and paced the length of the veranda.
+
+He looked up the hill to the low-roofed bungalow with the palm-
+leaves about it, outlined against the sky, and as motionless as
+patterns cut in tin.  He had built that house.  He had built it
+for her.  That was her room where the light was shining out from
+the black bulk of the house about it like a star.  And beyond the
+house he saw his five great mountains, the knuckles of the giant
+hand, with its gauntlet of iron that lay shut and clenched in the
+face of the sea that swept up whimpering before it.  Clay felt a
+boyish, foolish pride rise in his breast as he looked toward the
+great mines he had discovered and opened, at the iron mountains
+that were crumbling away before his touch.
+
+He turned his eyes again to the blazing yacht, and this time
+there was no trace of envy in them.  He laughed instead, partly
+with pleasure at the thought of the struggle he scented in the
+air, and partly at his own braggadocio.
+
+``I'm not afraid,'' he said, smiling, and shaking his head at the
+white ship that loomed up like a man-of-war in the black waters. 
+``I'm not afraid to fight you for anything worth fighting for.
+
+He bowed his bared head in good-night toward the light on the
+hill, as he turned and walked back into his bedroom.  ``And I
+think,'' he murmured grimly, as he put out the light, ``that she
+is worth fighting for.''
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The work which had called Clay to the mines kept him there for
+some time, and it was not until the third day after the arrival
+of the Langhams that he returned again to the Palms.  On the
+afternoon when he climbed the hill to the bungalow he found the
+Langhams as he had left them, with the difference that King now
+occupied a place in the family circle.  Clay was made so welcome,
+and especially so by King, that he felt rather ashamed of his
+sentiments toward him, and considered his three days of absence
+to be well repaid by the heartiness of their greeting.
+
+``For myself,'' said Mr. Langham, ``I don't believe you had
+anything to do at the mines at all.  I think you went away just
+to show us how necessary you are.  But if you want me to make a
+good report of our resident director on my return, you had better
+devote yourself less to the mines while you are here and more to
+us.''  Clay said he was glad to find that his duties were to be
+of so pleasant a nature, and asked them what they had seen and
+what they had done.
+
+They told him they had been nowhere, but had waited for his
+return in order that he might act as their guide.
+
+``Then you should see the city at once,'' said Clay, ``and I will
+have the volante brought to the door, and we can all go in this
+afternoon.  There is room for the four of you inside, and I can
+sit on the box-seat with the driver.''
+
+``No,'' said King, ``let Hope or me sit on the box-seat.  Then we
+can practise our Spanish on the driver.''
+
+``Not very well,'' Clay replied, ``for the driver sits on the
+first horse, like a postilion.  It's a sort of tandem without
+reins.  Haven't you seen it yet?  We consider the volante our
+proudest exhibit.''  So Clay ordered the volante to be brought
+out, and placed them facing each other in the open carriage,
+while he climbed to the box-seat, from which position of vantage
+he pointed out and explained the objects of interest they passed,
+after the manner of a professional guide.  It was a warm,
+beautiful afternoon, and the clear mists of the atmosphere
+intensified the rich blue of the sky, and the brilliant colors of
+the houses, and the different shades of green of the trees and
+bushes that lined the highroad to the capital.
+
+``To the right, as we descend,'' said Clay, speaking over his
+shoulder, ``you see a tin house.  It is the home of the
+resident director of the Olancho Mining Company (Limited), and of
+his able lieutenants, Mr. Theodore Langham and Mr. MacWilliams. 
+The building on the extreme left is the round-house, in which Mr.
+MacWilliams stores his three locomotive engines, and in the far
+middle-distance is Mr. MacWilliams himself in the act of
+repairing a water-tank.  He is the one in a suit of blue
+overalls, and as his language at such times is free, we will
+drive rapidly on and not embarrass him.  Besides,'' added the
+engineer, with the happy laugh of a boy who had been treated to a
+holiday, ``I am sure that I am not setting him the example of
+fixity to duty which he should expect from his chief.''
+
+They passed between high hedges of Spanish bayonet, and came to
+mud cabins thatched with palm-leaves, and alive with naked,
+little brown-bodied children, who laughed and cheered to them as
+they passed.
+
+``It's a very beautiful country for the pueblo,'' was Clay's
+comment.  ``Different parts of the same tree furnish them with
+food, shelter, and clothing, and the sun gives them fuel, and the
+Government changes so often that they can always dodge the tax-
+collector.''
+
+From the mud cabins they came to more substantial one-story
+houses of adobe, with the walls painted in two distinct
+colors, blue, pink, or yellow, with red-tiled roofs, and the
+names with which they had been christened in bold black letters
+above the entrances.  Then the carriage rattled over paved
+streets, and they drove between houses of two stories painted
+more decorously in pink and light blue, with wide-open windows,
+guarded by heavy bars of finely wrought iron and ornamented with
+scrollwork in stucco.  The principal streets were given up to
+stores and cafe's, all wide open to the pavement and protected
+from the sun by brilliantly striped awnings, and gay with the
+national colors of Olancho in flags and streamers.  In front of
+them sat officers in uniform, and the dark-skinned dandies of
+Valencia, in white duck suits and Panama hats, toying with
+tortoise shell canes, which could be converted, if the occasion
+demanded, into blades of Toledo steel.  In the streets were
+priests and bare-legged mule drivers, and ragged ranchmen with
+red-caped cloaks hanging to their sandals, and negro women, with
+bare shoulders and long trains, vending lottery tickets and
+rolling huge cigars between their lips.  It was an old story to
+Clay and King, but none of the others had seen a Spanish-American
+city before; they were familiar with the Far East and the
+Mediterranean, but not with the fierce, hot tropics of their
+sister continent, and so their eyes were wide open, and they
+kept calling continually to one another to notice some new place
+or figure.
+
+They in their turn did not escape from notice or comment.  The
+two sisters would have been conspicuous anywhere--in a queen's
+drawing-room or on an Indian reservation.  Theirs was a type that
+the caballeros and senoritas did not know.  With them dark
+hair was always associated with dark complexions, the rich
+duskiness of which was always vulgarized by a coat of powder, and
+this fair blending of pink and white skin under masses of black
+hair was strangely new, so that each of the few women who were to
+be met on the street turned to look after the carriage, while the
+American women admired their mantillas, and felt that the straw
+sailor-hats they wore had become heavy and unfeminine.
+
+Clay was very happy in picking out what was most characteristic
+and picturesque, and every street into which he directed the
+driver to take them seemed to possess some building or monument
+that was of peculiar interest.  They did not know that he had
+mapped out this ride many times before, and was taking them over
+a route which he had already travelled with them in imagination. 
+King knew what the capital would be like before he entered it,
+from his experience of other South American cities, but he acted
+as though it were all new to him, and allowed Clay to
+explain, and to give the reason for those features of the place
+that were unusual and characteristic.  Clay noticed this and
+appealed to him from time to time, when he was in doubt; but the
+other only smiled back and shook his head, as much as to say,
+``This is your city; they would rather hear about it from you.''
+
+Clay took them to the principal shops, where the two girls held
+whispered consultations over lace mantillas, which they had at
+once determined to adopt, and bought the gorgeous paper fans,
+covered with brilliant pictures of bull-fighters in suits of
+silver tinsel; and from these open stores he led them to a dingy
+little shop, where there was old silver and precious hand-painted
+fans of mother-of-pearl that had been pawned by families who had
+risked and lost all in some revolution; and then to another shop,
+where two old maiden ladies made a particularly good guava; and
+to tobacconists, where the men bought a few of the native cigars,
+which, as they were a monopoly of the Government, were as bad as
+Government monopolies always are.
+
+Clay felt a sudden fondness for the city, so grateful was he to
+it for entertaining her as it did, and for putting its best front
+forward for her delectation.  He wanted to thank some one for
+building the quaint old convent, with its yellow walls
+washed to an orange tint, and black in spots with dampness; and
+for the fountain covered with green moss that stood before its
+gate, and around which were gathered the girls and women of the
+neighborhood with red water-jars on their shoulders, and little
+donkeys buried under stacks of yellow sugar-cane, and the negro
+drivers of the city's green water-carts, and the blue wagons that
+carried the manufactured ice.  Toward five o'clock they decided
+to spend the rest of the day in the city, and to telephone for
+the two boys to join them at La Venus, the great restaurant on
+the plaza, where Clay had invited them to dine.
+
+He suggested that they should fill out the time meanwhile by a
+call on the President, and after a search for cards in various
+pocketbooks, they drove to the Government palace, which stood in
+an open square in the heart of the city.
+
+As they arrived the President and his wife were leaving for their
+afternoon drive on the Alameda, the fashionable parade-ground of
+the city, and the state carriage and a squad of cavalry appeared
+from the side of the palace as the visitors drove up to the
+entrance.  But at the sight of Clay, General Alvarez and his wife
+retreated to the house again and made them welcome.  The
+President led the men into his reception-room and
+entertained them with champagne and cigarettes, not manufactured
+by his Government; and his wife, after first conducting the girls
+through the state drawing-room, where the late sunlight shone
+gloomily on strange old portraits of assassinated presidents and
+victorious generals, and garish yellow silk furniture, brought
+them to her own apartments, and gave them tea after a civilized
+fashion, and showed them how glad she was to see some one of her
+own world again.
+
+During their short visit Madame Alvarez talked a greater part of
+the time herself, addressing what she said to Miss Langham, but
+looking at Hope.  It was unusual for Hope to be singled out in
+this way when her sister was present, and both the sisters
+noticed it and spoke of it afterwards.  They thought Madame
+Alvarez very beautiful and distinguished-looking, and she
+impressed them, even after that short knowledge of her, as a
+woman of great force of character.
+
+``She was very well dressed for a Spanish woman,'' was Miss
+Langham's comment, later in the afternoon.  ``But everything she
+had on was just a year behind the fashions, or twelve steamer
+days behind, as Mr. MacWilliams puts it.''
+
+``She reminded me,'' said Hope, ``of a black panther I saw once
+in a circus.''
+
+``Dear me!'' exclaimed the sister, ``I don't see that at all. 
+Why?''
+
+Hope said she did not know why; she was not given to analyzing
+her impressions or offering reasons for them.  ``Because the
+panther looked so unhappy,'' she explained, doubtfully, ``and
+restless; and he kept pacing up and down all the time, and
+hitting his head against the bars as he walked as though he liked
+the pain.  Madame Alvarez seemed to me to be just like that--as
+though she were shut up somewhere and wanted to be free.''
+
+When Madame Alvarez and the two sisters had joined the men, they
+all walked together to the terrace, and the visitors waited until
+the President and his wife should take their departure.  Hope
+noticed, in advance of the escort of native cavalry, an auburn-
+haired, fair-skinned young man who was sitting an English saddle.
+
+The officer's eyes were blue and frank and attractive-looking,
+even as they then were fixed ahead of him with a military lack of
+expression; but he came to life very suddenly when the President
+called to him, and prodded his horse up to the steps and
+dismounted.  He was introduced by Alvarez as ``Captain Stuart of
+my household troops, late of the Gordon Highlanders.  Captain
+Stuart,'' said the President, laying his hand affectionately on
+the younger man's epaulette, ``takes care of my life and the
+safety of my home and family.  He could have the command of the
+army if he wished; but no, he is fond of us, and he tells me we
+are in more need of protection from our friends at home than from
+our enemies on the frontier.  Perhaps he knows best.  I trust
+him, Mr. Langham,'' added the President, solemnly, ``as I trust
+no other man in all this country.''
+
+``I am very glad to meet Captain Stuart, I am sure,'' said Mr.
+Langham, smiling, and appreciating how the shyness of the
+Englishman must be suffering under the praises of the Spaniard. 
+And Stuart was indeed so embarrassed that he flushed under his
+tan, and assured Clay, while shaking hands with them all, that he
+was delighted to make his acquaintance; at which the others
+laughed, and Stuart came to himself sufficiently to laugh with
+them, and to accept Clay's invitation to dine with them later.
+
+They found the two boys waiting in the cafe' of the restaurant
+where they had arranged to meet, and they ascended the steps
+together to the table on the balcony that Clay had reserved for
+them.
+
+The young engineer appeared at his best as host.  The
+responsibility of seeing that a half-dozen others were amused and
+content sat well upon him; and as course followed course, and
+the wines changed, and the candles left the rest of the room
+in darkness and showed only the table and the faces around it,
+they all became rapidly more merry and the conversation
+intimately familiar.
+
+Clay knew the kind of table-talk to which the Langhams were
+accustomed, and used the material around his table in such a way
+that the talk there was vastly different.  From King he drew
+forth tales of the buried cities he had first explored, and then
+robbed of their ugliest idols.  He urged MacWilliams to tell
+carefully edited stories of life along the Chagres before the
+Scandal came, and of the fastnesses of the Andes; and even Stuart
+grew braver and remembered ``something of the same sort'' he had
+seen at Fort Nilt, in Upper Burma.
+
+``Of course,'' was Clay's comment at the conclusion of one of
+these narratives, ``being an Englishman, Stuart left out the
+point of the story, which was that he blew in the gates of the
+fort with a charge of dynamite.  He got a D. S. O. for doing
+it.''
+
+``Being an Englishman,'' said Hope, smiling encouragingly on the
+conscious Stuart, ``he naturally would leave that out.''
+
+Mr. Langham and his daughters formed an eager audience.  They had
+never before met at one table three men who had known such
+experiences, and who spoke of them as though they must be as
+familiar in the lives of the others as in their own--men who
+spoiled in the telling stories that would have furnished
+incidents for melodramas, and who impressed their hearers more
+with what they left unsaid, and what was only suggested, than
+what in their view was the most important point.
+
+The dinner came to an end at last, and Mr. Langham proposed that
+they should go down and walk with the people in the plaza; but
+his two daughters preferred to remain as spectators on the
+balcony, and Clay and Stuart stayed with them.
+
+``At last!'' sighed Clay, under his breath, seating himself at
+Miss Langham's side as she sat leaning forward with her arms upon
+the railing and looking down into the plaza below.  She made no
+sign at first that she had heard him, but as the voices of Stuart
+and Hope rose from the other end of the balcony she turned her
+head and asked, ``Why at last?''
+
+``Oh, you couldn't understand,'' laughed Clay.  ``You have not
+been looking forward to just one thing and then had it come true.
+It is the only thing that ever did come true to me, and I thought
+it never would.''
+
+``You don't try to make me understand,'' said the girl,
+smiling, but without turning her eyes from the moving spectacle
+below her.  Clay considered her challenge silently.  He did not
+know just how much it might mean from her, and the smile robbed
+it of all serious intent; so he, too, turned and looked down into
+the great square below them, content, now that she was alone with
+him, to take his time.
+
+At one end of the plaza the President's band was playing native
+waltzes that came throbbing through the trees and beating softly
+above the rustling skirts and clinking spurs of the senoritas
+and officers, sweeping by in two opposite circles around the
+edges of the tessellated pavements.  Above the palms around the
+square arose the dim, white facade of the cathedral, with the
+bronze statue of Anduella, the liberator of Olancho, who answered
+with his upraised arm and cocked hat the cheers of an imaginary
+populace.  Clay's had been an unobtrusive part in the evening's
+entertainment, but he saw that the others had been pleased, and
+felt a certain satisfaction in thinking that King himself could
+not have planned and carried out a dinner more admirable in every
+way.  He was gratified that they should know him to be not
+altogether a barbarian.  But what he best liked to remember was
+that whenever he had spoken she had listened, even when her eyes
+were turned away and she was pretending to listen to some
+one else.  He tormented himself by wondering whether this was
+because he interested her only as a new and strange character, or
+whether she felt in some way how eagerly he was seeking her
+approbation.  For the first time in his life he found himself
+considering what he was about to say, and he suited it for her
+possible liking.  It was at least some satisfaction that she had,
+if only for the time being, singled him out as of especial
+interest, and he assured himself that the fault would be his if
+her interest failed.  He no longer looked on himself as an
+outsider.
+
+Stuart's voice arose from the farther end of the balcony, where
+the white figure of Hope showed dimly in the darkness.
+
+``They are talking about you over there,'' said Miss Langham,
+turning toward him.
+
+``Well, I don't mind,'' answered Clay, ``as long as they talk
+about me--over there.''
+
+Miss Langham shook her head.  ``You are very frank and
+audacious,'' she replied, doubtfully, ``but it is rather pleasant
+as a change.''
+
+``I don't call that audacious, to say I don't want to be
+interrupted when I am talking to you.  Aren't the men you meet
+generally audacious?'' he asked.  ``I can see why not--though,''
+he continued, ``you awe them.''
+
+``I can't think that's a nice way to affect people,'' protested
+Miss Langham, after a pause.  ``I don't awe you, do I?''
+
+``Oh, you affect me in many different ways,'' returned Clay,
+cheerfully.  ``Sometimes I am very much afraid of you, and then
+again my feelings are only those of unlimited admiration.''
+
+``There, again, what did I tell you?'' said Miss Langham.
+
+``Well, I can't help doing that,'' said Clay.  ``That is one of
+the few privileges that is left to a man in my position--it
+doesn't matter what I say.  That is the advantage of being of no
+account and hopelessly detrimental.  The eligible men of the
+world, you see, have to be so very careful.  A Prime Minister,
+for instance, can't talk as he wishes, and call names if he wants
+to, or write letters, even.  Whatever he says is so important,
+because he says it, that he must be very discreet.  I am so
+unimportant that no one minds what I say, and so I say it.  It's
+the only comfort I have.''
+
+``Are you in the habit of going around the world saying whatever
+you choose to every woman you happen to--to--'' Miss Langham
+hesitated.
+
+``To admire very much,'' suggested Clay.
+
+``To meet,'' corrected Miss Langham.  ``Because, if you are, it
+is a very dangerous and selfish practice, and I think your
+theory of non-responsibility is a very wicked one.''
+
+``Well, I wouldn't say it to a child,'' mused Clay, ``but to one
+who must have heard it before--''
+
+``And who, you think, would like to hear it again, perhaps,''
+interrupted Miss Langham.
+
+``No, not at all,'' said Clay.  ``I don't say it to give her
+pleasure, but because it gives me pleasure to say what I think.''
+
+``If we are to continue good friends, Mr. Clay,'' said Miss
+Langham, in decisive tones, ``we must keep our relationship on
+more of a social and less of a personal basis.  It was all very
+well that first night I met you,'' she went on, in a kindly tone.
+
+``You rushed in then and by a sort of tour de force made me
+think a great deal about myself and also about you.  Your stories
+of cherished photographs and distant devotion and all that were
+very interesting; but now we are to be together a great deal, and
+if we are to talk about ourselves all the time, I for one shall
+grow very tired of it.  As a matter of fact you don't know what
+your feelings are concerning me, and until you do we will talk
+less about them and more about the things you are certain of. 
+When are you going to take us to the mines, for instance, and who
+was Anduella, the Liberator of Olancho, on that pedestal
+over there?  Now, isn't that much more instructive?''
+
+Clay smiled grimly and made no answer, but sat with knitted brows
+looking out across the trees of the plaza.  His face was so
+serious and he was apparently giving such earnest consideration
+to what she had said that Miss Langham felt an uneasy sense of
+remorse.  And, moreover, the young man's profile, as he sat
+looking away from her, was very fine, and the head on his broad
+shoulders was as well-modelled as the head of an Athenian statue.
+
+Miss Langham was not insensible to beauty of any sort, and she
+regarded the profile with perplexity and with a softening spirit.
+
+``You understand,'' she said, gently, being quite certain that
+she did not understand this new order of young man herself. 
+``You are not offended with me?'' she asked.
+
+Clay turned and frowned, and then smiled in a puzzled way and
+stretched out his hand toward the equestrian statue in the plaza.
+
+``Andulla or Anduella, the Treaty-Maker, as they call him, was
+born in 1700,'' he said; ``he was a most picturesque sort of a
+chap, and freed this country from the yoke of Spain.  One of the
+stories they tell of him gives you a good idea of his
+character.''  And so, without any change of expression or
+reference to what had just passed between them, Clay
+continued through the remainder of their stay on the balcony to
+discourse in humorous, graphic phrases on the history of Olancho,
+its heroes, and its revolutions, the buccaneers and pirates of
+the old days, and the concession-hunters and filibusters of the
+present.  It was some time before Miss Langham was able to give
+him her full attention, for she was considering whether he could
+be so foolish as to have taken offence at what she said, and
+whether he would speak of it again, and in wondering whether a
+personal basis for conversation was not, after all, more
+entertaining than anecdotes of the victories and heroism of dead
+and buried Spaniards.
+
+``That Captain Stuart,'' said Hope to her sister, as they drove
+home together through the moonlight, ``I like him very much.  He
+seems to have such a simple idea of what is right and good.  It
+is like a child talking.  Why, I am really much older than he is
+in everything but years--why is that?''
+
+``I suppose it's because we always talk before you as though you
+were a grown-up person,'' said her sister.  ``But I agree with
+you about Captain Stuart; only, why is he down here?  If he is a
+gentleman, why is he not in his own army?  Was he forced to leave
+it?''
+
+``Oh, he seems to have a very good position here,'' said Mr.
+Langham.  ``In England, at his age, he would be only a second-
+lieutenant.  Don't you remember what the President said, that he
+would trust him with the command of his army?  That's certainly a
+responsible position, and it shows great confidence in him.''
+
+``Not so great, it seems to me,'' said King, carelessly, ``as he
+is showing him in making him the guardian of his hearth and home.
+Did you hear what he said to-day?  `He guards my home and my
+family.'  I don't think a man's home and family are among the
+things he can afford to leave to the protection of stray English
+subalterns.  From all I hear, it would be better if President
+Alvarez did less plotting and protected his own house himself.''
+
+``The young man did not strike me as the sort of person,'' said
+Mr. Langham, warmly, ``who would be likely to break his word to
+the man who is feeding him and sheltering him, and whose uniform
+he wears.  I don't think the President's home is in any danger
+from within.  Madame Alvarez--''
+
+Clay turned suddenly in his place on the box-seat of the
+carriage, where he had been sitting, a silent, misty statue in
+the moonlight, and peered down on those in the carriage below
+him.
+
+``Madame Alvarez needs no protection, as you were about to
+say, Mr. Langham,'' he interrupted, quickly.  ``Those who know
+her could say nothing against her, and those who do not know her
+would not so far forget themselves as to dare to do it.  Have you
+noticed the effect of the moonlight on the walls of the
+convent?'' he continued, gently.  ``It makes them quite white.''
+
+``No,'' exclaimed Mr. Langham and King, hurriedly, as they both
+turned and gazed with absorbing interest at the convent on the
+hills above them.
+
+Before the sisters went to sleep that night Hope came to the door
+of her sister's room and watched Alice admiringly as she sat
+before the mirror brushing out her hair.
+
+``I think it's going to be fine down here; don't you, Alice?''
+she asked.  ``Everything is so different from what it is at home,
+and so beautiful, and I like the men we've met.  Isn't that Mr.
+MacWilliams funny--and he is so tough.  And Captain Stuart--it is
+a pity he's shy.  The only thing he seems to be able to talk
+about is Mr. Clay.  He worships Mr. Clay!''
+
+``Yes,'' assented her sister, ``I noticed on the balcony that you
+seemed to have found some way to make him speak.''
+
+``Well, that was it.  He likes to talk about Mr. Clay, and I
+wanted to listen.  Oh! he is a fine man.  He has done more
+exciting things--''
+
+``Who?  Captain Stuart?''
+
+``No--Mr. Clay.  He's been in three real wars and about a dozen
+little ones, and he's built thousands of miles of railroads, I
+don't know how many thousands, but Captain Stuart knows; and he
+built the highest bridge in Peru.  It swings in the air across a
+chasm, and it rocks when the wind blows.  And the German Emperor
+made him a Baron.''
+
+``Why?''
+
+``I don't know.  I couldn't understand.  It was something about
+plans for fortifications.  He, Mr. Clay, put up a fort in the
+harbor of Rio Janeiro during a revolution, and the officers on a
+German man-of-war saw it and copied the plans, and the Germans
+built one just like it, only larger, on the Baltic, and when the
+Emperor found out whose design it was, he sent Mr. Clay the order
+of something-or-other, and made him a Baron.''
+
+``Really,'' exclaimed the elder sister, ``isn't he afraid that
+some one will marry him for his title?''
+
+``Oh, well, you can laugh, but I think it's pretty fine, and so
+does Ted,'' added Hope, with the air of one who propounds a final
+argument.
+
+``Oh, I beg your pardon,'' laughed Alice.  ``If Ted approves we
+must all go down and worship.''
+
+``And father, too,'' continued Hope.  ``He said he thought Mr.
+Clay was one of the most remarkable men for his years that he had
+ever met.''
+
+Miss Langham's eyes were hidden by the masses of her black hair
+that she had shaken over her face, and she said nothing.
+
+``And I liked the way he shut Reggie King up too,'' continued
+Hope, stoutly, ``when he and father were talking that way about
+Madame Alvarez.''
+
+``Yes, upon my word,'' exclaimed her sister, impatiently tossing
+her hair back over her shoulders.  ``I really cannot see that
+Madame Alvarez is in need of any champion.  I thought Mr. Clay
+made it very much worse by rushing in the way he did.  Why should
+he take it upon himself to correct a man as old as my father?''
+
+``I suppose because Madame Alvarez is a friend of his,'' Hope
+answered.
+
+``My dear child, a beautiful woman can always find some man to
+take her part,'' said Miss Langham.  ``But I've no doubt,'' she
+added, rising and kissing her sister good-night, ``that he is all
+that your Captain Stuart thinks him; but he is not going to keep
+us awake any longer, is he, even if he does show such gallant
+interest in old ladies?''
+
+``Old ladies!'' exclaimed Hope in amazement.
+
+``Why, Alice!''
+
+But her sister only laughed and waved her out of the room, and
+Hope walked away frowning in much perplexity.
+
+
+
+V
+
+The visit to the city was imitated on the three succeeding
+evenings by similar excursions.  On one night they returned to
+the plaza, and the other two were spent in drifting down the
+harbor and along the coast on King's yacht.  The President and
+Madame Alvarez were King's guests on one of these moonlight
+excursions, and were saluted by the proper number of guns, and
+their native band played on the forward deck.  Clay felt that
+King held the centre of the stage for the time being, and
+obliterated himself completely.  He thought of his own paddle-
+wheel tug-boat that he had had painted and gilded in her honor,
+and smiled grimly.
+
+MacWilliams approached him as he sat leaning back on the rail and
+looking up, with the eye of a man who had served before the mast,
+at the lacework of spars and rigging above him.  MacWilliams came
+toward him on tiptoe and dropped carefully into a wicker chair. 
+``There don't seem to be any door-mats on this boat,'' he said. 
+``In every other respect she seems fitted out quite
+complete; all the latest magazines and enamelled bathtubs,
+and Chinese waiter-boys with cock-tails up their sleeves.  But
+there ought to be a mat at the top of each of those stairways
+that hang over the side, otherwise some one is sure to soil the
+deck.  Have you been down in the engine-room yet?'' he asked. 
+``Well, don't go, then,'' he advised, solemnly.  ``It will only
+make you feel badly.  I have asked the Admiral if I can send
+those half-breed engine drivers over to-morrow to show them what
+a clean engine-room looks like.  I've just been talking to the
+chief.  His name's MacKenzie, and I told him I was Scotch myself,
+and he said it `was a greet pleesure' to find a gentleman so well
+acquainted with the movements of machinery.  He thought I was one
+of King's friends, I guess, so I didn't tell him I pulled a lever
+for a living myself.  I gave him a cigar though, and he said,
+`Thankee, sir,' and touched his cap to me.''
+
+MacWilliams chuckled at the recollection, and crossed his legs
+comfortably.  ``One of King's cigars, too,'' he said.  ``Real
+Havana; he leaves them lying around loose in the cabin.  Have you
+had one?  Ted Langham and I took about a box between us.''
+
+Clay made no answer, and MacWilliams settled himself contentedly
+in the great wicker chair and puffed grandly on a huge cigar.
+
+``It's demoralizing, isn't it?'' he said at last.
+
+``What?'' asked Clay, absently.
+
+``Oh, this associating with white people again, as we're doing
+now.  It spoils you for tortillas and rice, doesn't it?  It's
+going to be great fun while it lasts, but when they've all gone,
+and Ted's gone, too, and the yacht's vanished, and we fall back
+to tramping around the plaza twice a week, it won't be gay, will
+it?  No; it won't be gay.  We're having the spree of our lives
+now, I guess, but there's going to be a difference in the
+morning.''
+
+``Oh, it's worth a headache, I think,'' said Clay, as he shrugged
+his shoulders and walked away to find Miss Langham.
+
+The day set for the visit to the mines rose bright and clear. 
+MacWilliams had rigged out his single passenger-car with rugs and
+cushions, and flags flew from its canvas top that flapped and
+billowed in the wind of the slow-moving train.  Their
+observation-car, as MacWilliams termed it, was placed in front of
+the locomotive, and they were pushed gently along the narrow
+rails between forests of Manaca palms, and through swamps and
+jungles, and at times over the limestone formation along the
+coast, where the waves dashed as high as the smokestack of the
+locomotive, covering the excursionists with a sprinkling of white
+spray.  Thousands of land-crabs, painted red and black and
+yellow, scrambled with a rattle like dead men's bones across the
+rails to be crushed by the hundreds under the wheels of the
+Juggernaut; great lizards ran from sunny rocks at the sound of
+their approach, and a deer bounded across the tracks fifty feet
+in front of the cow-catcher.  MacWilliams escorted Hope out into
+the cab of the locomotive, and taught her how to increase and
+slacken the speed of the engine, until she showed an unruly
+desire to throw the lever open altogether and shoot them off the
+rails into the ocean beyond.
+
+Clay sat at the back of the car with Miss Langham, and told her
+and her father of the difficulties with which young MacWilliams
+had had to contend.  Miss Langham found her chief pleasure in
+noting the attention which her father gave to all that Clay had
+to tell him.  Knowing her father as she did, and being familiar
+with his manner toward other men, she knew that he was treating
+Clay with unusual consideration.  And this pleased her greatly,
+for it justified her own interest in him.  She regarded Clay as a
+discovery of her own, but she was glad to have her opinion of him
+shared by others.
+
+Their coming was a great event in the history of the mines. 
+Kirkland, the foreman, and Chapman, who handled the
+dynamite, Weimer, the Consul, and the native doctor, who cared
+for the fever-stricken and the casualties, were all at the
+station to meet them in the whitest of white duck and with a
+bunch of ponies to carry them on their tour of inspection, and
+the village of mudDcabins and zinc-huts that stood clear of the
+bare sunbaked earth on whitewashed wooden piles was as clean as
+Clay's hundred policemen could sweep it.  Mr. Langham rode in
+advance of the cavalcade, and the head of each of the different
+departments took his turn in riding at his side, and explained
+what had been done, and showed him the proud result.  The village
+was empty, except for the families of the native workmen and the
+ownerless dogs, the scavengers of the colony, that snarled and
+barked and ran leaping in front of the ponies' heads.
+
+Rising abruptly above the zinc village, lay the first of the five
+great hills, with its open front cut into great terraces, on
+which the men clung like flies on the side of a wall, some of
+them in groups around an opening, or in couples pounding a steel
+bar that a fellow-workman turned in his bare hands, while others
+gathered about the panting steam-drills that shook the solid rock
+with fierce, short blows, and hid the men about them in a
+throbbing curtain of steam.  Self-important little dummy-
+engines, dragging long trains of ore-cars, rolled and rocked on
+the uneven surface of the ground, and swung around corners with
+warning screeches of their whistles.  They could see, on peaks
+outlined against the sky, the signal-men waving their red flags,
+and then plunging down the mountain-side out of danger, as the
+earth rumbled and shook and vomited out a shower of stones and
+rubbish into the calm hot air.  It was a spectacle of desperate
+activity and puzzling to the uninitiated, for it seemed to be
+scattered over an unlimited extent, with no head nor direction,
+and with each man, or each group of men, working alone, like rag-
+pickers on a heap of ashes.
+
+After the first half-hour of curious interest Miss Langham
+admitted to herself that she was disappointed.  She confessed she
+had hoped that Clay would explain the meaning of the mines to
+her, and act as her escort over the mountains which he was
+blowing into pieces.
+
+But it was King, somewhat bored by the ceaseless noise and heat,
+and her brother, incoherently enthusiastic, who rode at her side,
+while Clay moved on in advance and seemed to have forgotten her
+existence.  She watched him pointing up at the openings in the
+mountains and down at the ore-road, or stooping to pick up a
+piece of ore from the ground in cowboy fashion, without
+leaving his saddle, and pounding it on the pommel before he
+passed it to the others.  And, again, he would stand for minutes
+at a time up to his boot-tops in the sliding waste, with his
+bridle rein over his arm and his thumbs in his belt, listening to
+what his lieutenants were saying, and glancing quickly from them
+to Mr. Langham to see if he were following the technicalities of
+their speech.  All of the men who had welcomed the appearance of
+the women on their arrival with such obvious delight and with so
+much embarrassment seemed now as oblivious of their presence as
+Clay himself.
+
+Miss Langham pushed her horse up into the group beside Hope, who
+had kept her pony close at Clay's side from the beginning; but
+she could not make out what it was they were saying, and no one
+seemed to think it necessary to explain.  She caught Clay's eye
+at last and smiled brightly at him; but, after staring at her for
+fully a minute, until Kirkland had finished speaking, she heard
+him say, ``Yes, that's it exactly; in open-face workings there is
+no other way,'' and so showed her that he had not been even
+conscious of her presence.  But a few minutes later she saw him
+look up at Hope, folding his arms across his chest tightly and
+shaking his head.  ``You see it was the only thing to do,'' she
+heard him say, as though he were defending some course of
+action, and as though Hope were one of those who must be
+convinced.  ``If we had cut the opening on the first level, there
+was the danger of the whole thing sinking in, so we had to begin
+to clear away at the top and work down.  That's why I ordered the
+bucket-trolley.  As it turned out, we saved money by it.''
+
+Hope nodded her head slightly.  ``That's what I told father when
+Ted wrote us about it,'' she said; ``but you haven't done it at
+Mount Washington.''
+
+``Oh, but it's like this, Miss--'' Kirkland replied, eagerly. 
+``It's because Washington is a solider foundation.  We can cut
+openings all over it and they won't cave, but this hill is most
+all rubbish; it's the poorest stuff in the mines.''
+
+Hope nodded her head again and crowded her pony on after the
+moving group, but her sister and King did not follow.  King
+looked at her and smiled.  ``Hope is very enthusiastic,'' he
+said.  ``Where did she pick it up?''
+
+``Oh, she and father used to go over it in his study last winter
+after Ted came down here,'' Miss Langham answered, with a touch
+of impatience in her tone.  ``Isn't there some place where we can
+go to get out of this heat?''
+
+Weimer, the Consul, heard her and led her back to Kirkland's
+bungalow, that hung like an eagle's nest from a projecting cliff.
+From its porch they could look down the valley over the greater
+part of the mines, and beyond to where the Caribbean Sea lay
+flashing in the heat.
+
+``I saw very few Americans down there, Weimer,'' said King.  ``I
+thought Clay had imported a lot of them.''
+
+``About three hundred altogether, wild Irishmen and negroes,''
+said the Consul; ``but we use the native soldiers chiefly.  They
+can stand the climate better, and, besides,'' he added, ``they
+act as a reserve in case of trouble.  They are Mendoza's men, and
+Clay is trying to win them away from him.''
+
+``I don't understand,'' said King.
+
+Weimer looked around him and waited until Kirkland's servant had
+deposited a tray full of bottles and glasses on a table near
+them, and had departed.  ``The talk is,'' he said, ``that Alvarez
+means to proclaim a dictatorship in his own favor before the
+spring elections.  You've heard of that, haven't you?'' King
+shook his head.
+
+``Oh, tell us about it,'' said Miss Langham; ``I should so like
+to be in plots and conspiracies.''
+
+``Well, they're rather common down here,'' continued the Consul,
+``but this one ought to interest you especially, Miss Langham,
+because it is a woman who is at the head of it.  Madame
+Alvarez, you know, was the Countess Manueleta Hernandez before
+her marriage.  She belongs to one of the oldest families in
+Spain.  Alvarez married her in Madrid, when he was Minister
+there, and when he returned to run for President, she came with
+him.  She's a tremendously ambitious woman, and they do say she
+wants to convert the republic into a monarchy, and make her
+husband King, or, more properly speaking, make herself Queen.  Of
+course that's absurd, but she is supposed to be plotting to turn
+Olancho into a sort of dependency of Spain, as it was long ago,
+and that's why she is so unpopular.''
+
+``Indeed?'' interrupted Miss Langham, ``I did not know that she
+was unpopular.''
+
+``Oh, rather.  Why, her party is called the Royalist Party
+already, and only a week before you came the Liberals plastered
+the city with denunciatory placards against her, calling on the
+people to drive her out of the country.''
+
+``What cowards--to fight a woman!'' exclaimed Miss Langham.
+
+``Well, she began it first, you see,'' said the Consul.
+
+``Who is the leader of the fight against her?'' asked King.
+
+``General Mendoza; he is commander-in-chief and has the
+greater part of the army with him, but the other candidate, old
+General Rojas, is the popular choice and the best of the three. 
+He is Vice-President now, and if the people were ever given a
+fair chance to vote for the man they want, he would
+unquestionably be the next President.  The mass of the people are
+sick of revolutions.  They've had enough of them, but they will
+have to go through another before long, and if it turns against
+Dr. Alvarez, I'm afraid Mr. Langham will have hard work to hold
+these mines.  You see, Mendoza has already threatened to seize
+the whole plant and turn it into a Government monopoly.''
+
+``And if the other one, General Rojas, gets into power, will he
+seize the mines, too?''
+
+``No, he is honest, strange to relate,'' laughed Weimer, ``but he
+won't get in.  Alvarez will make himself dictator, or Mendoza
+will make himself President.  That's why Clay treats the soldiers
+here so well.  He thinks he may need them against Mendoza.  You
+may be turning your saluting-gun on the city yet, Commodore,'' he
+added, smiling, ``or, what is more likely, you'll need the yacht
+to take Miss Langham and the rest of the family out of the
+country.''
+
+King smiled and Miss Langham regarded Weimer with flattering
+interest.  ``I've got a quick firing gun below decks,'' said
+King, ``that I used in the Malaysian Peninsula on a junkful of
+Black Flags, and I think I'll have it brought up.  And there are
+about thirty of my men on the yacht who wouldn't ask for their
+wages in a year if I'd let them go on shore and mix up in a
+fight.  When do you suppose this--''
+
+A heavy step and the jingle of spurs on the bare floor of the
+bungalow startled the conspirators, and they turned and gazed
+guiltily out at the mountain-tops above them as Clay came
+hurrying out upon the porch.
+
+``They told me you were here,'' he said, speaking to Miss
+Langham.  ``I'm so sorry it tired you.  I should have
+remembered--it is a rough trip when you're not used to it,'' he
+added, remorsefully.  ``But I'm glad Weimer was here to take care
+of you.''
+
+``It was just a trifle hot and noisy,'' said Miss Langham,
+smiling sweetly.  She put her hand to her forehead with an
+expression of patient suffering.  ``It made my head ache a
+little, but it was most interesting.''  She added, ``You are
+certainly to be congratulated on your work.''
+
+Clay glanced at her doubtfully with a troubled look, and turned
+away his eyes to the busy scene below him.  He was greatly hurt
+that she should have cared so little, and indignant at himself
+for being so unjust.  Why should he expect a woman to find
+interest in that hive of noise and sweating energy?  But even as
+he stood arguing with himself his eyes fell on a slight figure
+sitting erect and graceful on her pony's back, her white habit
+soiled and stained red with the ore of the mines, and green where
+it had crushed against the leaves.  She was coming slowly up the
+trail with a body-guard of half a dozen men crowding closely
+around her, telling her the difficulties of the work, and
+explaining their successes, and eager for a share of her quick
+sympathy.
+
+Clay's eyes fixed themselves on the picture, and he smiled at its
+significance.  Miss Langham noticed the look, and glanced below
+to see what it was that had so interested him, and then back at
+him again.  He was still watching the approaching cavalcade
+intently, and smiling to himself.  Miss Langham drew in her
+breath and raised her head and shoulders quickly, like a deer
+that hears a footstep in the forest, and when Hope presently
+stepped out upon the porch, she turned quickly toward her, and
+regarded her steadily, as though she were a stranger to her, and
+as though she were trying to see her with the eyes of one who
+looked at her for the first time.
+
+``Hope!'' she said, ``do look at your dress!''
+
+Hope's face was glowing with the unusual exercise, and her
+eyes were brilliant.  Her hair had slipped down beneath the visor
+of her helmet.
+
+``I am so tired--and so hungry.''  She was laughing and looking
+directly at Clay.  ``It has been a wonderful thing to have
+seen,'' she said, tugging at her heavy gauntlet, ``and to have
+done,'' she added.  She pulled off her glove and held out her
+hand to Clay, moist and scarred with the pressure of the reins.
+
+``Thank you,'' she said, simply.
+
+The master of the mines took it with a quick rush of gratitude,
+and looking into the girl's eyes, saw something there that
+startled him, so that he glanced quickly past her at the circle
+of booted men grouped in the door behind her.  They were each
+smiling in appreciation of the tableau; her father and Ted,
+MacWilliams and Kirkland, and all the others who had helped him. 
+They seemed to envy, but not to grudge, the whole credit which
+the girl had given to him.
+
+Clay thought, ``Why could it not have been the other?''  But he
+said aloud, ``Thank YOU.  You have given me my reward.''
+
+Miss Langham looked down impatiently into the valley below, and
+found that it seemed more hot and noisy, and more grimy than
+before.
+
+
+VI
+
+Clay believed that Alice Langham's visit to the mines had opened
+his eyes fully to vast differences between them.  He laughed and
+railed at himself for having dared to imagine that he was in a
+position to care for her.  Confident as he was at times, and sure
+as he was of his ability in certain directions, he was uneasy and
+fearful when he matched himself against a man of gentle birth and
+gentle breeding, and one who, like King, was part of a world of
+which he knew little, and to which, in his ignorance concerning
+it, he attributed many advantages that it did not possess.  He
+believed that he would always lack the mysterious something which
+these others held by right of inheritance.  He was still young
+and full of the illusions of youth, and so gave false values to
+his own qualities, and values equally false to the qualities he
+lacked.  For the next week he avoided Miss Langham, unless there
+were other people present, and whenever she showed him special
+favor, he hastily recalled to his mind her failure to sympathize
+in his work, and assured himself that if she could not interest
+herself in the engineer, he did not care to have her
+interested in the man.  Other women had found him attractive in
+himself; they had cared for his strength of will and mind, and
+because he was good to look at.  But he determined that this one
+must sympathize with his work in the world, no matter how
+unpicturesque it might seem to her.  His work was the best of
+him, he assured himself, and he would stand or fall with it.
+
+It was a week after the visit to the mines that President Alvarez
+gave a great ball in honor of the Langhams, to which all of the
+important people of Olancho, and the Foreign Ministers were
+invited.  Miss Langham met Clay on the afternoon of the day set
+for the ball, as she was going down the hill to join Hope and her
+father at dinner on the yacht.
+
+``Are you not coming, too?'' she asked.
+
+``I wish I could,'' Clay answered.  ``King asked me, but a
+steamer-load of new machinery arrived to-day, and I have to see
+it through the Custom-House.''
+
+Miss Langham gave an impatient little laugh, and shook her head. 
+``You might wait until we were gone before you bother with your
+machinery,'' she said.
+
+``When you are gone I won't be in a state of mind to attend to
+machinery or anything else,'' Clay answered.
+
+Miss Langham seemed so far encouraged by this speech that she
+seated herself in the boathouse at the end of the wharf.  She
+pushed her mantilla back from her face and looked up at him,
+smiling brightly.
+
+`` `The time has come, the walrus said,' '' she quoted, `` `to
+talk of many things.' ''
+
+Clay laughed and dropped down beside her.  ``Well?'' he said.
+
+``You have been rather unkind to me this last week,'' the girl
+began, with her eyes fixed steadily on his.  ``And that day at
+the mines when I counted on you so, you acted abominably.''
+
+Clay's face showed so plainly his surprise at this charge, which
+he thought he only had the right to make, that Miss Langham
+stopped.
+
+``I don't understand,'' said Clay, quietly.  ``How did I treat
+you abominably?''
+
+He had taken her so seriously that Miss Langham dropped her
+lighter tone and spoke in one more kindly:
+
+``I went out there to see your work at its best.  I was only
+interested in going because it was your work, and because it was
+you who had done it all, and I expected that you would try to
+explain it to me and help me to understand, but you didn't.  You
+treated me as though I had no interest in the matter at all, as
+though I was not capable of understanding it.  You did not
+seem to care whether I was interested or not.  In fact, you
+forgot me altogether.''
+
+Clay exhibited no evidence of a reproving conscience.  ``I am
+sorry you had a stupid time,'' he said, gravely.
+
+``I did not mean that, and you know I didn't mean that,'' the
+girl answered.  ``I wanted to hear about it from you, because you
+did it.  I wasn't interested so much in what had been done, as I
+was in the man who had accomplished it.''
+
+Clay shrugged his shoulders impatiently, and looked across at
+Miss Langham with a troubled smile.
+
+``But that's just what I don't want,'' he said.  ``Can't you see? 
+These mines and other mines like them are all I have in the
+world.  They are my only excuse for having lived in it so long. 
+I want to feel that I've done something outside of myself, and
+when you say that you like me personally, it's as little
+satisfaction to me as it must be to a woman to be congratulated
+on her beauty, or on her fine voice.  That is nothing she has
+done herself.  I should like you to value what I have done, not
+what I happen to be.''
+
+Miss Langham turned her eyes to the harbor, and it was some short
+time before she answered.
+
+``You are a very difficult person to please,'' she said,
+``and most exacting.  As a rule men are satisfied to be liked for
+any reason.  I confess frankly, since you insist upon it, that I
+do not rise to the point of appreciating your work as the others
+do.  I suppose it is a fault,'' she continued, with an air that
+plainly said that she considered it, on the contrary, something
+of a virtue.  ``And if I knew more about it technically, I might
+see more in it to admire.  But I am looking farther on for better
+things from you.  The friends who help us the most are not always
+those who consider us perfect, are they?'' she asked, with a
+kindly smile.  She raised her eyes to the great ore-pier that
+stretched out across the water, the one ugly blot in the scene of
+natural beauty about them.  ``I think that is all very well,''
+she said; ``but I certainly expect you to do more than that.  I
+have met many remarkable men in all parts of the world, and I
+know what a strong man is, and you have one of the strongest
+personalities I have known.  But you can't mean that you are
+content to stop with this.  You should be something bigger and
+more wide-reaching and more lasting.  Indeed, it hurts me to see
+you wasting your time here over my father's interests.  You
+should exert that same energy on a broader map.  You could make
+yourself anything you chose.  At home you would be your party's
+leader in politics, or you could be a great general, or a
+great financier.  I say this because I know there are better
+things in you, and because I want you to make the most of your
+talents.  I am anxious to see you put your powers to something
+worth while.''
+
+Miss Langham's voice carried with it such a tone of sincerity
+that she almost succeeded in deceiving herself.  And yet she
+would have hardly cared to explain just why she had reproached
+the man before her after this fashion.  For she knew that when
+she spoke as she had done, she was beating about to find some
+reason that would justify her in not caring for him, as she knew
+she could care--as she would not allow herself to care.  The man
+at her side had won her interest from the first, and later had
+occupied her thoughts so entirely, that it troubled her peace of
+mind.  Yet she would not let her feeling for him wax and grow
+stronger, but kept it down.  And she was trying now to persuade
+herself that she did this because there was something lacking in
+him and not in her.
+
+She was almost angry with him for being so much to her and for
+not being more acceptable in little things, like the other men
+she knew.  So she found this fault with him in order that she
+might justify her own lack of feeling.
+
+But Clay, who only heard the words and could not go back of
+them to find the motive, could not know this.  He sat perfectly
+still when she had finished and looked steadily out across the
+harbor.  His eyes fell on the ugly ore-pier, and he winced and
+uttered a short grim laugh.
+
+``That's true, what you say,'' he began, ``I haven't done much. 
+You are quite right.  Only--'' he looked up at her curiously and
+smiled--``only you should not have been the one to tell me of
+it.''
+
+Miss Langham had been so far carried away by her own point of
+view that she had not considered Clay, and now that she saw what
+mischief she had done, she gave a quick gasp of regret, and
+leaned forward as though to add some explanation to what she had
+said.  But Clay stopped her.  ``I mean by that,'' he said, ``that
+the great part of the inspiration I have had to do what little I
+have done came from you.  You were a sort of promise of something
+better to me.  You were more of a type than an individual woman,
+but your picture, the one I carry in my watch, meant all that
+part of life that I have never known, the sweetness and the
+nobleness and grace of civilization,--something I hoped I would
+some day have time to enjoy.  So you see,'' he added, with an
+uncertain laugh, ``it's less pleasant to hear that I have failed
+to make the most of myself from you than from almost any one
+else.''
+
+``But, Mr. Clay,'' protested the girl, anxiously, ``I think you
+have done wonderfully well.  I only said that I wanted you to do
+more.  You are so young and you have--''
+
+Clay did not hear her.  He was leaning forward looking moodily
+out across the water, with his folded arms clasped across his
+knees.
+
+``I have not made the most of myself,'' he repeated; ``that is
+what you said.''  He spoke the words as though she had delivered
+a sentence.  ``You don't think well of what I have done, of what
+I am.''
+
+He drew in his breath and shook his head with a hopeless laugh,
+and leaned back against the railing of the boat-house with the
+weariness in his attitude of a man who has given up after a long
+struggle.
+
+``No,'' he said with a bitter flippancy in his voice, ``I don't
+amount to much.  But, my God!'' he laughed, and turning his head
+away, ``when you think what I was!  This doesn't seem much to
+you, and it doesn't seem much to me now that I have your point of
+view on it, but when I remember!''  Clay stopped again and
+pressed his lips together and shook his head.  His half-closed
+eyes, that seemed to be looking back into his past, lighted as
+they fell on King's white yacht, and he raised his arm and
+pointed to it with a wave of the hand.  ``When I was sixteen
+I was a sailor before the mast,'' he said, ``the sort of sailor
+that King's crew out there wouldn't recognize in the same
+profession.  I was of so little account that I've been knocked
+the length of the main deck at the end of the mate's fist, and
+left to lie bleeding in the scuppers for dead.  I hadn't a thing
+to my name then but the clothes I wore, and I've had to go aloft
+in a hurricane and cling to a swinging rope with my bare toes and
+pull at a wet sheet until my finger-nails broke and started in
+their sockets; and I've been a cowboy, with no companions for six
+months of the year but eight thousand head of cattle and men as
+dumb and untamed as the steers themselves.  I've sat in my saddle
+night after night, with nothing overhead but the stars, and no
+sound but the noise of the steers breathing in their sleep.  The
+women I knew were Indian squaws, and the girls of the sailors'
+dance-houses and the gambling-hells of Sioux City and Abilene,
+and Callao and Port Said.  That was what I was and those were
+my companions.  ``Why!'' he laughed, rising and striding across
+the boat-house with his hands locked behind him, ``I've fought on
+the mud floor of a Mexican shack, with a naked knife in my hand,
+for my last dollar.  I was as low and as desperate as that.  And
+now--'' Clay lifted his head and smiled.  ``Now,'' he said,
+in a lower voice and addressing Miss Langham with a return of his
+usual grave politeness, ``I am able to sit beside you and talk to
+you.  I have risen to that.  I am quite content.''
+
+He paused and looked at Miss Langham uncertainly for a few
+moments as though in doubt as to whether she would understand him
+if he continued.
+
+``And though it means nothing to you,'' he said, ``and though as
+you say I am here as your father's employee, there are other
+places, perhaps, where I am better known.  In Edinburgh or Berlin
+or Paris, if you were to ask the people of my own profession,
+they could tell you something of me.  If I wished it, I could
+drop this active work tomorrow and continue as an adviser, as an
+expert, but I like the active part better.  I like doing things
+myself.  I don't say, `I am a salaried servant of Mr. Langham's;'
+I put it differently.  I say, `There are five mountains of iron. 
+You are to take them up and transport them from South America to
+North America, where they will be turned into railroads and
+ironclads.'  That's my way of looking at it.  It's better to bind
+a laurel to the plough than to call yourself hard names.  It
+makes your work easier--almost noble.  Cannot you see it that
+way, too?''
+
+Before Miss Langham could answer, a deprecatory cough from
+one side of the open boat-house startled them, and turning they
+saw MacWilliams coming toward them.  They had been so intent upon
+what Clay was saying that he had approached them over the soft
+sand of the beach without their knowing it.  Miss Langham
+welcomed his arrival with evident pleasure.
+
+``The launch is waiting for you at the end of the pier,''
+MacWilliams said.  Miss Langham rose and the three walked
+together down the length of the wharf, MacWilliams moving briskly
+in advance in order to enable them to continue the conversation
+he had interrupted, but they followed close behind him, as though
+neither of them were desirous of such an opportunity.
+
+Hope and King had both come for Miss Langham, and while the
+latter was helping her to a place on the cushions, and repeating
+his regrets that the men were not coming also, Hope started the
+launch, with a brisk ringing of bells and a whirl of the wheel
+and a smile over her shoulder at the figures on the wharf.
+
+``Why didn't you go?'' said Clay; ``you have no business at the
+Custom-House.''
+
+``Neither have you,'' said MacWilliams.  ``But I guess we both
+understand.  There's no good pushing your luck too far.''
+
+``What do you mean by that--this time?''
+
+``Why, what have we to do with all of this?'' cried MacWilliams. 
+``It's what I keep telling you every day.  We're not in that
+class, and you're only making it harder for yourself when they've
+gone.  I call it cruelty to animals myself, having women like
+that around.  Up North, where everybody's white, you don't notice
+it so much, but down here--Lord!''
+
+``That's absurd,'' Clay answered.  ``Why should you turn your
+back on civilization when it comes to you, just because you're
+not going back to civilization by the next steamer?  Every person
+you meet either helps you or hurts you.  Those girls help us,
+even if they do make the life here seem bare and mean.''
+
+``Bare and mean!'' repeated MacWilliams incredulously.  ``I think
+that's just what they don't do.  I like it all the better because
+they're mixed up in it.  I never took so much interest in your
+mines until she took to riding over them, and I didn't think
+great shakes of my old ore-road, either, but now that she's got
+to acting as engineer, it's sort of nickel-plated the whole
+outfit.  I'm going to name the new engine after her--when it gets
+here--if her old man will let me.''
+
+``What do you mean?  Miss Langham hasn't been to the mines but
+once, has she?''
+
+``Miss Langham!'' exclaimed MacWilliams. ``No, I mean the other,
+Miss Hope.  She comes out with Ted nearly every day now, and
+she's learning how to run a locomotive.  Just for fun, you
+know,'' he added, reassuringly.
+
+``I didn't suppose she had any intention of joining the
+Brotherhood,'' said Clay.  ``So she's been out every day, has
+she?  I like that,'' he commented, enthusiastically.  ``She's a
+fine, sweet girl.''
+
+``Fine, sweet girl!'' growled MacWilliams.  ``I should hope so. 
+She's the best.  They don't make them any better than that, and
+just think, if she's like that now, what will she be when she's
+grown up, when she's learned a few things?  Now her sister.  You
+can see just what her sister will be at thirty, and at fifty, and
+at eighty.  She's thoroughbred and she's the most beautiful woman
+to look at I ever saw--but, my son--she is too careful.  She
+hasn't any illusions, and no sense of humor.  And a woman with no
+illusions and no sense of humor is going to be monotonous.  You
+can't teach her anything.  You can't imagine yourself telling her
+anything she doesn't know.  The things we think important don't
+reach her at all.  They're not in her line, and in everything
+else she knows more than we could ever guess at.  But that Miss
+Hope!  It's a privilege to show her about.  She wants to see
+everything, and learn everything, and she goes poking her head
+into openings and down shafts like a little fox terrier. 
+And she'll sit still and listen with her eyes wide open and tears
+in them, too, and she doesn't know it--until you can't talk
+yourself for just looking at her.''
+
+Clay rose and moved on to the house in silence.  He was glad that
+MacWilliams had interrupted him when he did.  He wondered whether
+he understood Alice Langham after all.  He had seen many fine
+ladies before during his brief visits to London, and Berlin, and
+Vienna, and they had shown him favor.  He had known other women
+not so fine.  Spanish-American senoritas through Central and
+South America, the wives and daughters of English merchants
+exiled along the Pacific coast, whose fair skin and yellow hair
+whitened and bleached under the hot tropical suns.  He had known
+many women, and he could have quoted
+
+    ``Trials and troubles amany,
+        Have proved me;
+      One or two women, God bless them!
+        Have loved me.''
+
+But the woman he was to marry must have all the things he lacked.
+
+She must fill out and complete him where he was wanting.  This
+woman possessed all of these things.  She appealed to every
+ambition and to every taste he cherished, and yet he knew that he
+had hesitated and mistrusted her, when he should have
+declared himself eagerly and vehemently, and forced her to listen
+with all the strength of his will.
+
+
+Miss Langham dropped among the soft cushions of the launch with a
+sense of having been rescued from herself and of delight in
+finding refuge again in her own environment.  The sight of King
+standing in the bow beside Hope with his cigarette hanging from
+his lips, and peering with half-closed eyes into the fading
+light, gave her a sense of restfulness and content.  She did not
+know what she wished from that other strange young man.  He was
+so bold, so handsome, and he looked at life and spoke of it in
+such a fresh, unhackneyed spirit.  He might make himself anything
+he pleased.  But here was a man who already had everything, or
+who could get it as easily as he could increase the speed of the
+launch, by pulling some wire with his finger.
+
+She recalled one day when they were all on board of this same
+launch, and the machinery had broken down, and MacWilliams had
+gone forward to look at it.  He had called Clay to help him, and
+she remembered how they had both gone down on their knees and
+asked the engineer and fireman to pass them wrenches and oil-
+cans, while King protested mildly, and the rest sat
+helplessly in the hot glare of the sea, as the boat rose and
+fell on the waves.  She resented Clay's interest in the accident,
+and his pleasure when he had made the machinery right once more,
+and his appearance as he came back to them with oily hands and
+with his face glowing from the heat of the furnace, wiping his
+grimy fingers on a piece of packing.  She had resented the
+equality with which he treated the engineer in asking his advice,
+and it rather surprised her that the crew saluted him when he
+stepped into the launch again that night as though he were the
+owner.  She had expected that they would patronize him, and she
+imagined after this incident that she detected a shade of
+difference in the manner of the sailors toward Clay, as though he
+had cheapened himself to them--as he had to her.
+
+
+
+VII
+At ten o'clock that same evening Clay began to prepare himself
+for the ball at the Government palace, and MacWilliams, who was
+not invited, watched him dress with critical approval that showed
+no sign of envy.
+
+The better to do honor to the President, Clay had brought out
+several foreign orders, and MacWilliams helped him to tie around
+his neck the collar of the Red Eagle which the German Emperor had
+given him, and to fasten the ribbon and cross of the Star of
+Olancho across his breast, and a Spanish Order and the Legion of
+Honor to the lapel of his coat.  MacWilliams surveyed the effect
+of the tiny enamelled crosses with his head on one side, and with
+the same air of affectionate pride and concern that a mother
+shows over her daughter's first ball-dress.
+
+``Got any more?'' he asked, anxiously.
+
+``I have some war medals,'' Clay answered, smiling doubtfully. 
+``But I'm not in uniform.''
+
+``Oh, that's all right,'' declared MacWilliams.  ``Put 'em on,
+put 'em all on.  Give the girls a treat.  Everybody will
+think they were given for feats of swimming, anyway; but they
+will show up well from the front.  Now, then, you look like a
+drum-major or a conjuring chap.''
+
+``I do not,'' said Clay.  ``I look like a French Ambassador, and
+I hardly understand how you find courage to speak to me at all.''
+
+He went up the hill in high spirits, and found the carriage at
+the door and King, Mr. Langham, and Miss Langham sitting waiting
+for him.  They were ready to depart, and Miss Langham had but
+just seated herself in the carriage when they heard hurrying
+across the tiled floor a quick, light step and the rustle of
+silk, and turning they saw Hope standing in the doorway, radiant
+and smiling.  She wore a white frock that reached to the ground,
+and that left her arms and shoulders bare.  Her hair was dressed
+high upon her head, and she was pulling vigorously at a pair of
+long, tan-colored gloves.  The transformation was so complete,
+and the girl looked so much older and so stately and beautiful,
+that the two young men stared at her in silent admiration and
+astonishment.
+
+``Why, Hope!'' exclaimed her sister.  ``What does this mean?''
+
+Hope stopped in some alarm, and clasped her hair with both hands.
+
+``What is it?'' she asked; ``is anything wrong?''
+
+``Why, my dear child,'' said her sister, ``you're not thinking of
+going with us, are you?''
+
+``Not going?'' echoed the younger sister, in dismay.  ``Why,
+Alice, why not? I was asked.''
+
+``But, Hope-- Father,'' said the elder sister, stepping out of
+the carriage and turning to Mr. Langham, ``you didn't intend that
+Hope should go, did you?  She's not out yet.''
+
+``Oh, nonsense,'' said Hope, defiantly.  But she drew in her
+breath quickly and blushed, as she saw the two young men moving
+away out of hearing of this family crisis.  She felt that she was
+being made to look like a spoiled child.  ``It doesn't count down
+here,'' she said, ``and I want to go.  I thought you knew I was
+going all the time.  Marie made this frock for me on purpose.''
+
+``I don't think Hope is old enough,'' the elder sister said,
+addressing her father, ``and if she goes to dances here, there's
+no reason why she should not go to those at home.''
+
+``But I don't want to go to dances at home,'' interrupted Hope.
+
+Mr. Langham looked exceedingly uncomfortable, and turned
+apppealingly to his elder daughter.  ``What do you think,
+Alice?'' he said, doubtfully.
+
+``I'm sorry,'' Miss Langham replied, ``but I know it would
+not be at all proper.  I hate to seem horrid about it, Hope, but
+indeed you are too young, and the men here are not the men a
+young girl ought to meet.''
+
+``You meet them, Alice,'' said Hope, but pulling off her gloves
+in token of defeat.
+
+``But, my dear child, I'm fifty years older than you are.''
+
+``Perhaps Alice knows best, Hope,'' Mr. Langham said.  ``I'm
+sorry if you are disappointed.''
+
+Hope held her head a little higher, and turned toward the door.
+
+``I don't mind if you don't wish it, father,'' she said.  ``Good-
+night.''  She moved away, but apparently thought better of it,
+and came back and stood smiling and nodding to them as they
+seated themselves in the carriage.  Mr. Langham leaned forward
+and said, in a troubled voice, ``We will tell you all about it in
+the morning.  I'm very sorry.  You won't be lonely, will you? 
+I'll stay with you if you wish.''
+
+``Nonsense!'' laughed Hope.  ``Why, it's given to you, father;
+don't bother about me.  I'll read something or other and go to
+bed.''
+
+``Good-night, Cinderella,'' King called out to her.
+
+``Good-night, Prince Charming,'' Hope answered.
+
+Both Clay and King felt that the girl would not mind missing the
+ball so much as she would the fact of having been treated like a
+child in their presence, so they refrained from any expression of
+sympathy or regret, but raised their hats and bowed a little more
+impressively than usual as the carriage drove away.
+
+The picture Hope made, as she stood deserted and forlorn on the
+steps of the empty house in her new finery, struck Clay as
+unnecessarily pathetic.  He felt a strong sense of resentment
+against her sister and her father, and thanked heaven devoutly
+that he was out of their class, and when Miss Langham continued
+to express her sorrow that she had been forced to act as she had
+done, he remained silent.  It seemed to Clay such a simple thing
+to give children pleasure, and to remember that their woes were
+always out of all proportion to the cause.  Children, dumb
+animals, and blind people were always grouped together in his
+mind as objects demanding the most tender and constant
+consideration.  So the pleasure of the evening was spoiled for
+him while he remembered the hurt and disappointed look in Hope's
+face, and when Miss Langham asked him why he was so preoccupied,
+he told her bluntly that he thought she had been very unkind to
+Hope, and that her objections were absurd.
+
+Miss Langham held herself a little more stiffly.  ``Perhaps you
+do not quite understand, Mr. Clay,'' she said.  ``Some of us have
+to conform to certain rules that the people with whom we best
+like to associate have laid down for themselves.  If we choose to
+be conventional, it is probably because we find it makes life
+easier for the greater number.  You cannot think it was a
+pleasant task for me.  But I have given up things of much more
+importance than a dance for the sake of appearances, and Hope
+herself will see to-morrow that I acted for the best.''
+
+Clay said he trusted so, but doubted it, and by way of re-
+establishing himself in Miss Langham's good favor, asked her if
+she could give him the next dance.  But Miss Langham was not to
+be propitiated.
+
+``I'm sorry,'' she said, ``but I believe I am engaged until
+supper-time.  Come and ask me then, and I'll have one saved for
+you.  But there is something you can do,'' she added.  ``I left
+my fan in the carriage--do you think you could manage to get it
+for me without much trouble?''
+
+``The carriage did not wait.  I believe it was sent back,'' said
+Clay, ``but I can borrow a horse from one of Stuart's men, and
+ride back and get it for you, if you like.''
+
+``How absurd!'' laughed Miss Langham, but she looked pleased,
+notwithstanding.
+
+``Oh, not at all,'' Clay answered.  He was smiling down at her in
+some amusement, and was apparently much entertained at his idea. 
+``Will you consider it an act of devotion?'' he asked.
+
+There was so little of devotion, and so much more of mischief in
+his eyes, that Miss Langham guessed he was only laughing at her,
+and shook her head.
+
+``You won't go,'' she said, turning away.  She followed him with
+her eyes, however, as he crossed the room, his head and shoulders
+towering above the native men and women.  She had never seen him
+so resplendent, and she noted, with an eye that considered
+trifles, the orders, and his well-fitting white gloves, and his
+manner of bowing in the Continental fashion, holding his opera-
+hat on his thigh, as though his hand rested on a sword.  She
+noticed that the little Olanchoans stopped and looked after him,
+as he pushed his way among them, and she could see that the men
+were telling the women who he was.  Sir Julian Pindar, the old
+British Minister, stopped him, and she watched them as they
+laughed together over the English war medals on the American's
+breast, which Sir Julian touched with his finger.  He called the
+French Minister and his pretty wife to look, too, and they
+all laughed and talked together in great spirits, and Miss
+Langham wondered if Clay was speaking in French to them.
+
+Miss Langham did not enjoy the ball; she felt injured and
+aggrieved, and she assured herself that she had been hardly used.
+
+She had only done her duty, and yet all the sympathy had gone to
+her sister, who had placed her in a trying position.  She thought
+it was most inconsiderate.
+
+Hope walked slowly across the veranda when the others had gone,
+and watched the carriage as long as it remained in sight.  Then
+she threw herself into a big arm-chair, and looked down upon her
+pretty frock and her new dancing-slippers.  She, too, felt badly
+used.
+
+The moonlight fell all about her, as it had on the first night of
+their arrival, a month before, but now it seemed cold and
+cheerless, and gave an added sense of loneliness to the silent
+house.  She did not go inside to read, as she had promised to do,
+but sat for the next hour looking out across the harbor.  She
+could not blame Alice.  She considered that Alice always moved by
+rules and precedents, like a queen in a game of chess, and she
+wondered why.  It made life so tame and uninteresting, and yet
+people invariably admired Alice, and some one had spoken of her
+as the noblest example of the modern gentlewoman.  She was
+sure she could not grow up to be any thing like that.  She was
+quite confident that she was going to disappoint her family.  She
+wondered if people would like her better if she were discreet
+like Alice, and less like her brother Ted.  If Mr. Clay, for
+instance, would like her better?  She wondered if he disapproved
+of her riding on the engine with MacWilliams, and of her tearing
+through the mines on her pony, and spearing with a lance of
+sugar-cane at the mongrel curs that ran to snap at his flanks. 
+She remembered his look of astonished amusement the day he had
+caught her in this impromptu pig-sticking, and she felt herself
+growing red at the recollection.  She was sure he thought her a
+tomboy.  Probably he never thought of her at all.
+
+Hope leaned back in the chair and looked up at the stars above
+the mountains and tried to think of any of her heroes and princes
+in fiction who had gone through such interesting experiences as
+had Mr. Clay.  Some of them had done so, but they were creatures
+in a book and this hero was alive, and she knew him, and had
+probably made him despise her as a silly little girl who was
+scolded and sent off to bed like a disobedient child.  Hope felt
+a choking in her throat and something like a tear creep to her
+eyes: but she was surprised to find that the fact did not
+make her ashamed of herself.  She owned that she was wounded
+and disappointed, and to make it harder she could not help
+picturing Alice and Clay laughing and talking together in some
+corner away from the ball-room, while she, who understood him so
+well, and who could not find the words to tell him how much she
+valued what he was and what he had done, was forgotten and
+sitting here alone, like Cinderella, by the empty fireplace.
+
+The picture was so pathetic as Hope drew it, that for a moment
+she felt almost a touch of self-pity, but the next she laughed
+scornfully at her own foolishness, and rising with an impatient
+shrug, walked away in the direction of her room.
+
+But before she had crossed the veranda she was stopped by the
+sound of a horse's hoofs galloping over the hard sun-baked road
+that led from the city, and before she had stepped forward out of
+the shadow in which she stood the horse had reached the steps and
+his rider had pulled him back on his haunches and swung himself
+off before the forefeet had touched the ground.
+
+Hope had guessed that it was Clay by his riding, and she feared
+from his haste that some one of her people were ill.  So she ran
+anxiously forward and asked if anything were wrong.
+
+Clay started at her sudden appearance, and gave a short boyish
+laugh of pleasure.
+
+``I'm so glad you're still up,'' he said.  ``No, nothing is
+wrong.''  He stopped in some embarrassment.  He had been moved to
+return by the fact that the little girl he knew was in trouble,
+and now that he was suddenly confronted by this older and
+statelier young person, his action seemed particularly silly, and
+he was at a loss to explain it in any way that would not give
+offence.
+
+``No, nothing is wrong,'' he repeated.  ``I came after
+something.''
+
+Clay had borrowed one of the cloaks the troopers wore at night
+from the same man who had lent him the horse, and as he stood
+bareheaded before her, with the cloak hanging from his
+shoulders to the floor and the star and ribbon across his breast,
+Hope felt very grateful to him for being able to look like a
+Prince or a hero in a book, and to yet remain her Mr. Clay at the
+same time.
+
+``I came to get your sister's fan,'' Clay explained.  ``She
+forgot it.''
+
+The young girl looked at him for a moment in surprise and then
+straightened herself slightly.  She did not know whether she was
+the more indignant with Alice for sending such a man on so
+foolish an errand, or with Clay for submitting to such a service.
+
+``Oh, is that it?'' she said at last.  ``I will go and find
+you one.''  She gave him a dignified little bow and moved away
+toward the door, with every appearance of disapproval.
+
+``Oh, I don't know,'' she heard Clay say, doubtfully; ``I don't
+have to go just yet, do I?  May I not stay here a little while?''
+
+Hope stood and looked at him in some perplexity.
+
+``Why, yes,'' she answered, wonderingly.  ``But don't you want to
+go back?  You came in a great hurry.  And won't Alice want her
+fan?''
+
+``Oh, she has it by this time.  I told Stuart to find it.  She
+left it in the carriage, and the carriage is waiting at the end
+of the plaza.''
+
+``Then why did you come?'' asked Hope, with rising suspicion.
+
+``Oh, I don't know,'' said Clay, helplessly.  ``I thought I'd
+just like a ride in the moonlight.  I hate balls and dances
+anyway, don't you?  I think you were very wise not to go.''
+
+Hope placed her hands on the back of the big arm-chair and looked
+steadily at him as he stood where she could see his face in the
+moonlight.  ``You came back,'' she said, ``because they thought I
+was crying, and they sent you to see.  Is that it?  Did Alice
+send you?'' she demanded.
+
+Clay gave a gasp of consternation.
+
+``You know that no one sent me,'' he said.  ``I thought they
+treated you abominably, and I wanted to come and say so.  That's
+all.  And I wanted to tell you that I missed you very much, and
+that your not coming had spoiled the evening for me, and I came
+also because I preferred to talk to you than to stay where I was.
+No one knows that I came to see you.  I said I was going to get
+the fan, and I told Stuart to find it after I'd left.  I just
+wanted to see you, that's all.  But I will go back again at
+once.''
+
+While he had been speaking Hope had lowered her eyes from his
+face and had turned and looked out across the harbor.  There was
+a strange, happy tumult in her breast, and she was breathing so
+rapidly that she was afraid he would notice it.  She also felt an
+absurd inclination to cry, and that frightened her.  So she
+laughed and turned and looked up into his face again.  Clay saw
+the same look in her eyes that he had seen there the day when she
+had congratulated him on his work at the mines.  He had seen it
+before in the eyes of other women and it troubled him.  Hope
+seated herself in the big chair, and Clay tossed his cloak on the
+floor at her feet and sat down with his shoulders against one of
+the pillars.  He glanced up at her and found that the look that
+had troubled him was gone, and that her eyes were now smiling
+with excitement and pleasure.
+
+``And did you bring me something from the ball in your pocket to
+comfort me,'' she asked, mockingly.
+
+``Yes, I did,'' Clay answered, unabashed.  ``I brought you some
+bonbons.''
+
+``You didn't, really!'' Hope cried, with a shriek of delight. 
+``How absurd of you!  The sort you pull?''
+
+``The sort you pull,'' Clay repeated, gravely.  ``And also a
+dance-card, which is a relic of barbarism still existing in this
+Southern capital.  It has the arms of Olancho on it in gold, and
+I thought you might like to keep it as a souvenir.''  He pulled
+the card from his coat-pocket and said, ``May I have this
+dance?''
+
+``You may,'' Hope answered.  ``But you wouldn't mind if we sat it
+out, would you?''
+
+``I should prefer it,'' Clay said, as he scrawled his name across
+the card.  ``It is so crowded inside, and the company is rather
+mixed.''  They both laughed lightly at their own foolishness, and
+Hope smiled down upon him affectionately and proudly.  ``You may
+smoke, if you choose; and would you like something cool to
+drink?'' she asked, anxiously.  ``After your ride, you know,''
+she suggested, with hospitable intent.  Clay said that he was
+very comfortable without a drink, but lighted a cigar and watched
+her covertly through the smoke, as she sat smiling happily
+and quite unconsciously upon the moonlit world around them.  She
+caught Clay's eye fixed on her, and laughed lightly.
+
+``What is it?'' he said.
+
+``Oh, I was just thinking,'' Hope replied, ``that it was much
+better to have a dance come to you, than to go to the dance.''
+
+``Does one man and a dance-card and three bonbons constitute your
+idea of a ball?''
+
+``Doesn't it?  You see, I am not out yet, I don't know.''
+
+``I should think it might depend a good deal upon the man,'' Clay
+suggested.
+
+``That sounds as though you were hinting,'' said Hope,
+doubtfully.  ``Now what would I say to that if I were out?''
+
+``I don't know, but don't say it,'' Clay answered.  ``It would
+probably be something very unflattering or very forward, and in
+either case I should take you back to your chaperon and leave you
+there.''
+
+Hope had not been listening.  Her eyes were fixed on a level with
+his tie, and Clay raised his hand to it in some trepidation. 
+``Mr. Clay,'' she began abruptly and leaning eagerly forward,
+``would you think me very rude if I asked you what you did to get
+all those crosses?  I know they mean something, and I do so
+want to know what.  Please tell me.''
+
+``Oh, those!'' said Clay.  ``The reason I put them on to-night is
+because wearing them is supposed to be a sort of compliment to
+your host.  I got in the habit abroad--''
+
+``I didn't ask you that,'' said Hope, severely.  ``I asked you
+what you did to get them.  Now begin with the Legion of Honor on
+the left, and go right on until you come to the end, and please
+don't skip anything.  Leave in all the bloodthirsty parts, and
+please don't be modest.''
+
+``Like Othello,'' suggested Clay.
+
+``Yes,'' said Hope; ``I will be Desdemona.''
+
+``Well, Desdemona, it was like this,'' said Clay, laughing.  ``I
+got that medal and that star for serving in the Nile campaign,
+under Wolseley.  After I left Egypt, I went up the coast to
+Algiers, where I took service under the French in a most
+disreputable organization known as the Foreign Legion--''
+
+``Don't tell me,'' exclaimed Hope, in delight, ``that you have
+been a Chasseur d'Afrique!  Not like the man in `Under Two
+Flags'?''
+
+``No, not at all like that man,'' said Clay, emphatically.  ``I
+was just a plain, common, or garden, sappeur, and I showed the
+other good-for-nothings how to dig trenches.  Well, I
+contaminated the Foreign Legion for eight months, and then I
+went to Peru, where I--''
+
+``You're skipping,'' said Hope.  ``How did you get the Legion of
+Honor?''
+
+``Oh, that?'' said Clay.  ``That was a gallery play I made once
+when we were chasing some Arabs.  They took the French flag away
+from our color-bearer, and I got it back again and waved it
+frantically around my head until I was quite certain the Colonel
+had seen me doing it, and then I stopped as soon as I knew that I
+was sure of promotion.''
+
+``Oh, how can you?'' cried Hope.  ``You didn't do anything of the
+sort.  You probably saved the entire regiment.''
+
+``Well, perhaps I did,'' Clay returned.  ``Though I don't
+remember it, and nobody mentioned it at the time.''
+
+``Go on about the others,'' said Hope.  ``And do try to be
+truthful.''
+
+``Well, I got this one from Spain, because I was President of an
+International Congress of Engineers at Madrid.  That was the
+ostensible reason, but the real reason was because I taught the
+Spanish Commissioners to play poker instead of baccarat.  The
+German Emperor gave me this for designing a fort, and the Sultan
+of Zanzibar gave me this, and no one but the Sultan knows
+why, and he won't tell.  I suppose he's ashamed.  He gives them
+away instead of cigars.  He was out of cigars the day I called.''
+
+``What a lot of places you have seen,'' sighed Hope.  ``I have
+been in Cairo and Algiers, too, but I always had to walk about
+with a governess, and she wouldn't go to the mosques because she
+said they were full of fleas.  We always go to Homburg and Paris
+in the summer, and to big hotels in London.  I love to travel,
+but I don't love to travel that way, would you?''
+
+``I travel because I have no home,'' said Clay.  ``I'm different
+from the chap that came home because all the other places were
+shut.  I go to other places because there is no home open.''
+
+``What do you mean?'' said Hope, shaking her head.  ``Why have
+you no home?''
+
+``There was a ranch in Colorado that I used to call home,'' said
+Clay, ``but they've cut it up into town lots.  I own a plot in
+the cemetery outside of the town, where my mother is buried, and
+I visit that whenever I am in the States, and that is the only
+piece of earth anywhere in the world that I have to go back to.''
+
+Hope leaned forward with her hands clasped in front of her and
+her eyes wide open.
+
+``And your father?'' she said, softly; ``is he--is he there,
+too--''
+
+Clay looked at the lighted end of his cigar as he turned it
+between his fingers.
+
+``My father, Miss Hope,'' he said, ``was a filibuster, and went
+out on the `Virginius' to help free Cuba, and was shot, against a
+stone wall.  We never knew where he was buried.''
+
+``Oh, forgive me; I beg your pardon,'' said Hope.  There was such
+distress in her voice that Clay looked at her quickly and saw the
+tears in her eyes.  She reached out her hand timidly, and touched
+for an instant his own rough, sunburned fist, as it lay clenched
+on his knee.  ``I am so sorry,'' she said, ``so sorry.''  For the
+first time in many years the tears came to Clay's eyes and
+blurred the moonlight and the scene before him, and he sat
+unmanned and silent before the simple touch of a young girl's
+sympathy.
+
+An hour later, when his pony struck the gravel from beneath his
+hoofs on the race back to the city, and Clay turned to wave his
+hand to Hope in the doorway, she seemed, as she stood with the
+moonlight falling about her white figure, like a spirit beckoning
+the way to a new paradise.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+Clay reached the President's Palace during the supper-hour, and
+found Mr. Langham and his daughter at the President's table. 
+Madame Alvarez pointed to a place for him beside Alice Langham,
+who held up her hand in welcome.  ``You were very foolish to rush
+off like that,'' she said.
+
+``It wasn't there,'' said Clay, crowding into the place beside
+her.
+
+``No, it was here in the carriage all the time.  Captain Stuart
+found it for me.''
+
+``Oh, he did, did he?'' said Clay; ``that's why I couldn't find
+it.  I am hungry,'' he laughed, ``my ride gave me an appetite.'' 
+He looked over and grinned at Stuart, but that gentleman was
+staring fixedly at the candles on the table before him, his eyes
+filled with concern.  Clay observed that Madame Alvarez was
+covertly watching the young officer, and frowning her disapproval
+at his preoccupation.  So he stretched his leg under the table
+and kicked viciously at Stuart's boots.  Old General Rojas, the
+Vice-President, who sat next to Stuart, moved suddenly and then
+blinked violently at the ceiling with an expression of
+patient suffering, but the exclamation which had escaped him
+brought Stuart back to the present, and he talked with the woman
+next him in a perfunctory manner.
+
+Miss Langham and her father were waiting for their carriage in
+the great hall of the Palace as Stuart came up to Clay, and
+putting his hand affectionately on his shoulder, began pointing
+to something farther back in the hall.  To the night-birds of the
+streets and the noisy fiacre drivers outside, and to the crowd of
+guests who stood on the high marble steps waiting for their turn
+to depart, he might have been relating an amusing anecdote of the
+ball just over.
+
+``I'm in great trouble, old man,'' was what he said.  ``I must
+see you alone to-night.  I'd ask you to my rooms, but they watch
+me all the time, and I don't want them to suspect you are in this
+until they must.  Go on in the carriage, but get out as you pass
+the Plaza Bolivar and wait for me by the statue there.''
+
+Clay smiled, apparently in great amusement.  ``That's very
+good,'' he said.
+
+He crossed over to where King stood surveying the powdered
+beauties of Olancho and their gowns of a past fashion, with an
+intensity of admiration which would have been suspicious to those
+who knew his tastes.  ``When we get into the carriage,''
+said Clay, in a low voice, ``we will both call to Stuart that we
+will see him to-morrow morning at breakfast.''
+
+``All right,'' assented King.  ``What's up?''
+
+Stuart helped Miss Langham into her carriage, and as it moved
+away King shouted to him in English to remember that he was
+breakfasting with him on the morrow, and Clay called out in
+Spanish, ``Until to-morrow at breakfast, don't forget.''  And
+Stuart answered, steadily, ``Good night until to-morrow at one.''
+
+As their carriage jolted through the dark and narrow street,
+empty now of all noise or movement, one of Stuart's troopers
+dashed by it at a gallop, with a lighted lantern swinging at his
+side.  He raised it as he passed each street crossing, and held
+it high above his head so that its light fell upon the walls of
+the houses at the four corners.  The clatter of his horse's hoofs
+had not ceased before another trooper galloped toward them riding
+more slowly, and throwing the light of his lantern over the
+trunks of the trees that lined the pavements.  As the carriage
+passed him, he brought his horse to its side with a jerk of the
+bridle, and swung his lantern in the faces of its occupants.
+
+``Who lives?'' he challenged.
+
+``Olancho,'' Clay replied.
+
+``Who answers?''
+
+``Free men,'' Clay answered again, and pointed at the star on his
+coat.
+
+The soldier muttered an apology, and striking his heels into his
+horse's side, dashed noisily away, his lantern tossing from side
+to side, high in the air, as he drew rein to scan each tree and
+passed from one lamp-post to the next.
+
+``What does that mean?'' said Mr. Langham; ``did he take us for
+highwaymen?''
+
+``It is the custom,'' said Clay.  ``We are out rather late, you
+see.''
+
+``If I remember rightly, Clay,'' said King, ``they gave a ball at
+Brussels on the eve of Waterloo.''
+
+``I believe they did,'' said Clay, smiling.  He spoke to the
+driver to stop the carriage, and stepped down into the street.
+
+``I have to leave you here,'' he said; ``drive on quickly,
+please; I can explain better in the morning.''
+
+The Plaza Bolivar stood in what had once been the centre of the
+fashionable life of Olancho, but the town had moved farther up
+the hill, and it was now far in the suburbs, its walks neglected
+and its turf overrun with weeds.  The houses about it had fallen
+into disuse, and the few that were still occupied at the time
+Clay entered it showed no sign of life.  Clay picked his way
+over the grass-grown paths to the statue of Bolivar, the
+hero of the sister republic of Venezuela, which still stood on
+its pedestal in a tangle of underbrush and hanging vines.  The
+iron railing that had once surrounded it was broken down, and the
+branches of the trees near were black with sleeping buzzards. 
+Two great palms reared themselves in the moonlight at either
+side, and beat their leaves together in the night wind,
+whispering and murmuring together like two living conspirators.
+
+``This ought to be safe enough,'' Clay murmured to himself. 
+``It's just the place for plotting.  I hope there are no
+snakes.''  He seated himself on the steps of the pedestal, and
+lighting a cigar, remained smoking and peering into the shadows
+about him, until a shadow blacker than the darkness rose at his
+feet, and a voice said, sternly, ``Put out that light.  I saw it
+half a mile away.''
+
+Clay rose and crushed his cigar under his foot.  ``Now then, old
+man,'' he demanded briskly, ``what's up?  It's nearly daylight
+and we must hurry.''
+
+Stuart seated himself heavily on the stone steps, like a man
+tired in mind and body, and unfolded a printed piece of paper. 
+Its blank side was damp and sticky with paste.
+
+``It is too dark for you to see this,'' he began, in a
+strained voice, ``so I will translate it to you.  It is an attack
+on Madame Alvarez and myself.  They put them up during the ball,
+when they knew my men would be at the Palace.  I have had them
+scouring the streets for the last two hours tearing them down,
+but they are all over the place, in the cafe's and clubs.  They
+have done what they were meant to do.''
+
+Clay took another cigar from his pocket and rolled it between his
+lips.  ``What does it say?'' he asked.
+
+``It goes over the old ground first.  It says Alvarez has given
+the richest birthright of his country to aliens--that means the
+mines and Langham--and has put an alien in command of the army--
+that is meant for me.  I've no more to do with the army than you
+have--I only wish I had!  And then it says that the boundary
+aggressions of Ecuador and Venezuela have not been resented in
+consequence.  It asks what can be expected of a President who is
+as blind to the dishonor of his country as he is to the dishonor
+of his own home?''
+
+Clay muttered under his breath, ``Well, go on.  Is it explicit? 
+More explicit than that?''
+
+``Yes,'' said Stuart, grimly.  ``I can't repeat it.  It is quite
+clear what they mean.''
+
+``Have you got any of them?'' Clay asked.  Can you fix it on
+some one that you can fight?''
+
+``Mendoza did it, of course,'' Stuart answered, ``but we cannot
+prove it.  And if we could, we are not strong enough to take him.
+
+He has the city full of his men now, and the troops are pouring
+in every hour.''
+
+``Well, Alvarez can stop that, can't he?''
+
+``They are coming in for the annual review.  He can't show the
+people that he is afraid of his own army.''
+
+``What are you going to do?''
+
+``What am I going to do?'' Stuart repeated, dully.  ``That is
+what I want you to tell me.  There is nothing I can do now.  I've
+brought trouble and insult on people who have been kinder to me
+than my own blood have been.  Who took me in when I was naked and
+clothed me, when I hadn't a friend or a sixpence to my name.  You
+remember--I came here from that row in Colombia with my wound,
+and I was down with the fever when they found me, and Alvarez
+gave me the appointment.  And this is how I reward them.  If I
+stay I do more harm.  If I go away I leave them surrounded by
+enemies, and not enemies who fight fair, but damned thieves and
+scoundrels, who stab at women and who fight in the dark.  I
+wouldn't have had it happen, old man, for my right arm! 
+They--they have been so kind to me, and I have been so happy
+here--and now!''  The boy bowed his face in his hands and sat
+breathing brokenly while Clay turned his unlit cigar between his
+teeth and peered at him curiously through the darkness.  ``Now I
+have made them both unhappy, and they hate me, and I hate myself,
+and I have brought nothing but trouble to every one.  First I
+made my own people miserable, and now I make my best friends
+miserable, and I had better be dead.  I wish I were dead.  I wish
+I had never been born.''
+
+Clay laid his hand on the other's bowed shoulder and shook him
+gently.  ``Don't talk like that,'' he said; ``it does no good. 
+Why do you hate yourself?''
+
+``What?'' asked Stuart, wearily, without looking up.  ``What did
+you say?''
+
+``You said you had made them hate you, and you added that you
+hated yourself.  Well, I can see why they naturally would be
+angry for the time, at least.  But why do you hate yourself? 
+Have you reason to?''
+
+``I don't understand,'' said Stuart.
+
+``Well, I can't make it any plainer,'' Clay replied.  ``It isn't
+a question I will ask.  But you say you want my advice.  Well, my
+advice to my friend and to a man who is not my friend, differ. 
+And in this case it depends on whether what that thing--''
+Clay kicked the paper which had fallen on the ground--``what that
+thing says is true.''
+
+The younger man looked at the paper below him and then back at
+Clay, and sprang to his feet.
+
+``Why, damn you,'' he cried, ``what do you mean?''
+
+He stood above Clay with both arms rigid at his side and his head
+bent forward.  The dawn had just broken, and the two men saw each
+other in the ghastly gray light of the morning.  ``If any man,''
+cried Stuart thickly, ``dares to say that that blackguardly lie
+is true I'll kill him.  You or any one else.  Is that what you
+mean, damn you?  If it is, say so, and I'll break every bone of
+your body.''
+
+``Well, that's much better,'' growled Clay, sullenly.  ``The way
+you went on wishing you were dead and hating yourself made me
+almost lose faith in mankind.  Now you go make that speech to the
+President, and then find the man who put up those placards, and
+if you can't find the right man, take any man you meet and make
+him eat it, paste and all, and beat him to death if he doesn't. 
+Why, this is no time to whimper--because the world is full of
+liars.  Go out and fight them and show them you are not afraid. 
+Confound you, you had me so scared there that I almost thrashed
+you myself.  Forgive me, won't you?'' he begged earnestly. 
+He rose and held out his hand and the other took it, doubtfully. 
+``It was your own fault, you young idiot,'' protested Clay. 
+``You told your story the wrong way.  Now go home and get some
+sleep and I'll be back in a few hours to help you.  Look!'' he
+said.  He pointed through the trees to the sun that shot up like
+a red hot disk of heat above the cool green of the mountains. 
+``See,'' said Clay, ``God has given us another day.  Seven
+battles were fought in seven days once in my country.  Let's be
+thankful, old man, that we're NOT dead, but alive to fight our
+own and other people's battles.''
+
+The younger man sighed and pressed Clay's hand again before he
+dropped it.
+
+``You are very good to me,'' he said.  ``I'm not just quite
+myself this morning.  I'm a bit nervous, I think.  You'll surely
+come, won't you?''
+
+``By noon,'' Clay promised.  ``And if it does come,'' he added,
+``don't forget my fifteen hundred men at the mines.''
+
+``Good! I won't,'' Stuart replied.  ``I'll call on you if I need
+them.''  He raised his fingers mechanically to his helmet in
+salute, and catching up his sword turned and strode away erect
+and soldierly through the debris and weeds of the deserted plaza.
+
+Clay remained motionless on the steps of the pedestal and
+followed the younger man with his eyes.  He drew a long breath
+and began a leisurely search through his pockets for his match-
+box, gazing about him as he did so, as though looking for some
+one to whom he could speak his feelings.  He lifted his eyes to
+the stern, smooth-shaven face of the bronze statue above him that
+seemed to be watching Stuart's departing figure.
+
+``General Bolivar,'' Clay said, as he lit his cigar, ``observe
+that young man.  He is a soldier and a gallant gentleman.  You,
+sir, were a great soldier--the greatest this God-forsaken country
+will ever know--and you were, sir, an ardent lover.  I ask you to
+salute that young man as I do, and to wish him well.''  Clay
+lifted his high hat to the back of the young officer as it was
+hidden in the hanging vines, and once again, with grave respect
+to the grim features of the great general above him, and then
+smiling at his own conceit, he ran lightly down the steps and
+disappeared among the trees of the plaza.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+Clay slept for three hours.  He had left a note on the floor
+instructing MacWilliams and young Langham not to go to the mines,
+but to waken him at ten o'clock, and by eleven the three men were
+galloping off to the city.  As they left the Palms they met Hope
+returning from a morning ride on the Alameda, and Clay begged
+her, with much concern, not to ride abroad again.  There was a
+difference in his tone toward her.  There was more anxiety in it
+than the occasion seemed to justify, and he put his request in
+the form of a favor to himself, while the day previous he would
+simply have told her that she must not go riding alone.
+
+``Why?'' asked Hope, eagerly.  ``Is there going to be trouble?''
+
+``I hope not,'' Clay said, ``but the soldiers are coming in from
+the provinces for the review, and the roads are not safe.''
+
+``I'd be safe with you, though,'' said Hope, smiling persuasively
+upon the three men.  ``Won't you take me with you, please?''
+
+``Hope,'' said young Langham in the tone of the elder
+brother's brief authority, ``you must go home at once.''
+
+Hope smiled wickedly.  ``I don't want to,'' she said.
+
+``I'll bet you a box of cigars I can beat you to the veranda by
+fifty yards,'' said MacWilliams, turning his horse's head.
+
+Hope clasped her sailor hat in one hand and swung her whip with
+the other.  ``I think not,'' she cried, and disappeared with a
+flutter of skirts and a scurry of flying pebbles.
+
+``At times,'' said Clay, ``MacWilliams shows an unexpected
+knowledge of human nature.''
+
+``Yes, he did quite right,'' assented Langham, nodding his head
+mysteriously.  ``We've no time for girls at present, have we?''
+
+``No, indeed,'' said Clay, hiding any sign of a smile.
+
+Langham breathed deeply at the thought of the part he was to play
+in this coming struggle, and remained respectfully silent as they
+trotted toward the city.  He did not wish to disturb the plots
+and counterplots that he was confident were forming in Clay's
+brain, and his devotion would have been severely tried had he
+known that his hero's mind was filled with a picture of a young
+girl in a blue shirt-waist and a whipcord riding-skirt.
+
+Clay sent for Stuart to join them at the restaurant, and
+MacWilliams arriving at the same time, the four men seated
+themselves conspicuously in the centre of the cafe' and sipped
+their chocolate as though unconscious of any imminent danger, and
+in apparent freedom from all responsibilities and care.  While
+MacWilliams and Langham laughed and disputed over a game of
+dominoes, the older men exchanged, under cover of their chatter,
+the few words which they had met to speak.
+
+The manifestoes, Stuart said, had failed of their purpose.  He
+had already called upon the President, and had offered to resign
+his position and leave the country, or to stay and fight his
+maligners, and take up arms at once against Mendoza's party. 
+Alvarez had treated him like a son, and bade him be patient.  He
+held that Caesar's wife was above suspicion because she was
+Caesar's wife, and that no canards posted at midnight could
+affect his faith in his wife or in his friend.  He refused to
+believe that any coup d'etat was imminent, save the one
+which he himself meditated when he was ready to proclaim the
+country in a state of revolution, and to assume a military
+dictatorship.
+
+``What nonsense!'' exclaimed Clay.  ``What is a military
+dictatorship without soldiers?  Can't he see that the army is
+with Mendoza?''
+
+``No,'' Stuart replied.  ``Rojas and I were with him all the
+morning.  Rojas is an old trump, Clay.  He's not bright and he's
+old-fashioned; but he is honest.  And the people know it.  If I
+had Rojas for a chief instead of Alvarez, I'd arrest Mendoza with
+my own hand, and I wouldn't be afraid to take him to the carcel
+through the streets.  The people wouldn't help him.  But the
+President doesn't dare.  Not that he hasn't pluck,'' added the
+young lieutenant, loyally, ``for he takes his life in his hands
+when he goes to the review tomorrow, and he knows it.  Think of
+it, will you, out there alone with a field of five thousand men
+around him!  Rojas thinks he can hold half of them, as many as
+Mendoza can, and I have my fifty.  But you can't tell what any
+one of them will do for a drink or a dollar.  They're no more
+soldiers than these waiters.  They're bandits in uniform, and
+they'll kill for the man that pays best.''
+
+``Then why doesn't Alvarez pay them?'' Clay growled.
+
+Stuart looked away and lowered his eyes to the table.  ``He
+hasn't the money, I suppose,'' he said, evasively.  ``He--he has
+transferred every cent of it into drafts on Rothschild.  They are
+at the house now, representing five millions of dollars in gold--
+and her jewels, too--packed ready for flight.''
+
+``Then he does expect trouble?'' said Clay.  ``You told me--''
+
+``They're all alike; you know them,'' said Stuart.  ``They won't
+believe they're in danger until the explosion comes, but they
+always have a special train ready, and they keep the funds of the
+government under their pillows.  He engaged apartments on the
+Avenue Kleber six months ago.''
+
+``Bah!'' said Clay.  ``It's the old story.  Why don't you quit
+him?''
+
+Stuart raised his eyes and dropped them again, and Clay sighed. 
+``I'm sorry,'' he said.
+
+MacWilliams interrupted them in an indignant stage-whisper. 
+``Say, how long have we got to keep up this fake game?'' he
+asked.  ``I don't know anything about dominoes, and neither does
+Ted.  Tell us what you've been saying.  Is there going to be
+trouble?  If there is, Ted and I want to be in it.  We are
+looking for trouble.''
+
+Clay had tipped back his chair, and was surveying the restaurant
+and the blazing plaza beyond its open front with an expression of
+cheerful unconcern.  Two men were reading the morning papers near
+the door, and two others were dragging through a game of dominoes
+in a far corner.  The heat of midday had settled on the place,
+and the waiters dozed, with their chairs tipped back against the
+walls.  Outside, the awning of the restaurant threw a broad
+shadow across the marble-topped tables on the sidewalk, and half
+a dozen fiacre drivers slept peacefully in their carriages before
+the door.
+
+The town was taking its siesta, and the brisk step of a stranger
+who crossed the tessellated floor and rapped with his knuckles on
+the top of the cigar-case was the only sign of life.  The
+newcomer turned with one hand on the glass case and swept the
+room carelessly with his eyes.  They were hard blue eyes under
+straight eyebrows.  Their owner was dressed unobtrusively in a
+suit of rough tweed, and this and his black hat, and the fact
+that he was smooth-shaven, distinguished him as a foreigner.
+
+As he faced them the forelegs of Clay's chair descended slowly to
+the floor, and he began to smile comprehendingly and to nod his
+head as though the coming of the stranger had explained something
+of which he had been in doubt.  His companions turned and
+followed the direction of his eyes, but saw nothing of interest
+in the newcomer.  He looked as though he might be a concession
+hunter from the States, or a Manchester drummer, prepared to
+offer six months' credit on blankets and hardware.
+
+Clay rose and strode across the room, circling the tables in such
+a way that he could keep himself between the stranger and
+the door.  At his approach the new-comer turned his back and
+fumbled with his change on the counter.
+
+``Captain Burke, I believe?'' said Clay.  The stranger bit the
+cigar he had just purchased, and shook his head.  ``I am very
+glad to see you,'' Clay continued.  ``Sit down, won't you?  I
+want to talk with you.''
+
+``I think you've made a mistake,'' the stranger answered,
+quietly.  ``My name is--''
+
+``Colonel, perhaps, then,'' said Clay.  ``I might have known it. 
+I congratulate you, Colonel.''
+
+The man looked at Clay for an instant, with the cigar clenched
+between his teeth and his blue eyes fixed steadily on the other's
+face.  Clay waved his hand again invitingly toward a table, and
+the man shrugged his shoulders and laughed, and, pulling a chair
+toward him, sat down.
+
+``Come over here, boys,'' Clay called.  ``I want you to meet an
+old friend of mine, Captain Burke.''
+
+The man called Burke stared at the three men as they crossed the
+room and seated themselves at the table, and nodded to them in
+silence.
+
+``We have here,'' said Clay, gayly, but in a low voice, ``the key
+to the situation.  This is the gentleman who supplies Mendoza
+with the sinews of war.  Captain Burke is a brave soldier and a
+citizen of my own or of any country, indeed, which happens
+to have the most sympathetic Consul-General.''
+
+Burke smiled grimly, with a condescending nod, and putting away
+the cigar, took out a brier pipe and began to fill it from his
+tobacco-pouch.  ``The Captain is a man of few words and extremely
+modest about himself,'' Clay continued, lightly; ``so I must tell
+you who he is myself.  He is a promoter of revolutions.  That is
+his business,--a professional promoter of revolutions, and that
+is what makes me so glad to see him again.  He knows all about
+the present crisis here, and he is going to tell us all he knows
+as soon as he fills his pipe.  I ought to warn you, Burke,'' he
+added, ``that this is Captain Stuart, in charge of the police and
+the President's cavalry troop.  So, you see, whatever you say,
+you will have one man who will listen to you.''
+
+Burke crossed one short fat leg over the other, and crowded the
+tobacco in the bowl of his pipe with his thumb.
+
+``I thought you were in Chili, Clay,'' he said.
+
+``No, you didn't think I was in Chili,'' Clay replied, kindly. 
+``I left Chili two years ago.  The Captain and I met there,'' he
+explained to the others, ``when Balmaceda was trying to make
+himself dictator.  The Captain was on the side of the
+Congressionalists, and was furnishing arms and dynamite. 
+The Captain is always on the winning side, at least he always has
+been--up to the present.  He is not a creature of sentiment; are
+you, Burke?  The Captain believes with Napoleon that God is on
+the side that has the heaviest artillery.''
+
+Burke lighted his pipe and drummed absentmindedly on the table
+with his match-box.
+
+``I can't afford to be sentimental,'' he said.  ``Not in my
+business.''
+
+``Of course not,'' Clay assented, cheerfully.  He looked at Burke
+and laughed, as though the sight of him recalled pleasant
+memories.  ``I wish I could give these boys an idea of how clever
+you are, Captain,'' he said.  ``The Captain was the first man,
+for instance, to think of packing cartridges in tubs of lard, and
+of sending rifles in piano-cases.  He represents the Welby
+revolver people in England, and half a dozen firms in the States,
+and he has his little stores in Tampa and Mobile and Jamaica,
+ready to ship off at a moment's notice to any revolution in
+Central America.  When I first met the Captain,'' Clay continued,
+gleefully, and quite unmindful of the other's continued silence,
+``he was starting off to rescue Arabi Pasha from the island of
+Ceylon.  You may remember, boys, that when Dufferin saved Arabi
+from hanging, the British shipped him to Ceylon as a
+political prisoner.  Well, the Captain was sent by Arabi's
+followers in Egypt to bring him back to lead a second rebellion. 
+Burke had everybody bribed at Ceylon, and a fine schooner fitted
+out and a lot of ruffians to do the fighting, and then the good,
+kind British Government pardoned Arabi the day before Burke
+arrived in port.  And you never got a cent for it; did you,
+Burke?''
+
+Burke shook his head and frowned.
+
+``Six thousand pounds sterling I was to have got for that,'' he
+said, with a touch of pardonable pride in his voice, ``and they
+set him free the day before I got there, just as Mr. Clay tells
+you.''
+
+``And then you headed Granville Prior's expedition for buried
+treasure off the island of Cocos, didn't you?'' said Clay.  ``Go
+on, tell them about it.  Be sociable.  You ought to write a book
+about your different business ventures, Burke, indeed you ought;
+but then,'' Clay added, smiling, ``nobody would believe you.'' 
+Burke rubbed his chin, thoughtfully, with his fingers, and looked
+modestly at the ceiling, and the two younger boys gazed at him
+with open-mouthed interest.
+
+``There ain't anything in buried treasure,'' he said, after a
+pause, ``except the money that's sunk in the fitting out.  It
+sounds good, but it's all foolishness.''
+
+``All foolishness, eh?'' said Clay, encouragingly.  ``And
+what did you do after Balmaceda was beaten?--after I last saw
+you?''
+
+``Crespo,'' Burke replied, after a pause, during which he pulled
+gently on his pipe.  `` `Caroline Brewer'--cleared from Key West
+for Curacao, with cargo of sewing-machines and ploughs--
+beached below Maracaibo--thirty-five thousand rounds and two
+thousand rifles--at twenty bolivars apiece.''
+
+``Of course,'' said Clay, in a tone of genuine appreciation.  ``I
+might have known you'd be in that.  He says,'' he explained,
+``that he assisted General Crespo in Venezuela during his
+revolution against Guzman Blanco's party, and loaded a tramp
+steamer called the `Caroline Brewer' at Key West with arms, which
+he landed safely at a place for which he had no clearance papers,
+and he received forty thousand dollars in our money for the job--
+and very good pay, too, I should think,'' commented Clay.
+
+``Well, I don't know,'' Burke demurred.  ``You take in the cost
+of leasing the boat and provisioning her, and the crew's wages,
+and the cost of the cargo; that cuts into profits.  Then I had to
+stand off shore between Trinidad and Curacao for over three
+weeks before I got the signal to run in, and after that I was
+chased by a gun-boat for three days, and the crazy fool put a
+shot clean through my engine-room.  Cost me about twelve
+hundred dollars in repairs.''
+
+There was a pause, and Clay turned his eyes to the street, and
+then asked, abruptly, ``What are you doing now?''
+
+``Trying to get orders for smokeless powder,'' Burke answered,
+promptly.  He met Clay's look with eyes as undisturbed as his
+own.  ``But they won't touch it down here,'' he went on.  ``It
+doesn't appeal to 'em.  It's too expensive, and they'd rather see
+the smoke.  It makes them think--''
+
+``How long did you expect to stay here?'' Clay interrupted.
+
+``How long?'' repeated Burke, like a man in a witness-box who is
+trying to gain time.  ``Well, I was thinking of leaving by
+Friday, and taking a mule-train over to Bogota instead of waiting
+for the steamer to Colon.''  He blew a mouthful of smoke into the
+air and watched it drifting toward the door with apparent
+interest.
+
+``The `Santiago' leaves here Saturday for New York.  I guess you
+had better wait over for her,'' Clay said.  ``I'll engage your
+passage, and, in the meantime, Captain Stuart here will see that
+they treat you well in the cuartel.''
+
+The men around the table started, and sat motionless looking at
+Clay, but Burke only took his pipe from his mouth and
+knocked the ashes out on the heel of his boot.  ``What am I going
+to the cuartel for?'' he asked.
+
+``Well, the public good, I suppose,'' laughed Clay.  ``I'm sorry,
+but it's your own fault.  You shouldn't have shown yourself here
+at all.''
+
+``What have you got to do with it?'' asked Burke, calmly, as he
+began to refill his pipe.  He had the air of a man who saw
+nothing before him but an afternoon of pleasant discourse and
+leisurely inactivity.
+
+``You know what I've got to do with it,'' Clay replied.  ``I've
+got our concession to look after.''
+
+``Well, you're not running the town, too, are you?'' asked Burke.
+
+``No, but I'm going to run you out of it,'' Clay answered. 
+``Now, what are you going to do,--make it unpleasant for us and
+force our hand, or drive down quietly with our friend MacWilliams
+here?  He is the best one to take you, because he's not so well
+known.''
+
+Burke turned his head and looked over his shoulder at Stuart.
+
+``You taking orders from Mr. Clay, to-day, Captain Stuart?'' he
+asked.
+
+``Yes,'' Stuart answered, smiling.  ``I agree with Mr. Clay in
+whatever he thinks right.''
+
+``Oh, well, in that case,'' said Burke, rising reluctantly,
+with a protesting sigh, ``I guess I'd better call on the American
+minister.''
+
+``You can't.  He's in Ecuador on his annual visit,'' said Clay.
+
+``Indeed!  That's bad for me,'' muttered Burke, as though in much
+concern.  ``Well, then, I'll ask you to let me see our consul
+here.''
+
+``Certainly,'' Clay assented, with alacrity.  ``Mr. Langham, this
+young gentleman's father, got him his appointment, so I've no
+doubt he'll be only too glad to do anything for a friend of
+ours.''
+
+Burke raised his eyes and looked inquiringly at Clay, as though
+to assure himself that this was true, and Clay smiled back at
+him.
+
+``Oh, very well,'' Burke said.  ``Then, as I happen to be an
+Irishman by the name of Burke, and a British subject, I'll try
+Her Majesty's representative, and we'll see if he will allow me
+to be locked up without a reason or a warrant.''
+
+``That's no good, either,'' said Clay, shaking his head.  ``You
+fixed your nationality, as far as this continent is concerned, in
+Rio harbor, when Peixoto handed you over to the British admiral,
+and you claimed to be an American citizen, and were sent on board
+the `Detroit.'  If there's any doubt about that we've only got to
+cable to Rio Janeiro--to either legation.  But what's the use? 
+They know me here, and they don't know you, and I do. 
+You'll have to go to jail and stay there.''
+
+``Oh, well, if you put it that way, I'll go,'' said Burke. 
+``But,'' he added, in a lower voice, ``it's too late, Clay.''
+
+The expression of amusement on Clay's face, and his ease of
+manner, fell from him at the words, and he pulled Burke back into
+the chair again.  ``What do you mean?'' he asked, anxiously.
+
+``I mean just that, it's too late,'' Burke answered.  ``I don't
+mind going to jail.  I won't be there long.  My work's all done
+and paid for.  I was only staying on to see the fun at the
+finish, to see you fellows made fools of.''
+
+``Oh, you're sure of that, are you?'' asked Clay.
+
+``My dear boy!'' exclaimed the American, with a suggestion in his
+speech of his Irish origin, as his interest rose.  ``Did you ever
+know me to go into anything of this sort for the sentiment of it?
+Did you ever know me to back the losing side?  No.  Well, I tell
+you that you fellows have no more show in this than a parcel of
+Sunday-school children.  Of course I can't say when they mean to
+strike.  I don't know, and I wouldn't tell you if I did.  But
+when they do strike there'll be no striking back.  It'll be all
+over but the cheering.''
+
+Burke's tone was calm and positive.  He held the centre of the
+stage now, and he looked from one to the other of the
+serious faces around him with an expression of pitying amusement.
+
+``Alvarez may get off, and so may Madame Alvarez,'' he added,
+lowering his voice and turning his face away from Stuart.  ``But
+not if she shows herself in the streets, and not if she tries to
+take those drafts and jewels with her.''
+
+``Oh, you know that, do you?'' interrupted Clay.
+
+``I know nothing,'' Burke replied.  ``At least, nothing to what
+the rest of them know.  That's only the gossip I pick up at
+headquarters.  It doesn't concern me.  I've delivered my goods
+and given my receipt for the money, and that's all I care about. 
+But if it will make an old friend feel any more comfortable to
+have me in jail, why, I'll go, that's all.''
+
+Clay sat with pursed lips looking at Stuart.  The two boys leaned
+with their elbows on the tables and stared at Burke, who was
+searching leisurely through his pockets for his match-box.  From
+outside came the lazy cry of a vendor of lottery tickets, and the
+swift, uneven patter of bare feet, as company after company of
+dust-covered soldiers passed on their way from the provinces,
+with their shoes swinging from their bayonets.
+
+Clay slapped the table with an exclamation of impatience.
+
+``After all, this is only a matter of business,'' he said,
+``with all of us.  What do you say, Burke, to taking a ride with
+me to Stuart's rooms, and having a talk there with the President
+and Mr. Langham?  Langham has three millions sunk in these mines,
+and Alvarez has even better reasons than that for wanting to hold
+his job.  What do you say?  That's better than going to jail. 
+Tell us what they mean to do, and who is to do it, and I'll let
+you name your own figure, and I'll guarantee you that they'll
+meet it.  As long as you've no sentiment, you might as well fight
+on the side that will pay best.''
+
+Burke opened his lips as though to speak, and then shut them
+again, closely.  If the others thought that he was giving Clay's
+proposition a second and more serious thought, he was quick to
+undeceive them.
+
+``There ARE men in the business who do that sort of thing,''
+he said.  ``They sell arms to one man, and sell the fact that
+he's got them to the deputy-marshals, and sell the story of how
+smart they've been to the newspapers.  And they never make any
+more sales after that.  I'd look pretty, wouldn't I, bringing
+stuff into this country, and getting paid for it, and then
+telling you where it was hid, and everything else I knew?  I've
+no sentiment, as you say, but I've got business instinct, and
+that's not business.  No, I've told you enough, and if you
+think I'm not safe at large, why I'm quite ready to take a ride
+with your young friend here.''
+
+MacWilliams rose with alacrity, and beaming with pleasure at the
+importance of the duty thrust upon him.
+
+Burke smiled.  ``The young 'un seems to like the job,'' he said.
+
+``It's an honor to be associated with Captain Burke in any way,''
+said MacWilliams, as he followed him into a cab, while Stuart
+galloped off before them in the direction of the cuartel.
+
+``You wouldn't think so if you knew better,'' said Burke.  ``My
+friends have been watching us while we have been talking in there
+for the last hour.  They're watching us now, and if I were to nod
+my head during this ride, they'd throw you out into the street
+and set me free, if they had to break the cab into kindling-wood
+while they were doing it.''
+
+MacWilliams changed his seat to the one opposite his prisoner,
+and peered up and down the street in some anxiety.
+
+``I suppose you know there's an answer to that, don't you?'' he
+asked.  ``Well, the answer is, that if you nod your head once,
+you lose the top of it.''
+
+Burke gave an exclamation of disgust, and gazed at his zealous
+guardian with an expression of trepidation and unconcealed
+disapproval.  ``You're not armed, are you?'' he asked.
+
+MacWilliams nodded.  ``Why not?'' he said; ``these are rather
+heavy weather times, just at present, thanks to you and your
+friends.  Why, you seem rather afraid of fire-arms,'' he added,
+with the intolerance of youth.
+
+The Irish-American touched the young man on the knee, and lifted
+his hat.  ``My son,'' he said, ``when your hair is as gray as
+that, and you have been through six campaigns, you'll be brave
+enough to own that you're afraid of fire-arms, too.''
+
+
+
+X
+
+Clay and Langham left MacWilliams and Stuart to look after their
+prisoner, and returned to the Palms, where they dined in state,
+and made no reference, while the women were present, to the
+events of the day.
+
+The moon rose late that night, and as Hope watched it, from where
+she sat at the dinner-table facing the open windows, she saw the
+figure of a man standing outlined in silhouette upon the edge of
+the cliff.  He was dressed in the uniform of a sailor, and the
+moonlight played along the barrel of a rifle upon which he
+leaned, motionless and menacing, like a sentry on a rampart.
+
+Hope opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, and
+smiled with pleasurable excitement.  A moment later King, who sat
+on her right, called one of the servants to his side and
+whispered some instructions, pointing meanwhile at the wine upon
+the table.  And a minute after, Hope saw the white figure of the
+servant cross the garden and approach the sentinel.  She saw the
+sentry fling his gun sharply to his hip, and then, after a
+moment's parley, toss it up to his shoulder and disappear from
+sight among the plants of the garden.
+
+The men did not leave the table with the ladies, as was their
+custom, but remained in the dining-room, and drew their chairs
+closer together.
+
+Mr. Langham would not believe that the downfall of the Government
+was as imminent as the others believed it to be.  It was only
+after much argument, and with great reluctance, that he had even
+allowed King to arm half of his crew, and to place them on guard
+around the Palms.  Clay warned him that in the disorder that
+followed every successful revolution, the homes of unpopular
+members of the Cabinet were often burned, and that he feared,
+should Mendoza succeed, and Alvarez fall, that the mob might
+possibly vent its victorious wrath on the Palms because it was
+the home of the alien, who had, as they thought, robbed the
+country of the iron mines.  Mr. Langham said he did not think the
+people would tramp five miles into the country seeking vengeance.
+
+There was an American man-of-war lying in the harbor of Truxillo,
+a seaport of the republic that bounded Olancho on the south, and
+Clay was in favor of sending to her captain by Weimer, the
+Consul, and asking him to anchor off Valencia, to protect
+American interests.  The run would take but a few hours, and
+the sight of the vessel's white hull in the harbor would, he
+thought, have a salutary effect upon the revolutionists.  But Mr.
+Langham said, firmly, that he would not ask for help until he
+needed it.
+
+``Well, I'm sorry,'' said Clay.  ``I should very much like to
+have that man-of-war here.  However, if you say no, we will try
+to get along without her.  But, for the present, I think you had
+better imagine yourself back in New York, and let us have an
+entirely free hand.  We've gone too far to drop out,'' he went
+on, laughing at the sight of Mr. Langham's gloomy countenance. 
+``We've got to fight them now.  It's against human nature not to
+do it.''
+
+Mr. Langham looked appealingly at his son and at King.
+
+They both smiled back at him in unanimous disapproval of his
+policy of non-interference.
+
+``Oh, very well,'' he said, at last.  ``You gentlemen can go
+ahead, kill, burn, and destroy if you wish.  But, considering the
+fact that it is my property you are all fighting about, I really
+think I might have something to say in the matter.''  Mr. Langham
+gazed about him helplessly, and shook his head.
+
+``My doctor sends me down here from a quiet, happy home,'' he
+protested, with humorous pathos, ``that I may rest and get
+away from excitement, and here I am with armed men patrolling my
+garden-paths, with a lot of filibusters plotting at my own
+dinner-table, and a civil war likely to break out, entirely on my
+account.  And Dr. Winter told me this was the only place that
+would cure my nervous prostration!''
+
+Hope joined Clay as soon as the men left the dining-room, and
+beckoned him to the farther end of the veranda.  ``Well, what is
+it?'' she said.
+
+``What is what?'' laughed Clay.  He seated himself on the rail of
+the veranda, with his face to the avenue and the driveway leading
+to the house.  They could hear the others from the back of the
+house, and the voice of young Langham, who was giving an
+imitation of MacWilliams, and singing with peculiar emphasis,
+``There is no place like Home, Sweet Home.''
+
+``Why are the men guarding the Palms, and why did you go to the
+Plaza Bolivar this morning at daybreak?  Alice says you left them
+there.  I want to know what it means.  I am nearly as old as Ted,
+and he knows.  The men wouldn't tell me.''
+
+``What men?''
+
+``King's men from the `Vesta'.  I saw some of them dodging around
+in the bushes, and I went to find out what they were doing, and I
+walked into fifteen of them at your office.  They have
+hammocks swung all over the veranda, and a quick-firing gun made
+fast to the steps, and muskets stacked all about, just like real
+soldiers, but they wouldn't tell me why.''
+
+``We'll put you in the carcel,'' said Clay, ``if you go spying on
+our forces.  Your father doesn't wish you to know anything about
+it, but, since you have found it out for yourself, you might as
+well know what little there is to know.  It's the same story. 
+Mendoza is getting ready to start his revolution, or, rather, he
+has started it.''
+
+``Why don't you stop him?'' asked Hope.
+
+``You are very flattering,'' said Clay.  ``Even if I could stop
+him, it's not my business to do it as yet.  I have to wait until
+he interferes with me, or my mines, or my workmen.  Alvarez is
+the man who should stop him, but he is afraid.  We cannot do
+anything until he makes the first move.  If I were the President,
+I'd have Mendoza shot to-morrow morning and declare martial law. 
+Then I'd arrest everybody I didn't like, and levy forced loans on
+all the merchants, and sail away to Paris and live happy ever
+after.  That's what Mendoza would do if he caught any one
+plotting against him.  And that's what Alvarez should do, too,
+according to his lights, if he had the courage of his
+convictions, and of his education.  I like to see a man play
+his part properly, don't you?  If you are an emperor, you ought
+to conduct yourself like one, as our German friend does.  Or if
+you are a prize-fighter, you ought to be a human bulldog. 
+There's no such thing as a gentlemanly pugilist, any more than
+there can be a virtuous burglar.  And if you're a South American
+Dictator, you can't afford to be squeamish about throwing your
+enemies into jail or shooting them for treason.  The way to
+dictate is to dictate,--not to hide indoors all day while your
+wife plots for you.''
+
+``Does she do that?'' asked Hope.  ``And do you think she will be
+in danger--any personal danger, if the revolution comes?''
+
+``Well, she is very unpopular,'' Clay answered, ``and unjustly
+so, I think.  But it would be better, perhaps, for her if she
+went as quietly as possible, when she does go.''
+
+``Is our Captain Stuart in danger, too?'' the girl continued,
+anxiously.  ``Alice says they put up placards about him all over
+the city last night.  She saw his men tearing them down as she
+was coming home.  What has he done?''
+
+``Nothing,'' Clay answered, shortly.  ``He happens to be in a
+false position, that's all.  They think he is here because he is
+not wanted in his own country; that is not so.  That is not
+the reason he remains here.  When he was even younger than
+he is now, he was wild and foolish, and spent more money than he
+could afford, and lent more money to his brother-officers, I have
+no doubt, than they ever paid back.  He had to leave the regiment
+because his father wouldn't pay his debts, and he has been
+selling his sword for the last three years to one or another king
+or sultan or party all over the world, in China and Madagascar,
+and later in Siam.  I hope you will be very kind to Stuart and
+believe well of him, and that you will listen to no evil against
+him.  Somewhere in England Stuart has a sister like you--about
+your age, I mean, that loves him very dearly, and a father whose
+heart aches for him, and there is a certain royal regiment that
+still drinks his health with pride.  He is a lonely little chap,
+and he has no sense of humor to help him out of his difficulties,
+but he is a very brave gentleman.  And he is here fighting for
+men who are not worthy to hold his horse's bridle, because of a
+woman.  And I tell you this because you will hear many lies about
+him--and about her.  He serves her with the same sort of
+chivalric devotion that his ancestors felt for the woman whose
+ribbons they tied to their lances, and for whom they fought in
+the lists.''
+
+``I understand,'' Hope said, softly.  ``I am glad you told
+me.  I shall not forget.''  She sighed and shook her head.  ``I
+wish they'd let you manage it for them,'' she said.
+
+Clay laughed.  ``I fear my executive ability is not of so high an
+order; besides, as I haven't been born to it, my conscience might
+trouble me if I had to shoot my enemies and rob the worthy
+merchants.  I had better stick to digging holes in the ground. 
+That is all I seem to be good for.''
+
+Hope looked up at him, quickly, in surprise.
+
+``What do you mean by that?'' she demanded.  There was a tone of
+such sharp reproach in her voice that Clay felt himself put on
+the defensive.
+
+``I mean nothing by it,'' he said.  ``Your sister and I had a
+talk the other day about a man's making the best of himself, and
+it opened my eyes to--to many things.  It was a very healthy
+lesson.''
+
+``It could not have been a very healthy lesson,'' Hope replied,
+severely, ``if it makes you speak of your work slightingly, as
+you did then.  That didn't sound at all natural, or like you.  It
+sounded like Alice.  Tell me, did Alice say that?''
+
+The pleasure of hearing Hope take his part against himself was so
+comforting to Clay that he hesitated in answering in order to
+enjoy it the longer.  Her enthusiasm touched him deeply, and he
+wondered if she were enthusiastic because she was young, or
+because she was sure she was right, and that he was in the wrong.
+
+``It started this way,'' Clay began, carefully.  He was anxious
+to be quite fair to Miss Langham, but he found it difficult to
+give her point of view correctly, while he was hungering for a
+word that would re-establish him in his own good opinion.  ``Your
+sister said she did not think very much of what I had done, but
+she explained kindly that she hoped for better things from me. 
+But what troubles me is, that I will never do anything much
+better or very different in kind from the work I have done
+lately, and so I am a bit discouraged about it in consequence. 
+You see,'' said Clay, ``when I come to die, and they ask me what
+I have done with my ten fingers, I suppose I will have to say,
+`Well, I built such and such railroads, and I dug up so many tons
+of ore, and opened new countries, and helped make other men
+rich.'  I can't urge in my behalf that I happen to have been so
+fortunate as to have gained the good-will of yourself or your
+sister.  That is quite reason enough to me, perhaps, for having
+lived, but it might not appeal to them.  I want to feel that I
+have accomplished something outside of myself--something that
+will remain after I go.  Even if it is only a breakwater or a
+patent coupling.  When I am dead it will not matter to any one
+what I personally was, whether I was a bore or a most
+charming companion, or whether I had red hair or blue.  It is the
+work that will tell.  And when your sister, whose judgment is the
+judgment of the outside world, more or less, says that the work
+is not worth while, I naturally feel a bit discouraged.  It meant
+so much to me, and it hurt me to find it meant so little to
+others.''
+
+Hope remained silent for some time, but the rigidity of her
+attitude, and the tightness with which she pressed her lips
+together, showed that her mind was deeply occupied.  They both
+sat silent for some few moments, looking down toward the distant
+lights of the city.  At the farther end of the double row of
+bushes that lined the avenue they could see one of King's
+sentries passing to and fro across the roadway, a long black
+shadow on the moonlit road.
+
+``You are very unfair to yourself,'' the girl said at last, ``and
+Alice does not represent the opinion of the world, only of a very
+small part of it--her own little world.  She does not know how
+little it is.  And you are wrong as to what they will ask you at
+the end.  What will they care whether you built railroads or
+painted impressionist pictures?  They will ask you `What have you
+made of yourself?  Have you been fine, and strong, and sincere?' 
+That is what they will ask.  And we like you because you are
+all of these things, and because you look at life so cheerfully,
+and are unafraid.  We do not like men because they build
+railroads, or because they are prime ministers.  We like them for
+what they are themselves.  And as to your work!'' Hope added, and
+then paused in eloquent silence.  ``I think it is a grand work,
+and a noble work, full of hardships and self-sacrifices.  I do
+not know of any man who has done more with his life than you have
+done with yours.''  She stopped and controlled her voice before
+she spoke again.  ``You should be very proud,'' she said.
+
+Clay lowered his eyes and sat silent, looking down the roadway. 
+The thought that the girl felt what she said so deeply, and that
+the fact that she had said it meant more to him than anything
+else in the world could mean, left him thrilled and trembling. 
+He wanted to reach out his hand and seize both of hers, and tell
+her how much she was to him, but it seemed like taking advantage
+of the truths of a confessional, or of a child's innocent
+confidences.
+
+``No, Miss Hope,'' he answered, with an effort to speak lightly,
+``I wish I could believe you, but I know myself better than any
+one else can, and I know that while my bridges may stand
+examination--_I_ can't.'' 
+
+Hope turned and looked at him with eyes full of such sweet
+meaning that he was forced to turn his own away.
+
+``I could trust both, I think,'' the girl said.
+
+Clay drew a quick, deep breath, and started to his feet, as
+though he had thrown off the restraint under which he had held
+himself.
+
+It was not a girl, but a woman who had spoken then, but, though
+he turned eagerly toward her, he stood with his head bowed, and
+did not dare to read the verdict in her eyes.
+
+The clatter of horses' hoofs coming toward them at a gallop broke
+in rudely upon the tense stillness of the moment, but neither
+noticed it.  ``How far,'' Clay began, in a strained voice, ``how
+far,'' he asked, more steadily, ``could you trust me?''
+
+Hope's eyes had closed for an instant, and opened again, and she
+smiled upon him with a look of perfect confidence and content. 
+The beat of the horses' hoofs came now from the end of the
+driveway, and they could hear the men at the rear of the house
+pushing back their chairs and hurrying toward them.  Hope raised
+her head, and Clay moved toward her eagerly.  The horses were
+within a hundred yards.  Before Hope could speak, the sentry's
+voice rang out in a hoarse, sharp challenge, like an alarm of
+fire on the silent night.  ``Halt!'' they heard him cry. 
+And as the horses tore past him, and their riders did not turn to
+look, he shouted again, ``Halt, damn you!'' and fired.  The flash
+showed a splash of red and yellow in the moonlight, and the
+report started into life hundreds of echoes which carried it far
+out over the waters of the harbor, and tossed it into sharp
+angles, and distant corners, and in an instant a myriad of sounds
+answered it; the frightened cry of night-birds, the barking of
+dogs in the village below, and the footsteps of men running.
+
+Clay glanced angrily down the avenue, and turned beseechingly to
+Hope.
+
+``Go,'' she said.  ``See what is wrong,'' and moved away as
+though she already felt that he could act more freely when she
+was not near him.
+
+The two horses fell back on their haunches before the steps, and
+MacWilliams and Stuart tumbled out of their saddles, and
+started, running back on foot in the direction from which the
+shot had come, tugging at their revolvers.
+
+``Come back,'' Clay shouted to them.  ``That's all right.  He was
+only obeying orders.  That's one of King's sentries.''
+
+``Oh, is that it?'' said Stuart, in matter-of-fact tones, as he
+turned again to the house.  ``Good idea.  Tell him to fire lower
+next time.  And, I say,'' he went on, as he bowed curtly to
+the assembled company on the veranda, ``since you have got a
+picket out, you had better double it.  And, Clay, see that no one
+leaves here without permission--no one.  That's more important,
+even, than keeping them out.''
+
+``King, will you--'' Clay began.
+
+``All right, General,'' laughed King, and walked away to meet his
+sailors, who came running up the hill in great anxiety.
+
+MacWilliams had not opened his lips, but he was bristling with
+importance, and his effort to appear calm and soldierly, like
+Stuart, told more plainly than speech that he was the bearer of
+some invaluable secret.  The sight filled young Langham with a
+disquieting fear that he had missed something.
+
+Stuart looked about him, and pulled briskly at his gauntlets. 
+King and his sailors were grouped together on the grass before
+the house.  Mr. Langham and his daughters, and Clay, were
+standing on the steps, and the servants were peering around the
+corners of the house.
+
+Stuart saluted Mr. Langham, as though to attract his especial
+attention, and then addressed himself in a low tone to Clay.
+
+``It's come,'' he said.  ``We've been in it since dinner-time,
+and we've got a whole night's work cut out for you.''  He
+was laughing with excitement, and paused for a moment to gain
+breath.  ``I'll tell you the worst of it first.  Mendoza has sent
+word to Alvarez that he wants the men at the mines to be present
+at the review to-morrow.  He says they must take part.  He wrote
+a most insolent letter.  Alvarez got out of it by saying that the
+men were under contract to you, and that you must give your
+permission first.  Mendoza sent me word that if you would not let
+the men come, he would go out and fetch them in him self.''
+
+``Indeed!'' growled Clay.  ``Kirkland needs those men to-morrow
+to load ore-cars for Thursday's steamer.  He can't spare them. 
+That is our answer, and it happens to be a true one, but if it
+weren't true, if to-morrow was All Saints' Day, and the men had
+nothing to do but to lie in the sun and sleep, Mendoza couldn't
+get them.  And if he comes to take them to-morrow, he'll have to
+bring his army with him to do it.  And he couldn't do it then,
+Mr. Langham,'' Clay cried, turning to that gentleman, ``if I had
+better weapons.  The five thousand dollars I wanted you to spend
+on rifles, sir, two months ago, might have saved you several
+millions to-morrow.''
+
+Clay's words seemed to bear some special significance to Stuart
+and MacWilliams, for they both laughed, and Stuart pushed
+Clay up the steps before him.
+
+``Come inside,'' he said.  ``That is why we are here. 
+MacWilliams has found out where Burke hid his shipment of arms. 
+We are going to try and get them to-night.''  He hurried into the
+dining-room, and the others grouped themselves about the table. 
+``Tell them about it, MacWilliams,'' Stuart commanded.  ``I will
+see that no one overhears you.''
+
+MacWilliams was pushed into Mr. Langham's place at the head of
+the long table, and the others dragged their chairs up close
+around him.  King put the candles at the opposite end of the
+table, and set some decanters and glasses in the centre.  ``To
+look as though we were just enjoying ourselves,'' he explained,
+pleasantly.
+
+Mr. Langham, with his fine, delicate fingers beating nervously on
+the table, observed the scene as an on-looker, rather than as the
+person chiefly interested.  He smiled as he appreciated the
+incongruity of the tableau, and the contrast which the actors
+presented to the situation.  He imagined how much it would amuse
+his contemporaries of the Union Club, at home, if they could see
+him then, with the still, tropical night outside, the candles
+reflected on the polished table and on the angles of the
+decanters, and showing the intent faces of the young girls
+and the men leaning eagerly forward around MacWilliams, who sat
+conscious and embarrassed, his hair dishevelled, and his face
+covered with dust, while Stuart paced up and down in the shadow,
+his sabre clanking as he walked.
+
+``Well, it happened like this,'' MacWilliams began, nervously,
+and addressing himself to Clay.  ``Stuart and I put Burke safely
+in a cell by himself.  It was one of the old ones that face the
+street.  There was a narrow window in it, about eight feet above
+the floor, and no means of his reaching it, even if he stood on a
+chair.  We stationed two troopers before the door, and sent out
+to a cafe' across the street for our dinners.  I finished mine
+about nine o'clock, and said `Good night' to Stuart, and started
+to come out here. I went across the street first, however, to
+give the restaurant man some orders about Burke's breakfast.  It
+is a narrow street, you know, with a long garden-wall and a row
+of little shops on one side, and with the jail-wall taking up all
+of the other side.  The street was empty when I left the jail,
+except for the sentry on guard in front of it, but just as I was
+leaving the restaurant I saw one of Stuart's police come out and
+peer up and down the street and over at the shops.  He looked
+frightened and anxious, and as I wasn't taking chances on
+anything, I stepped back into the restaurant and watched him
+through the window.  He waited until the sentry had turned his
+back, and started away from him on his post, and then I saw him
+drop his sabre so that it rang on the sidewalk.  He was standing,
+I noticed then, directly under the third window from the door of
+the jail.  That was the window of Burke's cell.  When I grasped
+that fact I got out my gun and walked to the door of the
+restaurant.  Just as I reached it a piece of paper shot out
+through the bars of Burke's cell and fell at the policeman's
+feet, and he stamped his boot down on it and looked all around
+again to see if any one had noticed him.  I thought that was my
+cue, and I ran across the street with my gun pointed, and shouted
+to him to give me the paper.  He jumped about a foot when he
+first saw me, but he was game, for he grabbed up the paper and
+stuck it in his mouth and began to chew on it.  I was right up on
+him then, and I hit him on the chin with my left fist and knocked
+him down against the wall, and dropped on him with both knees and
+choked him till I made him spit out the paper--and two teeth,''
+MacWilliams added, with a conscientious regard for details. 
+``The sentry turned just then and came at me with his bayonet,
+but I put my finger to my lips, and that surprised him, so
+that he didn't know just what to do, and hesitated.  You
+see, I didn't want Burke to hear the row outside, so I grabbed my
+policeman by the collar and pointed to the jail-door, and the
+sentry ran back and brought out Stuart and the guard.  Stuart was
+pretty mad when he saw his policeman all bloody.  He thought it
+would prejudice his other men against us, but I explained out
+loud that the man had been insolent, and I asked Stuart to take
+us both to his private room for a hearing, and, of course, when I
+told him what had happened, he wanted to punch the chap, too.  We
+put him ourselves into a cell where he could not communicate with
+any one, and then we read the paper.  Stuart has it,'' said
+MacWilliams, pushing back his chair, ``and he'll tell you the
+rest.''  There was a pause, in which every one seemed to take
+time to breathe, and then a chorus of questions and explanations.
+
+King lifted his glass to MacWilliams, and nodded.
+
+`` `Well done, Condor,' '' he quoted, smiling.
+
+``Yes,'' said Clay, tapping the younger man on the shoulder as he
+passed him.  ``That's good work.  Now show us the paper,
+Stuart.''
+
+Stuart pulled the candles toward him, and spread a slip of paper
+on the table.
+
+``Burke did this up in one of those paper boxes for wax
+matches,'' he explained, ``and weighted it with a twenty-
+dollar gold piece.  MacWilliams kept the gold piece, I believe.''
+
+``Going to use it for a scarf-pin,'' explained MacWilliams, in
+parenthesis.  ``Sort of war-medal, like the Chief's,'' he added,
+smiling.
+
+``This is in Spanish,'' Stuart explained.  ``I will translate it.
+It is not addressed to any one, and it is not signed, but it was
+evidently written to Mendoza, and we know it is in Burke's
+handwriting, for we compared it with some notes of his that we
+took from him before he was locked up.  He says, `I cannot keep
+the appointment, as I have been arrested.'  The line that follows
+here,'' Stuart explained, raising his head, ``has been scratched
+out, but we spent some time over it, and we made out that it
+read:  `It was Mr. Clay who recognized me, and ordered my arrest. 
+He is the best man the others have.  Watch him.'  We think he
+rubbed that out through good feeling toward Clay.  There seems to
+be no other reason.  He's a very good sort, this old Burke, I
+think.''
+
+``Well, never mind him; it was very decent of him, anyway,'' said
+Clay.  ``Go on.  Get to Hecuba.''
+
+`` `I cannot keep the appointment, as I have been arrested,' ''
+repeated Stuart.  `` `I landed the goods last night in safety.  I
+could not come in when first signalled, as the wind and tide
+were both off shore.  But we got all the stuff stored away
+by morning.  Your agent paid me in full and got my receipt. 
+Please consider this as the same thing--as the equivalent'--it is
+difficult to translate it exactly,'' commented Stuart--`` `as the
+equivalent of the receipt I was to have given when I made my
+report to-night.  I sent three of your guards away on my own
+responsibility, for I think more than that number might attract
+attention to the spot, and they might be seen from the ore-
+trains.'  That is the point of the note for us, of course,''
+Stuart interrupted himself to say.  ``Burke adds,'' he went on,
+`` `that they are to make no effort to rescue him, as he is quite
+comfortable, and is willing to remain in the carcel until they
+are established in power.' ''
+
+``Within sight of the ore-trains!'' exclaimed Clay.  ``There are
+no ore-trains but ours.  It must be along the line of the road.''
+
+``MacWilliams says he knows every foot of land along the
+railroad,'' said Stuart, ``and he is sure the place Burke means
+is the old fortress on the Platta inlet, because--''
+
+``It is the only place,'' interrupted MacWilliams, ``where there
+is no surf.  They could run small boats up the inlet and unload
+in smooth water within twenty feet of the ramparts; and another
+thing, that is the only point on the line with a wagon road
+running direct from it to the Capital.  It's an old road, and
+hasn't been travelled over for years, but it could be used. 
+No,'' he added, as though answering the doubt in Clay's mind,
+``there is no other place.  If I had a map here I could show you
+in a minute; where the beach is level there is a jungle between
+it and the road, and wherever there is open country, there is a
+limestone formation and rocks between it and the sea, where no
+boat could touch.''
+
+``But the fortress is so conspicuous,'' Clay demurred; ``the
+nearest rampart is within twenty feet of the road.  Don't you
+remember we measured it when we thought of laying the double
+track?''
+
+``That is just what Burke says,'' urged Stuart.  ``That is the
+reason he gives for leaving only three men on guard--`I think
+more than that number might attract attention to the spot, as
+they might be seen from the ore-trains.' ''
+
+``Have you told any one of this?'' Clay asked.  ``What have you
+done so far?''
+
+``We've done nothing,'' said Stuart.  ``We lost our nerve when we
+found out how much we knew, and we decided we'd better leave it
+to you.''
+
+``Whatever we do must be done at once,'' said Clay.  ``They will
+come for the arms to-night, most likely, and we must be there
+first.  I agree with you entirely about the place.  It is only
+a question now of our being on time.  There are two things
+to do.  The first thing is, to keep them from getting the arms,
+and the second is, if we are lucky, to secure them for ourselves. 
+If we can pull it off properly, we ought to have those rifles in
+the mines before midnight.  If we are hurried or surprised, we
+must dump them off the fort into the sea.''  Clay laughed and
+looked about him at the men.  ``We are only following out General
+Bolivar's saying `When you want arms take them from the enemy.' 
+Now, there are three places we must cover.  This house, first of
+all,'' he went on, inclining his head quickly toward the two
+sisters, ``then the city, and the mines.  Stuart's place, of
+course, is at the Palace.  King must take care of this house and
+those in it, and MacWilliams and Langham and I must look after
+the arms.  We must organize two parties, and they had better
+approach the fort from here and from the mines at the same time. 
+I will need you to do some telegraphing for me, Mac; and, King, I
+must ask you for some more men from the yacht.  How many have
+you?''
+
+King answered that there were fifteen men still on board, ten of
+whom would be of service.  He added that they were all well
+equipped for fighting.
+
+``I believe King's a pirate in business hours,'' Clay said,
+smiling.  ``All right, that's good.  Now go tell ten of them to
+meet me at the round-house in half an hour.  I will get
+MacWilliams to telegraph Kirkland to run an engine and flat cars
+to within a half mile of the fort on the north, and we will come
+up on it with the sailors and Ted, here, from the south.  You
+must run the engine yourself, MacWilliams, and perhaps it would
+be better, King, if your men joined us at the foot of the grounds
+here and not at the round-house.  None of the workmen must see
+our party start.  Do you agree with me?'' he asked, turning to
+those in the group about him.  ``Has anybody any criticism to
+make?''
+
+Stuart and King looked at one another ruefully and laughed.  ``I
+don't see what good I am doing in town,'' protested Stuart. 
+``Yes, and I don't see where I come in, either,'' growled King,
+in aggrieved tones.  ``These youngsters can't do it all; besides
+I ought to have charge of my own men.''
+
+``Mutiny,'' said Clay, in some perplexity, ``rank mutiny.  Why,
+it's only a picnic.  There are but three men there.  We don't
+need sixteen white men to frighten off three Olanchoans.''
+
+``I'll tell you what to do,'' cried Hope, with the air of having
+discovered a plan which would be acceptable to every one, ``let's
+all go.''
+
+``Well, I certainly mean to go,'' said Mr. Langham,
+decidedly.  ``So some one else must stay here.  Ted, you will
+have to look after your sisters.''
+
+The son and heir smiled upon his parent with a look of
+affectionate wonder, and shook his head at him in fond and
+pitying disapproval.
+
+``I'll stay,'' said King.  ``I have never seen such ungallant
+conduct.  Ladies,'' he said, ``I will protect your lives and
+property, and we'll invent something exciting to do ourselves,
+even if we have to bombard the Capital.''
+
+The men bade the women good-night, and left them with King and
+Mr. Langham, who had been persuaded to remain overnight, while
+Stuart rode off to acquaint Alvarez and General Rojas with what
+was going on.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+There was no chance for Clay to speak to Hope again, though he
+felt the cruelty of having to leave her with everything between
+them in this interrupted state.  But their friends stood about
+her, interested and excited over this expedition of smuggled
+arms, unconscious of the great miracle that had come into his
+life and of his need to speak to and to touch the woman who had
+wrought it.  Clay felt how much more binding than the laws of
+life are the little social conventions that must be observed at
+times, even though the heart is leaping with joy or racked with
+sorrow.  He stood within a few feet of the woman he loved,
+wanting to cry out at her and to tell her all the wonderful
+things which he had learned were true for the first time that
+night, but he was forced instead to keep his eyes away from her
+face and to laugh and answer questions, and at the last to go
+away content with having held her hand for an instant, and to
+have heard her say ``good-luck.''
+
+MacWilliams called Kirkland to the office at the other end
+of the Company's wire, and explained the situation to him.  He
+was instructed to run an engine and freight-cars to a point a
+quarter of a mile north of the fort, and to wait there until he
+heard a locomotive whistle or pistol shots, when he was to run on
+to the fort as quickly and as noiselessly as possible.  He was
+also directed to bring with him as many of the American workmen
+as he could trust to keep silent concerning the events of the
+evening.  At ten o'clock MacWilliams had the steam up in a
+locomotive, and with his only passenger-car in the rear, ran it
+out of the yard and stopped the train at the point nearest the
+cars where ten of the `Vesta's' crew were waiting.  The sailors
+had no idea as to where they were going, or what they were to do,
+but the fact that they had all been given arms filled them with
+satisfaction, and they huddled together at the bottom of the car
+smoking and whispering, and radiant with excitement and
+satisfaction.
+
+The train progressed cautiously until it was within a half mile
+below the fort, when Clay stopped it, and, leaving two men on
+guard, stepped off the remaining distance on the ties, his little
+band following noiselessly behind him like a procession of ghosts
+in the moonlight.  They halted and listened from time to time as
+they drew near the ruins, but there was no sound except the
+beating of the waves on the rocks and the rustling of the
+sea-breeze through the vines and creepers about them.
+
+Clay motioned to the men to sit down, and, beckoning to
+MacWilliams, directed him to go on ahead and reconnoitre.
+
+``If you fire we will come up,'' he said.  ``Get back here as
+soon as you can.''
+
+``Aren't you going to make sure first that Kirkland is on the
+other side of the fort?'' MacWilliams whispered.
+
+Clay replied that he was certain Kirkland had already arrived. 
+``He had a shorter run than ours, and he wired you he was ready
+to start when we were, didn't he?'' MacWilliams nodded.
+
+``Well, then, he is there.  I can count on Kirk.''
+
+MacWilliams pulled at his heavy boots and hid them in the bushes,
+with his helmet over them to mark the spot.  ``I feel as though I
+was going to rob a bank,'' he chuckled, as he waved his hand and
+crept off into the underbrush.
+
+For the first few moments the men who were left behind sat
+silent, but as the minutes wore on, and MacWilliams made no sign,
+they grew restless, and shifted their positions, and began to
+whisper together, until Clay shook his head at them, and there
+was silence again until one of them, in trying not to cough,
+almost strangled, and the others tittered and those nearest
+pummelled him on the back.
+
+Clay pulled out his revolver, and after spinning the cylinder
+under his finger-nail, put it back in its holder again, and the
+men, taking this as an encouraging promise of immediate action,
+began to examine their weapons again for the twentieth time, and
+there was a chorus of short, muffled clicks as triggers were
+drawn back and cautiously lowered and levers shot into place and
+caught again.
+
+One of the men farthest down the track raised his arm, and all
+turned and half rose as they saw MacWilliams coming toward them
+on a run, leaping noiselessly in his stocking feet from tie to
+tie.  He dropped on his knees between Clay and Langham.
+
+``The guns are there all right,'' he whispered, panting, ``and
+there are only three men guarding them.  They are all sitting on
+the beach smoking.  I hustled around the fort and came across the
+whole outfit in the second gallery.  It looks like a row of
+coffins, ten coffins and about twenty little boxes and kegs.  I'm
+sure that means they are coming for them to-night.  They've not
+tried to hide them nor to cover them up.  All we've got to do is
+to walk down on the guards and tell them to throw up their hands. 
+It's too easy.''
+
+Clay jumped to his feet.  ``Come on,'' he said.
+
+``Wait till I get my boots on first,'' begged MacWilliams.  ``I
+wouldn't go over those cinders again in my bare feet for all the
+buried treasure in the Spanish Main.  You can make all the noise
+you want; the waves will drown it.''
+
+With MacWilliams to show them the way, the men scrambled up the
+outer wall of the fort and crossed the moss-covered ramparts at
+the run.  Below them, on the sandy beach, were three men sitting
+around a driftwood fire that had sunk to a few hot ashes.  Clay
+nodded to MacWilliams.  ``You and Ted can have them,'' he said. 
+``Go with him, Langham.''
+
+The sailors levelled their rifles at the three lonely figures on
+the beach as the two boys slipped down the wall and fell on their
+hands and feet in the sand below, and then crawled up to within a
+few feet of where the men were sitting.
+
+As MacWilliams raised his revolver one of the three, who was
+cooking something over the fire, raised his head and with a yell
+of warning flung himself toward his rifle.
+
+``Up with your hands!'' MacWilliams shouted in Spanish, and
+Langham, running in, seized the nearest sentry by the neck and
+shoved his face down between his knees into the sand.
+
+There was a great rattle of falling stones and of breaking vines
+as the sailors tumbled down the side of the fort, and in a half
+minute's time the three sentries were looking with angry,
+frightened eyes at the circle of armed men around them.
+
+``Now gag them,'' said Clay.  ``Does anybody here know how to gag
+a man?'' he asked.  ``I don't.''
+
+``Better make him tell what he knows first,'' suggested Langham.
+
+But the Spaniards were too terrified at what they had done, or at
+what they had failed to do, to further commit themselves.
+
+``Tie us and gag us,'' one of them begged.  ``Let them find us
+so.  It is the kindest thing you can do for us.''
+
+``Thank you, sir,'' said Clay.  ``That is what I wanted to know. 
+They are coming to-night, then.  We must hurry.''
+
+The three sentries were bound and hidden at the base of the wall,
+with a sailor to watch them.  He was a young man with a high
+sense of the importance of his duties, and he enlivened the
+prisoners by poking them in the ribs whenever they moved.
+
+Clay deemed it impossible to signal Kirkland as they had arranged
+to do, as they could not know now how near those who were coming
+for the arms might be.  So MacWilliams was sent back for his
+engine, and a few minutes later they heard it rumble heavily past
+the fort on its way to bring up Kirkland and the flat cars.  Clay
+explored the lower chambers of the fort and found the boxes as
+MacWilliams had described them.  Ten men, with some effort, could
+lift and carry the larger coffin-shaped boxes, and Clay guessed
+that, granting their contents to be rifles, there must be a
+hundred pieces in each box, and that there were a thousand rifles
+in all.
+
+They had moved half of the boxes to the side of the track when
+the train of flat cars and the two engines came crawling and
+twisting toward them, between the walls of the jungle, like a
+great serpent, with no light about it but the glow from the hot
+ashes as they fell between the rails.  Thirty men, equally
+divided between Irish and negroes, fell off the flat cars before
+the wheels had ceased to revolve, and, without a word of
+direction, began loading the heavy boxes on the train and passing
+the kegs of cartridges from hand to hand and shoulder to
+shoulder.  The sailors spread out up the road that led to the
+Capital to give warning in case the enemy approached, but they
+were recalled before they had reason to give an alarm, and in a
+half hour Burke's entire shipment of arms was on the ore-cars,
+the men who were to have guarded them were prisoners in the
+cab of the engine, and both trains were rushing at full speed
+toward the mines.  On arriving there Kirkland's train was
+switched to the siding that led to the magazine in which was
+stored the rack-arock and dynamite used in the blasting.  By
+midnight all of the boxes were safely under lock in the zinc
+building, and the number of the men who always guarded the place
+for fear of fire or accident was doubled, while a reserve,
+composed of Kirkland's thirty picked men, were hidden in the
+surrounding houses and engine-sheds.
+
+Before Clay left he had one of the boxes broken open, and found
+that it held a hundred Mannlicher rifles.
+
+``Good!'' he said.  ``I'd give a thousand dollars in gold if I
+could bring Mendoza out here and show him his own men armed with
+his own Mannlichers and dying for a shot at him.  How old Burke
+will enjoy this when he hears of it!''
+
+The party from the Palms returned to their engine after many
+promises of reward to the men for their work ``over-time,'' and
+were soon flying back with their hearts as light as the smoke
+above them.
+
+MacWilliams slackened speed as they neared the fort, and moved up
+cautiously on the scene of their recent victory, but a warning
+cry from Clay made him bring his engine to a sharp stop. 
+Many lights were flashing over the ruins and they could see
+in their reflection the figures of men running over the same
+walls on which the lizards had basked in undisturbed peace for
+years.
+
+``They look like a swarm of hornets after some one has chucked a
+stone through their nest,'' laughed MacWilliams.  ``What shall we
+do now?  Go back, or wait here, or run the blockade?''
+
+``Oh, ride them out,'' said Langham; ``the family's anxious, and
+I want to tell them what's happened.  Go ahead.''
+
+Clay turned to the sailors in the car behind them.  ``Lie down,
+men,'' he said.  ``And don't any of you fire unless I tell you
+to.  Let them do all the shooting.  This isn't our fight yet,
+and, besides, they can't hit a locomotive standing still,
+certainly not when it's going at full speed.''
+
+``Suppose they've torn the track up?'' said MacWilliams,
+grinning.  ``We'd look sort of silly flying through the air.''
+
+``Oh, they've not sense enough to think of that,'' said Clay. 
+``Besides, they don't know it was we who took their arms away,
+yet.''
+
+MacWilliams opened the throttle gently, and the train moved
+slowly forward, gaining speed at each revolution of the wheels.
+
+As the noise of its approach beat louder and louder on the
+air, a yell of disappointed rage and execration rose into the
+night from the fort, and a mass of soldiers swarmed upon the
+track, leaping up and down and shaking the rifles in their hands.
+
+``That sounds a little as though they thought we had something to
+do with it,'' said MacWilliams, grimly.  ``If they don't look out
+some one will get hurt.''
+
+There was a flash of fire from where the mass of men stood,
+followed by a dozen more flashes, and the bullets rattled on the
+smokestack and upon the boiler of the engine.
+
+``Low bridge,'' cried MacWilliams, with a fierce chuckle.  ``Now,
+watch her!''
+
+He threw open the throttle as far as it would go, and the engine
+answered to his touch like a race-horse to the whip.  It seemed
+to spring from the track into the air.  It quivered and shook
+like a live thing, and as it shot in between the soldiers they
+fell back on either side, and MacWilliams leaned far out of his
+cab-window shaking his fist at them.
+
+``You got left, didn't you?'' he shouted.  ``Thank you for the
+Mannlichers.''
+
+As the locomotive rushed out of the jungle, and passed the point
+on the road nearest to the Palms, MacWilliams loosened three long
+triumphant shrieks from his whistle and the sailors stood up
+and cheered.
+
+``Let them shout,'' cried Clay.  ``Everybody will have to know
+now.  It's begun at last,'' he said, with a laugh of relief.
+
+``And we took the first trick,'' said MacWilliams, as he ran his
+engine slowly into the railroad yard.
+
+The whistles of the engine and the shouts of the sailors had
+carried far through the silence of the night, and as the men came
+hurrying across the lawn to the Palms, they saw all of those who
+had been left behind grouped on the veranda awaiting them.
+
+``Do the conquering heroes come?'' shouted King.
+
+``They do,'' young Langham cried, joyously.  ``We've got all
+their arms, and they shot at us.  We've been under fire!''
+
+``Are any of you hurt?'' asked Miss Langham, anxiously, as she
+and the others hurried down the steps to welcome them, while
+those of the `Vesta's' crew who had been left behind looked at
+their comrades with envy.
+
+``We have been so frightened and anxious about you,'' said Miss
+Langham.
+
+Hope held out her hand to Clay and greeted him with a quiet,
+happy smile, that was in contrast to the excitement and
+confusion that reigned about them.
+
+``I knew you would come back safely,'' she said.  And the
+pressure of her hand seemed to add ``to me.''
+
+
+
+XII
+
+The day of the review rose clear and warm, tempered by a light
+breeze from the sea.  As it was a fete day, the harbor wore an
+air of unwonted inactivity; no lighters passed heavily from the
+levees to the merchantmen at anchor, and the warehouses along the
+wharves were closed and deserted.  A thin line of smoke from the
+funnels of the `Vesta' showed that her fires were burning, and
+the fact that she rode on a single anchor chain seemed to promise
+that at any moment she might slip away to sea.
+
+As Clay was finishing his coffee two notes were brought to him
+from messengers who had ridden out that morning, and who sat in
+their saddles looking at the armed force around the office with
+amused intelligence.
+
+One note was from Mendoza, and said he had decided not to call
+out the regiment at the mines, as he feared their long absence
+from drill would make them compare unfavorably with their
+comrades, and do him more harm than credit.  ``He is afraid of
+them since last night,'' was Clay's comment, as he passed the
+note on to MacWilliams.  ``He's quite right, they might do
+him harm.''
+
+The second note was from Stuart.  He said the city was already
+wide awake and restless, but whether this was due to the fact
+that it was a fete day, or to some other cause which would
+disclose itself later, he could not tell.  Madame Alvarez, the
+afternoon before, while riding in the Alameda, had been insulted
+by a group of men around a cafe', who had risen and shouted
+after her, one of them throwing a wine-glass into her lap as she
+rode past.  His troopers had charged the sidewalk and carried off
+six of the men to the carcel.  He and Rojas had urged the
+President to make every preparation for immediate flight, to have
+the horses put to his travelling carriage, and had warned him
+when at the review to take up his position at the point nearest
+to his own body-guard, and as far as possible from the troops led
+by Mendoza.  Stuart added that he had absolute confidence in the
+former.  The policeman who had attempted to carry Burke's note to
+Mendoza had confessed that he was the only traitor in the camp,
+and that he had tried to work on his comrades without success. 
+Stuart begged Clay to join him as quickly as possible.  Clay went
+up the hill to the Palms, and after consulting with Mr. Langham,
+dictated an order to Kirkland, instructing him to call the
+men together and to point out to them how much better their
+condition had been since they had entered the mines, and to
+promise them an increase of wages if they remained faithful to
+Mr. Langham's interests, and a small pension to any one who might
+be injured ``from any cause whatsoever'' while serving him.
+
+``Tell them, if they are loyal, they can live in their shacks
+rent free hereafter,'' wrote Clay.  ``They are always asking for
+that.  It's a cheap generosity,'' he added aloud to Mr. Langham,
+``because we've never been able to collect rent from any of them
+yet.''
+
+At noon young Langham ordered the best three horses in the
+stables to be brought to the door of the Palms for Clay,
+MacWilliams, and himself.  Clay's last words to King were to have
+the yacht in readiness to put to sea when he telephoned him to do
+so, and he advised the women to have their dresses and more
+valuable possessions packed ready to be taken on board.
+
+``Don't you think I might see the review if I went on
+horseback?'' Hope asked.  ``I could get away then, if there
+should be any trouble.''
+
+Clay answered with a look of such alarm and surprise that Hope
+laughed.
+
+``See the review!  I should say not,'' he exclaimed.  ``I don't
+even want Ted to be there.''
+
+``Oh, that's always the way,'' said Hope, ``I miss everything.  I
+think I'll come, however, anyhow.  The servants are all going,
+and I'll go with them disguised in a turban.''
+
+As the men neared Valencia, Clay turned in his saddle, and asked
+Langham if he thought his sister would really venture into the
+town.
+
+``She'd better not let me catch her, if she does,'' the fond
+brother replied.
+
+The reviewing party left the Government Palace for the Alameda at
+three o'clock, President Alvarez riding on horseback in advance,
+and Madame Alvarez sitting in the State carriage with one of her
+attendants, and with Stuart's troopers gathered so closely about
+her that the men's boots scraped against the wheels, and their
+numbers hid her almost entirely from sight.
+
+The great square in which the evolutions were to take place was
+lined on its four sides by the carriages of the wealthy
+Olanchoans, except at the two gates, where there was a wide space
+left open to admit the soldiers.  The branches of the trees on
+the edges of the bare parade ground were black with men and boys,
+and the balconies and roofs of the houses that faced it were gay
+with streamers and flags, and alive with women wrapped for the
+occasion in their colored shawls.  Seated on the grass between
+the carriages, or surging up and down behind them, were
+thousands of people, each hurrying to gain a better place of
+vantage, or striving to hold the one he had, and forming a
+restless, turbulent audience in which all individual cries were
+lost in a great murmur of laughter, and calls, and cheers.  The
+mass knit together, and pressed forward as the President's band
+swung jauntily into the square and halted in one corner, and a
+shout of expectancy went up from the trees and housetops as the
+President's body-guard entered at the lower gate, and the broken
+place in its ranks showed that it was escorting the State
+carriage.  The troopers fell back on two sides, and the carriage,
+with the President riding at its head, passed on, and took up a
+position in front of the other carriages, and close to one of the
+sides of the hollow square.  At Stuart's orders Clay,
+MacWilliams, and Langham had pushed their horses into the rear
+rank of cavalry, and remained wedged between the troopers within
+twenty feet of where Madame Alvarez was sitting.  She was very
+white, and the powder on her face gave her an added and unnatural
+pallor.  As the people cheered her husband and herself she raised
+her head slightly and seemed to be trying to catch any sound of
+dissent in their greeting, or some possible undercurrent of
+disfavor, but the welcome appeared to be both genuine and
+hearty, until a second shout smothered it completely as the
+figure of old General Rojas, the Vice-President, and the most
+dearly loved by the common people, came through the gate at the
+head of his regiment.  There was such greeting for him that the
+welcome to the President seemed mean in comparison, and it was
+with an embarrassment which both felt that the two men drew near
+together, and each leaned from his saddle to grasp the other's
+hand.  Madame Alvarez sank back rigidly on her cushions, and her
+eyes flashed with anticipation and excitement.  She drew her
+mantilla a little closer about her shoulders, with a nervous
+shudder as though she were cold.  Suddenly the look of anxiety in
+her eyes changed to one of annoyance, and she beckoned Clay
+imperiously to the side of the carriage.
+
+``Look,'' she said, pointing across the square.  ``If I am not
+mistaken that is Miss Langham, Miss Hope.  The one on the black
+horse--it must be she, for none of the native ladies ride.  It is
+not safe for her to be here alone.  Go,'' she commanded, ``bring
+her here to me.  Put her next to the carriage, or perhaps she
+will be safer with you among the troopers.''
+
+Clay had recognized Hope before Madame Alvarez had finished
+speaking, and dashed off at a gallop, skirting the line of
+carriages.  Hope had stopped her horse beside a victoria,
+and was talking to the native women who occupied it, and who were
+scandalized at her appearance in a public place with no one but a
+groom to attend her.
+
+``Why, it's the same thing as a polo match,'' protested Hope, as
+Clay pulled up angrily beside the victoria.  ``I always ride over
+to polo alone at Newport, at least with James,'' she added,
+nodding her head toward the servant.
+
+The man approached Clay and touched his hat apologetically,
+``Miss Hope would come, sir,'' he said, ``and I thought I'd
+better be with her than to go off and tell Mr. Langham, sir.  I
+knew she wouldn't wait for me.''
+
+``I asked you not to come,'' Clay said to Hope, in a low voice.
+
+``I wanted to know the worst at once,'' she answered.  ``I was
+anxious about Ted--and you.''
+
+``Well, it can't be helped now,'' he said.  ``Come, we must
+hurry, here is our friend, the enemy.''  He bowed to their
+acquaintances in the victoria and they trotted briskly off to the
+side of the President's carriage, just as a yell arose from the
+crowd that made all the other shouts which had preceded it sound
+like the cheers of children at recess.
+
+``It reminds me of a football match,'' whispered young Langham,
+excitedly, ``when the teams run on the field.  Look at
+Alvarez and Rojas watching Mendoza.''
+
+Mendoza advanced at the front of his three troops of cavalry,
+looking neither to the left nor right, and by no sign
+acknowledging the fierce uproarious greeting of the people. 
+Close behind him came his chosen band of cowboys and ruffians. 
+They were the best equipped and least disciplined soldiers in the
+army, and were, to the great relief of the people, seldom seen in
+the city, but were kept moving in the mountain passes and along
+the coast line, on the lookout for smugglers with whom they were
+on the most friendly terms.  They were a picturesque body of
+blackguards, in their hightopped boots and silver-tipped
+sombreros and heavy, gaudy saddles, but the shout that had gone
+up at their advance was due as much to the fear they inspired as
+to any great love for them or their chief.
+
+``Now all the chessmen are on the board, and the game can
+begin,'' said Clay.  ``It's like the scene in the play, where
+each man has his sword at another man's throat and no one dares
+make the first move.''  He smiled as he noted, with the eye of
+one who had seen Continental troops in action, the shuffling
+steps and slovenly carriage of the half-grown soldiers that
+followed Mendoza's cavalry at a quick step.  Stuart's picked
+men, over whom he had spent many hot and weary hours, looked
+like a troop of Life Guardsmen in comparison.  Clay noted their
+superiority, but he also saw that in numbers they were most
+woefully at a disadvantage.
+
+It was a brilliant scene for so modest a capital.  The sun
+flashed on the trappings of the soldiers, on the lacquer and
+polished metal work of the carriages; and the Parisian gowns of
+their occupants and the fluttering flags and banners filled the
+air with color and movement, while back of all, framing the
+parade ground with a band of black, was the restless mob of
+people applauding the evolutions, and cheering for their
+favorites, Alvarez, Mendoza, and Rojas, moved by an excitement
+that was in disturbing contrast to the easy good-nature of their
+usual manner.
+
+The marching and countermarching of the troops had continued with
+spirit for some time, and there was a halt in the evolutions
+which left the field vacant, except for the presence of Mendoza's
+cavalrymen, who were moving at a walk along one side of the
+quadrangle.  Alvarez and Vice-President Rojas, with Stuart, as an
+adjutant at their side, were sitting their horses within some
+fifty yards of the State carriage and the body-guard.  Alvarez
+made a conspicuous contrast in his black coat and high hat to the
+brilliant greens and reds of his generals' uniforms, but he
+sat his saddle as well as either of the others, and his white
+hair, white imperial and mustache, and the dignity of his bearing
+distinguished him above them both.  Little Stuart, sitting at his
+side, with his blue eyes glaring from under his white helmet and
+his face burned to almost as red a tint as his curly hair, looked
+like a fierce little bull-dog in comparison.  None of the three
+men spoke as they sat motionless and quite alone waiting for the
+next movement of the troops.
+
+It proved to be one of moment.  Even before Mendoza had ridden
+toward them with his sword at salute, Clay gave an exclamation of
+enlightenment and concern.  He saw that the men who were believed
+to be devoted to Rojas, had been halted and left standing at the
+farthest corner of the plaza, nearly two hundred yards from where
+the President had taken his place, that Mendoza's infantry
+surrounded them on every side, and that Mendoza's cowboys, who
+had been walking their horses, had wheeled and were coming up
+with an increasing momentum, a flying mass of horses and men
+directed straight at the President himself.
+
+Mendoza galloped up to Alvarez with his sword still in salute. 
+His eyes were burning with excitement and with the light of
+success.  No one but Stuart and Rojas heard his words; to the
+spectators and to the army he appeared as though he was, in
+his capacity of Commander-in-Chief, delivering some brief report,
+or asking for instructions.
+
+``Dr. Alvarez,'' he said, ``as the head of the army I arrest you
+for high treason; you have plotted to place yourself in office
+without popular election.  You are also accused of large thefts
+of public funds.  I must ask you to ride with me to the military
+prison.  General Rojas, I regret that as an accomplice of the
+President's, you must come with us also.  I will explain my
+action to the people when you are safe in prison, and I will
+proclaim martial law.  If your troops attempt to interfere, my
+men have orders to fire on them and you.''
+
+Stuart did not wait for his sentence.  He had heard the heavy
+beat of the cavalry coming up on them at a trot.  He saw the
+ranks open and two men catch at each bridle rein of both Alvarez
+and Rojas and drag them on with them, buried in the crush of
+horses about them, and swept forward by the weight and impetus of
+the moving mass behind.  Stuart dashed off to the State carriage
+and seized the nearest of the horses by the bridle.  ``To the
+Palace!'' he shouted to his men.  ``Shoot any one who tries to
+stop you.  Forward, at a gallop,'' he commanded.
+
+The populace had not discovered what had occurred until it was
+finished.  The coup d'etat had been long considered and the
+manner in which it was to be carried out carefully planned.  The
+cavalry had swept across the parade ground and up the street
+before the people saw that they carried Rojas and Alvarez with
+them.  The regiment commanded by Rojas found itself hemmed in
+before and behind by Mendoza's two regiments.  They were greatly
+outnumbered, but they fired a scattering shot, and following
+their captured leader, broke through the line around them and
+pursued the cavalry toward the military prison.
+
+It was impossible to tell in the uproar which followed how many
+or how few had been parties to the plot.  The mob, shrieking and
+shouting and leaping in the air, swarmed across the parade
+ground, and from a dozen different points men rose above the
+heads of the people and harangued them in violent speeches.  And
+while some of the soldiers and the citizens gathered anxiously
+about these orators, others ran through the city calling for the
+rescue of the President, for an attack on the palace, and
+shrieking ``Long live the Government!'' and ``Long live the
+Revolution!''  The State carriage raced through the narrow
+streets with its body-guard galloping around it, sweeping down in
+its rush stray pedestrians, and scattering the chairs and
+tables in front of the cafe's.  As it dashed up the long avenue
+of the palace, Stuart called his men back and ordered them to
+shut and barricade the great iron gates and to guard them against
+the coming of the mob, while MacWilliams and young Langham pulled
+open the carriage door and assisted the President's wife and her
+terrified companion to alight.  Madame Alvarez was trembling with
+excitement as she leaned on Langham's arm, but she showed no
+signs of fear in her face or in her manner.
+
+``Mr. Clay has gone to bring your travelling carriage to the rear
+door,'' Langham said.  ``Stuart tells us it is harnessed and
+ready.  You will hurry, please, and get whatever you need to
+carry with you.  We will see you safely to the coast.''
+
+As they entered the hall, and were ascending the great marble
+stairway, Hope and her groom, who had followed in the rear of the
+cavalry, came running to meet them.  ``I got in by the back
+way,'' Hope explained.  ``The streets there are all deserted. 
+How can I help you?'' she asked, eagerly.
+
+``By leaving me,'' cried the older woman.  ``Good God, child,
+have I not enough to answer for without dragging you into this? 
+Go home at once through the botanical garden, and then by
+way of the wharves.  That part of the city is still empty.''
+
+``Where are your servants; why are they not here?'' Hope demanded
+without heeding her.  The palace was strangely empty; no
+footsteps came running to greet them, no doors opened or shut as
+they hurried to Madame Alvarez's apartments.  The servants of the
+household had fled at the first sound of the uproar in the city,
+and the dresses and ornaments scattered on the floor told that
+they had not gone empty-handed.  The woman who had accompanied
+Madame Alvarez to the review sank weeping on the bed, and then,
+as the shouts grew suddenly louder and more near, ran to hide
+herself in the upper stories of the house.  Hope crossed to the
+window and saw a great mob of soldiers and citizens sweep around
+the corner and throw themselves against the iron fence of the
+palace.  ``You will have to hurry,'' she said.  ``Remember, you
+are risking the lives of those boys by your delay.''
+
+There was a large bed in the room, and Madame Alvarez had pulled
+it forward and was bending over a safe that had opened in the
+wall, and which had been hidden by the head board of the bed. 
+She held up a bundle of papers in her hand, wrapped in a leather
+portfolio.  ``Do you see these?'' she cried, ``they are drafts
+for five millions of dollars.''  She tossed them back into
+the safe and swung the door shut.
+
+``You are a witness.  I do not take them,'' she said.
+
+``I don't understand,'' Hope answered, ``but hurry.  Have you
+everything you want--have you your jewels?''
+
+``Yes,'' the woman answered, as she rose to her feet, ``they are
+mine.''
+
+A yell more loud and terrible than any that had gone before rose
+from the garden below, and there was the sound of iron beating
+against iron, and cries of rage and execration from a great
+multitude.
+
+``I will not go!'' the Spanish woman cried, suddenly.  ``I will
+not leave Alvarez to that mob.  If they want to kill me, let them
+kill me.''  She threw the bag that held her jewels on the bed,
+and pushing open the window stepped out upon the balcony.  She
+was conspicuous in her black dress against the yellow stucco of
+the wall, and in an instant the mob saw her and a mad shout of
+exultation and anger rose from the mass that beat and crushed
+itself against the high iron railings of the garden.  Hope caught
+the woman by the skirt and dragged her back.  ``You are mad,''
+she said.  ``What good can you do your husband here?  Save
+yourself and he will come to you when he can.  There is
+nothing you can do for him now; you cannot give your life for
+him.  You are wasting it, and you are risking the lives of the
+men who are waiting for us below.  Come, I tell you.''
+
+MacWilliams left Clay waiting beside the diligence and ran from
+the stable through the empty house and down the marble stairs to
+the garden without meeting any one on his way.  He saw Stuart
+helping and directing his men to barricade the gates with iron
+urns and garden benches and sentry-boxes.  Outside the mob were
+firing at him with their revolvers, and calling him foul names,
+but Stuart did not seem to hear them.  He greeted MacWilliams
+with a cheerful little laugh.  ``Well,'' he asked, ``is she
+ready?''
+
+``No, but we are.  Clay and I've been waiting there for five
+minutes.  We found Miss Hope's groom and sent him back to the
+Palms with a message to King.  We told him to run the yacht to
+Los Bocos and lie off shore until we came.  He is to take her on
+down the coast to Truxillo, where our man-of-war is lying, and
+they will give her shelter as a political refugee.''
+
+``Why don't you drive her to the Palms at once?'' demanded
+Stuart, anxiously, ``and take her on board the yacht there?  It
+is ten miles to Bocos and the roads are very bad.''
+
+``Clay says we could never get her through the city,''
+MacWilliams answered.  ``We should have to fight all the way. 
+But the city to the south is deserted, and by going out by the
+back roads, we can make Bocos by ten o'clock to-night.  The yacht
+should reach there by seven.''
+
+``You are right; go back.  I will call off some of my men.  The
+rest must hold this mob back until you start; then I will follow
+with the others.  Where is Miss Hope?''
+
+``We don't know.  Clay is frantic.  Her groom says she is
+somewhere in the palace.''
+
+``Hurry,'' Stuart commanded.  ``If Mendoza gets here before
+Madame Alvarez leaves, it will be too late.''
+
+MacWilliams sprang up the steps of the palace, and Stuart,
+calling to the men nearest him to follow, started after him on a
+run.
+
+As Stuart entered the palace with his men at his heels, Clay was
+hurrying from its rear entrance along the upper hall, and Hope
+and Madame Alvarez were leaving the apartments of the latter at
+its front.  They met at the top of the main stairway just as
+Stuart put his foot on its lower step.  The young Englishman
+heard the clatter of his men following close behind him and
+leaped eagerly forward.  Half way to the top the noise behind him
+ceased, and turning his head quickly he looked back over his
+shoulder and saw that the men had halted at the foot of the
+stairs and stood huddled together in disorder looking up at him. 
+Stuart glanced over their heads and down the hallway to the
+garden beyond to see if they were followed, but the mob still
+fought from the outer side of the barricade.  He waved his sword
+impatiently and started forward again.  ``Come on!'' he shouted. 
+But the men below him did not move.  Stuart halted once more and
+this time turned about and looked down upon them with surprise
+and anger.  There was not one of them he could not have called by
+name.  He knew all their little troubles, their love-affairs,
+even.  They came to him for comfort and advice, and to beg for
+money.  He had regarded them as his children, and he was proud of
+them as soldiers because they were the work of his hands.
+
+So, instead of a sharp command, he asked, ``What is it?'' in
+surprise, and stared at them wondering.  He could not or would
+not comprehend, even though he saw that those in the front rank
+were pushing back and those behind were urging them forward.  The
+muzzles of their carbines were directed at every point, and on
+their faces fear and hate and cowardice were written in varying
+likenesses.
+
+``What does this mean?'' Stuart demanded, sharply.  ``What are
+you waiting for?''
+
+Clay had just reached the top of the stairs.  He saw Madame
+Alvarez and Hope coming toward him, and at the sight of Hope he
+gave an exclamation of relief.
+
+Then his eyes turned and fell on the tableau below, on Stuart's
+back, as he stood confronting the men, and on their scowling
+upturned faces and half-lifted carbines.  Clay had lived for a
+longer time among Spanish-Americans than had the English
+subaltern, or else he was the quicker of the two to believe in
+evil and ingratitude, for he gave a cry of warning, and motioned
+the women away.
+
+``Stuart!'' he cried.  ``Come away; for God's sake, what are you
+doing?  Come back!''
+
+The Englishman started at the sound of his friend's voice, but he
+did not turn his head.  He began to descend the stairs slowly, a
+step at a time, staring at the mob so fiercely that they shrank
+back before the look of wounded pride and anger in his eyes. 
+Those in the rear raised and levelled their rifles.  Without
+taking his eyes from theirs, Stuart drew his revolver, and with
+his sword swinging from its wrist-strap, pointed his weapon at
+the mass below him.
+
+``What does this mean?'' he demanded.  ``Is this mutiny?''
+
+A voice from the rear of the crowd of men shrieked:  ``Death to
+the Spanish woman.  Death to all traitors.  Long live
+Mendoza,'' and the others echoed the cry in chorus.
+
+Clay sprang down the broad stairs calling, ``Come to me;'' but
+before he could reach Stuart, a woman's voice rang out, in a long
+terrible cry of terror, a cry that was neither a prayer nor an
+imprecation, but which held the agony of both.  Stuart started,
+and looked up to where Madame Alvarez had thrown herself toward
+him across the broad balustrade of the stairway.  She was silent
+with fear, and her hand clutched at the air, as she beckoned
+wildly to him.  Stuart stared at her with a troubled smile and
+waved his empty hand to reassure her.  The movement was final,
+for the men below, freed from the reproach of his eyes, flung up
+their carbines and fired, some wildly, without placing their guns
+at rest, and others steadily and aiming straight at his heart.
+
+As the volley rang out and the smoke drifted up the great
+staircase, the subaltern's hands tossed high above his head, his
+body sank into itself and toppled backward, and, like a tired
+child falling to sleep, the defeated soldier of fortune dropped
+back into the outstretched arms of his friend.
+
+Clay lifted him upon his knee, and crushed him closer against his
+breast with one arm, while he tore with his free hand at the
+stock about the throat and pushed his fingers in between the
+buttons of the tunic.  They came forth again wet and colored
+crimson.
+
+``Stuart!'' Clay gasped.  ``Stuart, speak to me, look at me!'' 
+He shook the body in his arms with fierce roughness, peering into
+the face that rested on his shoulder, as though he could command
+the eyes back again to light and life.  ``Don't leave me!'' he
+said.  ``For God's sake, old man, don't leave me!''
+
+But the head on his shoulder only sank the closer and the body
+stiffened in his arms.  Clay raised his eyes and saw the soldiers
+still standing, irresolute and appalled at what they had done,
+and awe-struck at the sight of the grief before them.
+
+Clay gave a cry as terrible as the cry of a woman who has seen
+her child mangled before her eyes, and lowering the body quickly
+to the steps, he ran at the scattering mass below him.  As he
+came they fled down the corridor, shrieking and calling to their
+friends to throw open the gates and begging them to admit the
+mob.  When they reached the outer porch they turned, encouraged
+by the touch of numbers, and halted to fire at the man who still
+followed them.
+
+Clay stopped, with a look in his eyes which no one who knew them
+had ever seen there, and smiled with pleasure in knowing himself
+a master in what he had to do.  And at each report of his
+revolver one of Stuart's assassins stumbled and pitched heavily
+forward on his face.  Then he turned and walked slowly back up
+the hall to the stairway like a man moving in his sleep.  He
+neither saw nor heard the bullets that bit spitefully at the
+walls about him and rattled among the glass pendants of the great
+chandeliers above his head.  When he came to the step on which
+the body lay he stooped and picked it up gently, and holding it
+across his breast, strode on up the stairs.  MacWilliams and
+Langham were coming toward him, and saw the helpless figure in
+his arms.
+
+``What is it?'' they cried; ``is he wounded, is he hurt?''
+
+``He is dead,'' Clay answered, passing on with his burden.  ``Get
+Hope away.''
+
+Madame Alvarez stood with the girl's arms about her, her eyes
+closed and her figure trembling.
+
+``Let me be!'' she moaned.  ``Don't touch me; let me die.  My
+God, what have I to live for now?''  She shook off Hope's
+supporting arm, and stood before them, all her former courage
+gone, trembling and shivering in agony.  ``I do not care what
+they do to me!'' she cried.  She tore her lace mantilla from her
+shoulders and threw it on the floor.  ``I shall not leave this
+place.  He is dead.  Why should I go?  He is dead.  They
+have murdered him; he is dead.''
+
+``She is fainting,'' said Hope.  Her voice was strained and hard.
+
+To her brother she seemed to have grown suddenly much older, and
+he looked to her to tell him what to do.
+
+``Take hold of her,'' she said.  ``She will fall.''  The woman
+sank back into the arms of the men, trembling and moaning feebly.
+
+``Now carry her to the carriage,'' said Hope.  ``She has fainted;
+it is better; she does not know what has happened.''
+
+Clay, still bearing the body in his arms, pushed open the first
+door that stood ajar before him with his foot.  It opened into
+the great banqueting hall of the palace, but he could not choose.
+
+He had to consider now the safety of the living, whose lives were
+still in jeopardy.
+
+The long table in the centre of the hall was laid with places for
+many people, for it had been prepared for the President and the
+President's guests, who were to have joined with him in
+celebrating the successful conclusion of the review.  From
+outside the light of the sun, which was just sinking behind the
+mountains, shone dimly upon the silver on the board, on the glass
+and napery, and the massive gilt centre-pieces filled with great
+clusters of fresh flowers.  It looked as though the servants
+had but just left the room.  Even the candles had been lit in
+readiness, and as their flames wavered and smoked in the evening
+breeze they cast uncertain shadows on the walls and showed the
+stern faces of the soldier presidents frowning down on the
+crowded table from their gilded frames.
+
+There was a great leather lounge stretching along one side of the
+hall, and Clay moved toward this quickly and laid his burden
+down.  He was conscious that Hope was still following him.  He
+straightened the limbs of the body and folded the arms across the
+breast and pressed his hand for an instant on the cold hands of
+his friend, and then whispering something between his lips,
+turned and walked hurriedly away.
+
+Hope confronted him in the doorway.  She was sobbing silently. 
+``Must we leave him,'' she pleaded, ``must we leave him--like
+this?''
+
+From the garden there came the sound of hammers ringing on the
+iron hinges, and a great crash of noises as the gate fell back
+from its fastenings, and the mob rushed over the obstacles upon
+which it had fallen.  It seemed as if their yells of exultation
+and anger must reach even the ears of the dead man.
+
+``They are calling Mendoza,'' Clay whispered, ``he must be with
+them.  Come, we will have to run for our lives now.''
+
+But before he could guess what Hope was about to do, or could
+prevent her, she had slipped past him and picked up Stuart's
+sword that had fallen from his wrist to the floor, and laid it on
+the soldier's body, and closed his hands upon its hilt.  She
+glanced quickly about her as though looking for something, and
+then with a sob of relief ran to the table, and sweeping it of an
+armful of its flowers, stepped swiftly back again to the lounge
+and heaped them upon it.
+
+``Come, for God's sake, come!'' Clay called to her in a whisper
+from the door.
+
+Hope stood for an instant staring at the young Englishman as the
+candle-light flickered over his white face, and then, dropping on
+her knees, she pushed back the curly hair from about the boy's
+forehead and kissed him.  Then, without turning to look again,
+she placed her hand in Clay's and he ran with her, dragging her
+behind him down the length of the hall, just as the mob entered
+it on the floor below them and filled the palace with their
+shouts of triumph.
+
+As the sun sank lower its light fell more dimly on the lonely
+figure in the vast diningDhall, and as the gloom deepened there,
+the candles burned with greater brilliancy, and the faces of the
+portraits shone more clearly.
+
+They seemed to be staring down less sternly now upon the
+white mortal face of the brother-in-arms who had just joined
+them.
+
+One who had known him among his own people would have seen in the
+attitude and in the profile of the English soldier a likeness to
+his ancestors of the Crusades who lay carved in stone in the
+village church, with their faces turned to the sky, their
+faithful hounds waiting at their feet, and their hands pressed
+upward in prayer.
+
+And when, a moment later, the half-crazed mob of men and boys
+swept into the great room, with Mendoza at their head, something
+of the pathos of the young Englishman's death in his foreign
+place of exile must have touched them, for they stopped appalled
+and startled, and pressed back upon their fellows, with eager
+whispers.  The Spanish-American General strode boldly forward,
+but his eyes lowered before the calm, white face, and either
+because the lighted candles and the flowers awoke in him some
+memory of the great Church that had nursed him, or because the
+jagged holes in the soldier's tunic appealed to what was bravest
+in him, he crossed himself quickly, and then raising his hands
+slowly to his visor, lifted his hat and pointed with it to the
+door.  And the mob, without once looking back at the rich
+treasure of silver on the table, pushed out before him, stepping
+softly, as though they had intruded on a shrine.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+The President's travelling carriage was a double-seated diligence
+covered with heavy hoods and with places on the box for two men. 
+Only one of the coachmen, the same man who had driven the State
+carriage from the review, had remained at the stables.  As he
+knew the roads to Los Bocos, Clay ordered him up to the driver's
+seat, and MacWilliams climbed into the place beside him after
+first storing three rifles under the lap-robe.
+
+Hope pulled open the leather curtains of the carriage and found
+Madame Alvarez where the men had laid her upon the cushions, weak
+and hysterical.  The girl crept in beside her, and lifting her in
+her arms, rested the older woman's head against her shoulder, and
+soothed and comforted her with tenderness and sympathy.
+
+Clay stopped with his foot in the stirrup and looked up anxiously
+at Langham who was already in the saddle.
+
+``Is there no possible way of getting Hope out of this and back
+to the Palms?'' he asked.
+
+``No, it's too late.  This is the only way now.''  Hope opened
+the leather curtains and looking out shook her head impatiently
+at Clay.  ``I wouldn't go now if there were another way,'' she
+said.  ``I couldn't leave her like this.''
+
+``You're delaying the game, Clay,'' cried Langham, warningly, as
+he stuck his spurs into his pony's side.
+
+The people in the diligence lurched forward as the horses felt
+the lash of the whip and strained against the harness, and then
+plunged ahead at a gallop on their long race to the sea.  As they
+sped through the gardens, the stables and the trees hid them from
+the sight of those in the palace, and the turf, upon which the
+driver had turned the horses for greater safety, deadened the
+sound of their flight.
+
+They found the gates of the botanical gardens already opened, and
+Clay, in the street outside, beckoning them on.  Without waiting
+for the others the two outriders galloped ahead to the first
+cross street, looked up and down its length, and then, in evident
+concern at what they saw in the distance, motioned the driver to
+greater speed, and crossing the street signalled him to follow
+them.  At the next corner Clay flung himself off his pony, and
+throwing the bridle to Langham, ran ahead into the cross street
+on foot, and after a quick glance pointed down its length
+away from the heart of the city to the mountains.
+
+The driver turned as Clay directed him, and when the man found
+that his face was fairly set toward the goal he lashed his horses
+recklessly through the narrow street, so that the murmur of the
+mob behind them grew perceptibly fainter at each leap forward.
+
+The noise of the galloping hoofs brought women and children to
+the barred windows of the houses, but no men stepped into the
+road to stop their progress, and those few they met running in
+the direction of the palace hastened to get out of their way, and
+stood with their backs pressed against the walls of the narrow
+thoroughfare looking after them with wonder.
+
+Even those who suspected their errand were helpless to detain
+them, for sooner than they could raise the hue and cry or
+formulate a plan of action, the carriage had passed and was
+disappearing in the distance, rocking from wheel to wheel like a
+ship in a gale.  Two men who were so bold as to start to follow,
+stopped abruptly when they saw the outriders draw rein and turn
+in their saddles as though to await their coming.
+
+Clay's mind was torn with doubts, and his nerves were drawn taut
+like the strings of a violin.  Personal danger exhilarated him,
+but this chance of harm to others who were helpless, except
+for him, depressed his spirit with anxiety.  He experienced in
+his own mind all the nervous fears of a thief who sees an officer
+in every passing citizen, and at one moment he warned the driver
+to move more circumspectly, and so avert suspicion, and the next
+urged him into more desperate bursts of speed.  In his fancy
+every cross street threatened an ambush, and as he cantered now
+before and now behind the carriage, he wished that he was a
+multitude of men who could encompass it entirely and hide it.
+
+But the solid streets soon gave way to open places, and low mud
+cabins, where the horses' hoofs beat on a sun-baked road, and
+where the inhabitants sat lazily before the door in the fading
+light, with no knowledge of the changes that the day had wrought
+in the city, and with only a moment's curious interest in the
+hooded carriage, and the grim, white-faced foreigners who guarded
+it.
+
+Clay turned his pony into a trot at Langham's side.  His face was
+pale and drawn.
+
+As the danger of immediate pursuit and capture grew less, the
+carriage had slackened its pace, and for some minutes the
+outriders galloped on together side by side in silence.  But the
+same thought was in the mind of each, and when Langham spoke
+it was as though he were continuing where he had but just been
+interrupted.
+
+He laid his hand gently on Clay's arm.  He did not turn his face
+toward him, and his eyes were still peering into the shadows
+before them.  ``Tell me?'' he asked.
+
+``He was coming up the stairs,'' Clay answered.  He spoke in so
+low a voice that Langham had to lean from his saddle to hear him. 
+``They were close behind; but when they saw her they stopped and
+refused to go farther.  I called to him to come away, but he
+would not understand.  They killed him before he really
+understood what they meant to do.  He was dead almost before I
+reached him.  He died in my arms.''  There was a long pause.  ``I
+wonder if he knows that?'' Clay said.
+
+Langham sat erect in the saddle again and drew a short breath. 
+``I wish he could have known how he helped me,'' he whispered,
+``how much just knowing him helped me.''
+
+Clay bowed his head to the boy as though he were thanking him. 
+``His was the gentlest soul I ever knew,'' he said.
+
+``That's what I wanted to say,'' Langham answered.  ``We will let
+that be his epitaph,'' and touching his spur to his horse he
+galloped on ahead and left Clay riding alone.
+
+Langham had proceeded for nearly a mile when he saw the forest
+opening before them, and at the sight he gave a shout of relief,
+but almost at the same instant he pulled his pony back on his
+haunches and whirling him about, sprang back to the carriage with
+a cry of warning.
+
+``There are soldiers ahead of us,'' he cried.  ``Did you know
+it?'' he demanded of the driver.  ``Did you lie to me?  Turn
+back.''
+
+``He can't turn back,'' MacWilliams answered.  ``They have seen
+us.  They are only the custom officers at the city limits.  They
+know nothing.  Go on.''  He reached forward and catching the
+reins dragged the horses down into a walk.  Then he handed the
+reins back to the driver with a shake of the head.
+
+``If you know these roads as well as you say you do, you want to
+keep us out of the way of soldiers,'' he said.  ``If we fall into
+a trap you'll be the first man shot on either side.''
+
+A sentry strolled lazily out into the road dragging his gun after
+him by the bayonet, and raised his hand for them to halt.  His
+captain followed him from the post-house throwing away a
+cigarette as he came, and saluted MacWilliams on the box and
+bowed to the two riders in the background.  In his right hand he
+held one of the long iron rods with which the collectors of the
+city's taxes were wont to pierce the bundles and packs, and
+even the carriage cushions of those who entered the city limits
+from the coast, and who might be suspected of smuggling.
+
+``Whose carriage is this, and where is it going?'' he asked.
+
+As the speed of the diligence slackened, Hope put her head out of
+the curtains, and as she surveyed the soldier with apparent
+surprise, she turned to her brother.
+
+``What does this mean?'' she asked.  ``What are we waiting for?''
+
+``We are going to the Hacienda of Senor Palacio,''
+MacWilliams said, in answer to the officer.  ``The driver thinks
+that this is the road, but I say we should have taken the one to
+the right.''
+
+``No, this is the road to Senor Palacio's plantation,'' the
+officer answered, ``but you cannot leave the city without a pass
+signed by General Mendoza.  That is the order we received this
+morning.  Have you such a pass?''
+
+``Certainly not,'' Clay answered, warmly.  ``This is the carriage
+of an American, the president of the mines.  His daughters are
+inside and on their way to visit the residence of Senor
+Palacio.  They are foreigners--Americans.  We are all
+foreigners, and we have a perfect right to leave the city
+when we choose.  You can only stop us when we enter it.''
+
+The officer looked uncertainly from Clay to Hope and up at the
+driver on the box.  His eyes fell upon the heavy brass mountings
+of the harness.  They bore the arms of Olancho.  He wheeled
+sharply and called to his men inside the post-house, and they
+stepped out from the veranda and spread themselves leisurely
+across the road.
+
+``Ride him down, Clay,'' Langham muttered, in a whisper.  The
+officer did not understand the words, but he saw Clay gather the
+reins tighter in his hands and he stepped back quickly to the
+safety of the porch, and from that ground of vantage smiled
+pleasantly.
+
+``Pardon,'' he said, ``there is no need for blows when one is
+rich enough to pay.  A little something for myself and a drink
+for my brave fellows, and you can go where you please.''
+
+``Damned brigands,'' growled Langham, savagely.
+
+``Not at all,'' Clay answered.  ``He is an officer and a
+gentleman.  I have no money with me,'' he said, in Spanish,
+addressing the officer, ``but between caballeros a word of honor
+is sufficient.  I shall be returning this way to-morrow morning,
+and I will bring a few hundred sols from Senor Palacio
+for you and your men; but if we are followed you will get
+nothing, and you must have forgotten in the mean time that you
+have seen us pass.''
+
+There was a murmur inside the carriage, and Hope's face
+disappeared from between the curtains to reappear again
+almost immediately.  She beckoned to the officer with her hand,
+and the men saw that she held between her thumb and little finger
+a diamond ring of size and brilliancy.  She moved it so that it
+flashed in the light of the guard lantern above the post-house.
+
+``My sister tells me you shall be given this tomorrow morning,''
+Hope said, ``if we are not followed.''
+
+The man's eyes laughed with pleasure.  He swept his sombrero to
+the ground.
+
+``I am your servant, Senorita,'' he said.  ``Gentlemen,'' he
+cried, gayly, turning to Clay, ``if you wish it, I will accompany
+you with my men.  Yes, I will leave word that I have gone in the
+sudden pursuit of smugglers; or I will remain here as you wish,
+and send those who may follow back again.''
+
+``You are most gracious, sir,'' said Clay.  ``It is always a
+pleasure to meet with a gentleman and a philosopher.  We prefer
+to travel without an escort, and remember, you have seen nothing
+and heard nothing.''  He leaned from the saddle, and touched
+the officer on the breast.  ``That ring is worth a king's
+ransom.''
+
+``Or a president's,'' muttered the man, smiling.  ``Let the
+American ladies pass,'' he commanded.
+
+The soldiers scattered as the whip fell, and the horses once more
+leaped forward, and as the carriage entered the forest, Clay
+looked back and saw the officer exhaling the smoke of a fresh
+cigarette, with the satisfaction of one who enjoys a clean
+conscience and a sense of duty well performed.
+
+The road through the forest was narrow and uneven, and as the
+horses fell into a trot the men on horseback closed up together
+behind the carriage.
+
+``Do you think that road-agent will keep his word?'' Langham
+asked.
+
+``Yes; he has nothing to win by telling the truth,'' Clay
+answered.  ``He can say he saw a party of foreigners, Americans,
+driving in the direction of Palacio's coffee plantation.  That
+lets him out, and in the morning he knows he can levy on us for
+the gate money.  I am not so much afraid of being overtaken as I
+am that King may make a mistake and not get to Bocos on time.  We
+ought to reach there, if the carriage holds together, by eleven. 
+King should be there by eight o'clock, and the yacht ought to
+make the run to Truxillo in three hours.  But we shall not
+be able to get back to the city before five to-morrow morning.  I
+suppose your family will be wild about Hope.  We didn't know
+where she was when we sent the groom back to King.''
+
+``Do you think that driver is taking us the right way?'' Langham
+asked, after a pause.
+
+``He'd better.  He knows it well enough.  He was through the last
+revolution, and carried messages from Los Bocos to the city on
+foot for two months.  He has covered every trail on the way, and
+if he goes wrong he knows what will happen to him.''
+
+``And Los Bocos--it is a village, isn't it, and the landing must
+be in sight of the Custom-house?''
+
+``The village lies some distance back from the shore, and the
+only house on the beach is the Custom-house itself; but every one
+will be asleep by the time we get there, and it will take us only
+a minute to hand her into the launch.  If there should be a guard
+there, King will have fixed them one way or another by the time
+we arrive.  Anyhow, there is no need of looking for trouble that
+far ahead.  There is enough to worry about in between.  We
+haven't got there yet.''
+
+The moon rose grandly a few minutes later, and flooded the forest
+with light so that the open places were as clear as day.  It
+threw strange shadows across the trail, and turned the rocks
+and fallen trees into figures of men crouching or standing
+upright with uplifted arms.  They were so like to them that Clay
+and Langham flung their carbines to their shoulders again and
+again, and pointed them at some black object that turned as they
+advanced into wood or stone.  From the forest they came to little
+streams and broad shallow rivers where the rocks in the fording
+places churned the water into white masses of foam, and the
+horses kicked up showers of spray as they made their way,
+slipping and stumbling, against the current.  It was a silent
+pilgrim age, and never for a moment did the strain slacken or the
+men draw rein.  Sometimes, as they hurried across a broad
+tableland, or skirted the edge of a precipice and looked down
+hundreds of feet below at the shining waters they had just
+forded, or up at the rocky points of the mountains before them,
+the beauty of the night overcame them and made them forget the
+significance of their journey.
+
+They were not always alone, for they passed at intervals through
+sleeping villages of mud huts with thatched roofs, where the dogs
+ran yelping out to bark at them, and where the pine-knots,
+blazing on the clay ovens, burned cheerily in the moonlight.  In
+the low lands where the fever lay, the mist rose above the level
+of their heads and enshrouded them in a curtain of fog, and the
+dew fell heavily, penetrating their clothing and chilling
+their heated bodies so that the sweating horses moved in a lather
+of steam.
+
+They had settled down into a steady gallop now, and ten or
+fifteen miles had been left behind them.
+
+``We are making excellent time,'' said Clay.  ``The village of
+San Lorenzo should lie beyond that ridge.''  He drove up beside
+the driver and pointed with his whip.  ``Is not that San
+Lorenzo?'' he asked.
+
+``Yes, senor,'' the man answered, ``but I mean to drive around
+it by the old wagon trail.  It is a large town, and people may be
+awake.  You will be able to see it from the top of the next
+hill.''
+
+The cavalcade stopped at the summit of the ridge and the men
+looked down into the silent village.  It was like the others they
+had passed, with a few houses built round a square of grass that
+could hardly be recognized as a plaza, except for the church on
+its one side, and the huge wooden cross planted in its centre. 
+From the top of the hill they could see that the greater number
+of the houses were in darkness, but in a large building of two
+stories lights were shining from every window.
+
+``That is the comandancia,'' said the driver, shaking his
+head.  ``They are still awake.  It is a telegraph station.''
+
+``Great Scott!'' exclaimed MacWilliams.  ``We forgot the
+telegraph.  They may have sent word to head us off already.''
+
+``Nine o'clock is not so very late,'' said Clay.  ``It may mean
+nothing.''
+
+``We had better make sure, though,'' MacWilliams answered,
+jumping to the ground.  ``Lend me your pony, Ted, and take my
+place.  I'll run in there and dust around and see what's up. 
+I'll join you on the other side of the town after you get back to
+the main road.''
+
+``Wait a minute,'' said Clay.  ``What do you mean to do?''
+
+``I can't tell till I get there, but I'll try to find out how
+much they know.  Don't you be afraid.  I'll run fast enough if
+there's any sign of trouble.  And if you come across a telegraph
+wire, cut it.  The message may not have gone over yet.''
+
+The two women in the carriage had parted the flaps of the hoods
+and were trying to hear what was being said, but could not
+understand, and Langham explained to them that they were about to
+make a slight detour to avoid San Lorenzo while MacWilliams was
+going into it to reconnoitre.  He asked if they were comfortable,
+and assured them that the greater part of the ride was over,
+and that there was a good road from San Lorenzo to the sea.
+
+MacWilliams rode down into the village along the main trail, and
+threw his reins over a post in front of the comandancia.  He
+mounted boldly to the second floor of the building and stopped at
+the head of the stairs, in front of an open door.  There were
+three men in the room before him, one an elderly man, whom he
+rightly guessed was the comandante, and two younger men who
+were standing behind a railing and bending over a telegraph
+instrument on a table.  As he stamped into the room, they looked
+up and stared at him in surprise; their faces showed that he had
+interrupted them at a moment of unusual interest.
+
+MacWilliams saluted the three men civilly, and, according to the
+native custom, apologized for appearing before them in his spurs.
+
+He had been riding from Los Bocos to the capital, he said, and
+his horse had gone lame.  Could they tell him if there
+was any one in the village from whom he could hire a mule, as he
+must push on to the capital that night?
+
+The comandante surveyed him for a moment, as though still
+disturbed by the interruption, and then shook his head
+impatiently.  ``You can hire a mule from one Pulido Paul, at the
+corner of the plaza,'' he said.  And as MacWilliams still
+stood uncertainly, he added, ``You say you have come from
+Los Bocos.  Did you meet any one on your way?''
+
+The two younger men looked up at him anxiously, but before he
+could answer, the instrument began to tick out the signal, and
+they turned their eyes to it again, and one of them began to take
+its message down on paper.
+
+The instrument spoke to MacWilliams also, for he was used to
+sending telegrams daily from the office to the mines, and could
+make it talk for him in either English or Spanish.  So, in his
+effort to hear what it might say, he stammered and glanced at it
+involuntarily, and the comandante, without suspecting his
+reason for doing so, turned also and peered over the shoulder of
+the man who was receiving the message.  Except for the clicking
+of the instrument, the room was absolutely still; the three men
+bent silently over the table, while MacWilliams stood gazing at
+the ceiling and turning his hat in his hands.  The message
+MacWilliams read from the instrument was this:  ``They are
+reported to have left the city by the south, so they are going to
+Para, or San Pedro, or to Los Bocos.  She must be stopped--take
+an armed force and guard the roads.  If necessary, kill her.  She
+has in the carriage or hidden on her person, drafts for five
+million sols.  You will be held responsible for every one of
+them.  Repeat this message to show you understand, and relay it
+to Los Bocos.  If you fail--''
+
+MacWilliams could not wait to hear more; he gave a curt nod to
+the men and started toward the stairs.  ``Wait,'' the
+comandante called after him.
+
+MacWilliams paused with one hand on top of the banisters
+balancing himself in readiness for instant flight.
+
+``You have not answered me.  Did you meet with any one on your
+ride here from Los Bocos?''
+
+``I met several men on foot, and the mail carrier passed me a
+league out from the coast, and oh, yes, I met a carriage at the
+cross roads, and the driver asked me the way of San Pedro Sula.''
+
+``A carriage?--yes--and what did you tell him?''
+
+``I told him he was on the road to Los Bocos, and he turned back
+and--''
+
+``You are sure he turned back?''
+
+``Certainly, sir.  I rode behind him for some distance.  He
+turned finally to the right into the trail to San Pedro Sula.''
+
+The man flung himself across the railing.
+
+``Quick,'' he commanded, ``telegraph to Morales, Comandante
+San Pedro Sula--''
+
+He had turned his back on MacWilliams, and as the younger man
+bent over the instrument, MacWilliams stepped softly down the
+stairs, and mounting his pony rode slowly off in the direction of
+the capital.  As soon as he had reached the outskirts of the
+town, he turned and galloped round it and then rode fast with his
+head in air, glancing up at the telegraph wire that sagged from
+tree-trunk to tree-trunk along the trail.  At a point where he
+thought he could dismount in safety and tear down the wire, he
+came across it dangling from the branches and he gave a shout of
+relief.  He caught the loose end and dragged it free from its
+support, and then laying it across a rock pounded the blade of
+his knife upon it with a stone, until he had hacked off a piece
+some fifty feet in length.  Taking this in his hand he
+mounted again and rode off with it, dragging the wire in
+the road behind him.  He held it up as he rejoined Clay, and
+laughed triumphantly.  ``They'll have some trouble splicing that
+circuit,'' he said, ``you only half did the work.  What wouldn't
+we give to know all this little piece of copper knows, eh?''
+
+``Do you mean you think they have telegraphed to Los Bocos
+already?''
+
+``I know that they were telegraphing to San Pedro Sula as I left
+and to all the coast towns.  But whether you cut this down
+before or after is what I should like to know.''
+
+``We shall probably learn that later,'' said Clay, grimly.
+
+The last three miles of the journey lay over a hard, smooth road,
+wide enough to allow the carriage and its escort to ride abreast.
+
+It was in such contrast to the tortuous paths they had just
+followed, that the horses gained a fresh impetus and galloped
+forward as freely as though the race had but just begun.
+
+Madame Alvarez stopped the carriage at one place and asked the
+men to lower the hood at the back that she might feel the fresh
+air and see about her, and when this had been done, the women
+seated themselves with their backs to the horses where they could
+look out at the moonlit road as it unrolled behind them.
+
+Hope felt selfishly and wickedly happy.  The excitement had kept
+her spirits at the highest point, and the knowledge that Clay was
+guarding and protecting her was in itself a pleasure.  She leaned
+back on the cushions and put her arm around the older woman's
+waist, and listened to the light beat of his pony's hoofs
+outside, now running ahead, now scrambling and slipping up some
+steep place, and again coming to a halt as Langham or MacWilliams
+called, ``Look to the right, behind those trees,'' or
+``Ahead there!  Don't you see what I mean, something crouching?''
+
+She did not know when the false alarms would turn into a genuine
+attack, but she was confident that when the time came he would
+take care of her, and she welcomed the danger because it brought
+that solace with it.
+
+Madame Alvarez sat at her side, rigid, silent, and beyond the
+help of comfort.  She tortured herself with thoughts of the
+ambitions she had held, and which had been so cruelly mocked that
+very morning; of the chivalric love that had been hers, of the
+life even that had been hers, and which had been given up for her
+so tragically.  When she spoke at all, it was to murmur her
+sorrow that Hope had exposed herself to danger on her poor
+account, and that her life, as far as she loved it, was at an
+end.  Only once after the men had parted the curtains and asked
+concerning her comfort with grave solicitude did she give way to
+tears.
+
+``Why are they so good to me?'' she moaned.  ``Why are you so
+good to me? I am a wicked, vain woman, I have brought a nation to
+war and I have killed the only man I ever trusted.''
+
+Hope touched her gently with her hand and felt guiltily how
+selfish she herself must be not to feel the woman's grief, but
+she could not.  She only saw in it a contrast to her own
+happiness, a black background before which the figure of Clay and
+his solicitude for her shone out, the only fact in the world that
+was of value.
+
+Her thoughts were interrupted by the carriage coming to a halt,
+and a significant movement upon the part of the men.  MacWilliams
+had descended from the box-seat and stepping into the carriage
+took the place the women had just left.
+
+He had a carbine in his hand, and after he was seated Langham
+handed him another which he laid across his knees.
+
+``They thought I was too conspicuous on the box to do any good
+there,'' he explained in a confidential whisper.  ``In case there
+is any firing now, you ladies want to get down on your knees here
+at my feet, and hide your heads in the cushions.  We are entering
+Los Bocos.''
+
+Langham and Clay were riding far in advance, scouting to the
+right and left, and the carriage moved noiselessly behind them
+through the empty streets.  There was no light in any of the
+windows, and not even a dog barked, or a cock crowed.  The women
+sat erect, listening for the first signal of an attack, each
+holding the other's hand and looking at MacWilliams, who sat with
+his thumb on the trigger of his carbine, glancing to the right
+and left and breathing quickly.  His eyes twinkled, like
+those of a little fox terrier.  The men dropped back, and drew up
+on a level with the carriage.
+
+``We are all right, so far,'' Clay whispered.  ``The beach slopes
+down from the other side of that line of trees.  What is the
+matter with you?'' he demanded, suddenly, looking up at the
+driver, ``are you afraid?''
+
+``No,'' the man answered, hurriedly, his voice shaking; ``it's
+the cold.''
+
+Langham had galloped on ahead and as he passed through the trees
+and came out upon the beach, he saw a broad stretch of moonlit
+water and the lights from the yacht shining from a point a
+quarter of a mile off shore.  Among the rocks on the edge of the
+beach was the ``Vesta's'' longboat and her crew seated in it or
+standing about on the beach.  The carriage had stopped under the
+protecting shadow of the trees, and he raced back toward it.
+
+``The yacht is here,'' he cried.  ``The long-boat is waiting and
+there is not a sign of light about the Custom-house.  Come on,''
+he cried.  ``We have beaten them after all.''
+
+A sailor, who had been acting as lookout on the rocks, sprang to
+his full height, and shouted to the group around the long-boat,
+and King came up the beach toward them running heavily through
+the deep sand.
+
+Madame Alvarez stepped down from the carriage, and as Hope handed
+her her jewel case in silence, the men draped her cloak about her
+shoulders.  She put out her hand to them, and as Clay took it in
+his, she bent her head quickly and kissed his hand.  ``You were
+his friend,'' she murmured.
+
+She held Hope in her arms for an instant, and kissed her, and
+then gave her hand in turn to Langham and to MacWilliams.
+
+``I do not know whether I shall ever see you again,'' she said,
+looking slowly from one to the other, ``but I will pray for you
+every day, and God will reward you for saving a worthless life.''
+
+As she finished speaking King came up to the group, followed by
+three of his men.
+
+``Is Hope with you, is she safe?'' he asked.
+
+``Yes, she is with me,'' Madame Alvarez answered.
+
+``Thank God,'' King exclaimed, breathlessly.  ``Then we will
+start at once, Madame.  Where is she?  She must come with us!''
+
+``Of course,'' Clay-assented, eagerly, ``she will be much safer
+on the yacht.''
+
+But Hope protested.  ``I must get back to father,'' she said. 
+``The yacht will not arrive until late to-morrow, and the
+carriage can take me to him five hours earlier.  The family have
+worried too long about me as it is, and, besides, I will not
+leave Ted.  I am going back as I came.''
+
+``It is most unsafe,'' King urged.
+
+``On the contrary, it is perfectly safe now,'' Hope answered. 
+``It was not one of us they wanted.''
+
+``You may be right,'' King said.  ``They don't know what has
+happened to you, and perhaps after all it would be better if you
+went back the quicker way.''  He gave his arm to Madame Alvarez
+and walked with her toward the shore.  As the men surrounded her
+on every side and moved away, Clay glanced back at Hope and saw
+her standing upright in the carriage looking after them.
+
+``We will be with you in a minute,'' he called, as though in
+apology for leaving her for even that brief space.  And then the
+shadow of the trees shut her and the carriage from his sight. 
+His footsteps made no sound in the soft sand, and except for the
+whispering of the palms and the sleepy wash of the waves as they
+ran up the pebbly beach and sank again, the place was as peaceful
+and silent as a deserted island, though the moon made it as light
+as day.
+
+The long-boat had been drawn up with her stern to the shore, and
+the men were already in their places, some standing waiting for
+the order to shove off, and others seated balancing their
+oars.
+
+King had arranged to fire a rocket when the launch left the
+shore, in order that the captain of the yacht might run in closer
+to pick them up.  As he hurried down the beach, he called to his
+boatswain to give the signal, and the man answered that he
+understood and stooped to light a match.  King had jumped into
+the stern and lifted Madame Alvarez after him, leaving her late
+escort standing with uncovered heads on the beach behind her,
+when the rocket shot up into the calm white air, with a roar and
+a rush and a sudden flash of color.  At the same instant, as
+though in answer to its challenge, the woods back of them burst
+into an irregular line of flame, a volley of rifle shots
+shattered the silence, and a score of bullets splashed in the
+water and on the rocks about them.
+
+The boatswain in the bow of the long-boat tossed up his arms and
+pitched forward between the thwarts.
+
+``Give way,'' he shouted as he fell.
+
+``Pull,'' Clay yelled, ``pull, all of you.''
+
+He threw himself against the stern of the boat, and Langham and
+MacWilliams clutched its sides, and with their shoulders against
+it and their bodies half sunk in the water, shoved it off, free
+of the shore.
+
+The shots continued fiercely, and two of the crew cried out
+and fell back upon the oars of the men behind them.
+
+Madame Alvarez sprang to her feet and stood swaying unsteadily as
+the boat leaped forward.
+
+``Take me back.  Stop, I command you,'' she cried, ``I will not
+leave those men.  Do you hear?''
+
+King caught her by the waist and dragged her down, but she
+struggled to free herself.  ``I will not leave them to be
+murdered,'' she cried.  ``You cowards, put me back.''
+
+``Hold her, King,'' Clay shouted.  ``We're all right.  They're
+not firing at us.''
+
+His voice was drowned in the noise of the oars beating in the
+rowlocks, and the reports of the rifles.  The boat disappeared in
+a mist of spray and moonlight, and Clay turned and faced about
+him.  Langham and MacWilliams were crouching behind a rock and
+firing at the flashes in the woods.
+
+``You can't stay there,'' Clay cried.  ``We must get back to
+Hope.''
+
+He ran forward, dodging from side to side and firing as he ran. 
+He heard shots from the water, and looking back saw that the men
+in the longboat had ceased rowing, and were returning the fire
+from the shore.
+
+``Come back, Hope is all right,'' her brother called to him.  ``I
+haven't seen a shot within a hundred yards of her yet, they're
+firing from the Custom-house and below.  I think Mac's hit.''
+
+``I'm not,'' MacWilliams's voice answered from behind a rock,
+``but I'd like to see something to shoot at.''
+
+A hot tremor of rage swept over Clay at the thought of a possibly
+fatal termination to the night's adventure.  He groaned at the
+mockery of having found his life only to lose it now, when it was
+more precious to him than it had ever been, and to lose it in a
+silly brawl with semi-savages.  He cursed himself impotently and
+rebelliously for a senseless fool.
+
+``Keep back, can't you?'' he heard Langham calling to him from
+the shore.  ``You're only drawing the fire toward Hope.  She's
+got away by now.  She had both the horses.''
+
+Langham and MacWilliams started forward to Clay's side, but the
+instant they left the shadow of the rock, the bullets threw up
+the sand at their feet and they stopped irresolutely.  The moon
+showed the three men outlined against the white sand of the beach
+as clearly as though a searchlight had been turned upon them,
+even while its shadows sheltered and protected their assailants. 
+At their backs the open sea cut off retreat, and the line of fire
+in front held them in check.  They were as helpless as chessmen
+upon a board.
+
+``I'm not going to stand still to be shot at,'' cried
+MacWilliams.  ``Let's hide or let's run.  This isn't doing
+anybody any good.''  But no one moved.  They could hear the
+singing of the bullets as they passed them whining in the air
+like a banjo-string that is being tightened, and they knew they
+were in equal danger from those who were firing from the boat.
+
+``They're shooting better,'' said MacWilliams.  ``They'll reach
+us in a minute.''
+
+``They've reached me already, I think,'' Langham answered, with
+suppressed satisfaction, ``in the shoulder.  It's nothing.''  His
+unconcern was quite sincere; to a young man who had galloped
+through two long halves of a football match on a strained tendon,
+a scratched shoulder was not important, except as an unsought
+honor.
+
+But it was of the most importance to MacWilliams.  He raised his
+voice against the men in the woods in impotent fury.  ``Come out,
+you cowards, where we can see you,'' he cried.  ``Come out where
+I can shoot your black heads off.''
+
+Clay had fired the last cartridge in his rifle, and throwing it
+away drew his revolver.
+
+``We must either swim or hide,'' he said.  ``Put your heads down
+and run.''
+
+But as he spoke, they saw the carriage plunging out of the shadow
+of the woods and the horses galloping toward them down the
+beach.  MacWilliams gave a cheer of welcome.  ``Hurrah!'' he
+shouted, ``it's Jose' coming for us.  He's a good man.  Well
+done, Jose'!'' he called.
+
+``That's not Jose','' Langham cried, doubtfully, peering
+through the moonlight.  ``Good God!  It's Hope,'' he exclaimed. 
+He waved his hands frantically above his head.  ``Go back,
+Hope,'' he cried, ``go back!''
+
+But the carriage did not swerve on its way toward them.  They all
+saw her now distinctly.  She was on the driver's box and alone,
+leaning forward and lashing the horses' backs with the whip and
+reins, and bending over to avoid the bullets that passed above
+her head.  As she came down upon them, she stood up, her woman's
+figure outlined clearly in the riding habit she still wore. 
+``Jump in when I turn,'' she cried.  ``I'm going to turn slowly,
+run and jump in.''
+
+She bent forward again and pulled the horses to the right, and as
+they obeyed her, plunging and tugging at their bits, as though
+they knew the danger they were in, the men threw themselves at
+the carriage.  Clay caught the hood at the back, swung himself
+up, and scrambled over the cushions and up to the box seat.  He
+dropped down behind Hope, and reaching his arms around her took
+the reins in one hand, and with the other forced her down to
+her knees upon the footboard, so that, as she knelt, his arms and
+body protected her from the bullets sent after them.  Langham
+followed Clay, and tumbled into the carriage over the hood at the
+back, but MacWilliams endeavored to vault in from the step, and
+missing his footing fell under the hind wheel, so that the weight
+of the carriage passed over him, and his head was buried for an
+instant in the sand.  But he was on his feet again before they
+had noticed that he was down, and as he jumped for the hood,
+Langham caught him by the collar of his coat and dragged him into
+the seat, panting and gasping, and rubbing the sand from his
+mouth and nostrils.  Clay turned the carriage at a right angle
+through the heavy sand, and still standing with Hope crouched at
+his knees, he raced back to the woods into the face of the
+firing, with the boys behind him answering it from each side of
+the carriage, so that the horses leaped forward in a frenzy of
+terror, and dashing through the woods, passed into the first road
+that opened before them.
+
+The road into which they had turned was narrow, but level, and
+ran through a forest of banana palms that bent and swayed above
+them.  Langham and MacWilliams still knelt in the rear seat of
+the carriage, watching the road on the chance of possible
+pursuit.
+
+``Give me some cartridges,'' said Langham.  ``My belt is empty. 
+What road is this?''
+
+``It is a private road, I should say, through somebody's banana
+plantation.  But it must cross the main road somewhere.  It
+doesn't matter, we're all right now.  I mean to take it easy.'' 
+MacWilliams turned on his back and stretched out his legs on the
+seat opposite.
+
+``Where do you suppose those men sprang from?  Were they
+following us all the time?''
+
+``Perhaps, or else that message got over the wire before we cut
+it, and they've been lying in wait for us.  They were probably
+watching King and his sailors for the last hour or so, but they
+didn't want him.  They wanted her and the money.  It was pretty
+exciting, wasn't it?  How's your shoulder?''
+
+``It's a little stiff, thank you,'' said Langham.  He stood up
+and by peering over the hood could just see the top of Clay's
+sombrero rising above it where he sat on the back seat.
+
+``You and Hope all right up there, Clay?'' he asked.
+
+The top of the sombrero moved slightly, and Langham took it as a
+sign that all was well.  He dropped back into his seat beside
+MacWilliams, and they both breathed a long sigh of relief and
+content.  Langham's wounded arm was the one nearest
+MacWilliams, and the latter parted the torn sleeve and examined
+the furrow across the shoulder with unconcealed envy.
+
+``I am afraid it won't leave a scar,'' he said, sympathetically.
+
+``Won't it?'' asked Langham, in some concern.
+
+The horses had dropped into a walk, and the beauty of the moonlit
+night put its spell upon the two boys, and the rustling of the
+great leaves above their heads stilled and quieted them so that
+they unconsciously spoke in whispers.
+
+Clay had not moved since the horses turned of their own accord
+into the valley of the palms.  He no longer feared pursuit nor
+any interruption to their further progress.  His only sensation
+was one of utter thankfulness that they were all well out of it,
+and that Hope had been the one who had helped them in their
+trouble, and his dearest thought was that, whether she wished or
+not, he owed his safety, and possibly his life, to her.
+
+She still crouched between his knees upon the broad footboard,
+with her hands clasped in front of her, and looking ahead into
+the vista of soft mysterious lights and dark shadows that the
+moon cast upon the road.  Neither of them spoke, and as the
+silence continued unbroken, it took a weightier significance, and
+at each added second of time became more full of meaning.
+
+The horses had dropped into a tired walk, and drew them smoothly
+over the white road; from behind the hood came broken snatches of
+the boys' talk, and above their heads the heavy leaves of the
+palms bent and bowed as though in benediction.  A warm breeze
+from the land filled the air with the odor of ripening fruit and
+pungent smells, and the silence seemed to envelop them and mark
+them as the only living creatures awake in the brilliant tropical
+night.
+
+Hope sank slowly back, and as she did so, her shoulder touched
+for an instant against Clay's knee; she straightened herself and
+made a movement as though to rise.  Her nearness to him and
+something in her attitude at his feet held Clay in a spell.  He
+bent forward and laid his hand fearfully upon her shoulder, and
+the touch seemed to stop the blood in his veins and hushed the
+words upon his lips.  Hope raised her head slowly as though with
+a great effort, and looked into his eyes.  It seemed to him that
+he had been looking into those same eyes for centuries, as though
+he had always known them, and the soul that looked out of them
+into his.  He bent his head lower, and stretching out his arms
+drew her to him, and the eyes did not waver.  He raised her
+and held her close against his breast.  Her eyes faltered and
+closed.
+
+``Hope,'' he whispered, ``Hope.''  He stooped lower and kissed
+her, and his lips told her what they could not speak--and they
+were quite alone.
+
+
+
+XIV
+An hour later Langham rose with a protesting sigh and shook the
+hood violently.
+
+``I say!'' he called.  ``Are you asleep up there.  We'll never
+get home at this rate.  Doesn't Hope want to come back here and
+go to sleep?
+
+The carriage stopped, and the boys tumbled out and walked around
+in front of it.  Hope sat smiling on the box-seat.  She was
+apparently far from sleepy, and she was quite contented where she
+was, she told him.
+
+``Do you know we haven't had anything to eat since yesterday at
+breakfast?'' asked Langham.  ``MacWilliams and I are fainting. 
+We move that we stop at the next shack we come to, and waken the
+people up and make them give us some supper.''
+
+Hope looked aside at Clay and laughed softly.  ``Supper?'' she
+said.  ``They want supper!''
+
+Their suffering did not seem to impress Clay deeply.  He sat
+snapping his whip at the palm-trees above him, and smiled happily
+in an inconsequent and irritating manner at nothing.
+
+``See here!  Do you know that we are lost?'' demanded Langham,
+indignantly, ``and starving?  Have you any idea at all where you
+are?''
+
+``I have not,'' said Clay, cheerfully.  ``All I know is that a
+long time ago there was a revolution and a woman with jewels, who
+escaped in an open boat, and I recollect playing that I was a
+target and standing up to be shot at in a bright light.  After
+that I woke up to the really important things of life--among
+which supper is not one.''
+
+Langham and MacWilliams looked at each other doubtfully, and
+Langham shook his head.
+
+``Get down off that box,'' he commanded.  ``If you and Hope think
+this is merely a pleasant moonlight drive, we don't.  You two can
+sit in the carriage now, and we'll take a turn at driving, and
+we'll guarantee to get you to some place soon.''
+
+Clay and Hope descended meekly and seated themselves under the
+hood, where they could look out upon the moonlit road as it
+unrolled behind them.  But they were no longer to enjoy their
+former leisurely progress.  The new whip lashed his horses into a
+gallop, and the trees flew past them on either hand.
+
+``Do you remember that chap in the `Last Ride Together'?'' said
+Clay.
+    ``I and my mistress, side by side,
+        Shall be together--forever ride,
+      And so one more day am I deified.
+        Who knows--the world may end to-night.''
+
+Hope laughed triumphantly, and threw out her arms as though she
+would embrace the whole beautiful world that stretched around
+them.
+
+``Oh, no,'' she laughed.  ``To-night the world has just begun.''
+
+The carriage stopped, and there was a confusion of voices on the
+box-seat, and then a great barking of dogs, and they beheld
+MacWilliams beating and kicking at the door of a hut.  The door
+opened for an inch, and there was a long debate in Spanish, and
+finally the door was closed again, and a light appeared through
+the windows.  A few minutes later a man and woman came out of the
+hut, shivering and yawning, and made a fire in the sun-baked oven
+at the side of the house.  Hope and Clay remained seated in the
+carriage, and watched the flames springing up from the oily
+fagots, and the boys moving about with flaring torches of pine,
+pulling down bundles of fodder for the horses from the roof of
+the kitchen, while two sleepy girls disappeared toward a mountain
+stream, one carrying a jar on her shoulder, and the other
+lighting the way with a torch.  Hope sat with her chin on her
+hand, watching the black figures passing between them and
+the fire, and standing above it with its light on their faces,
+shading their eyes from the heat with one hand, and stirring
+something in a smoking caldron with the other.  Hope felt an
+overflowing sense of gratitude to these simple strangers for the
+trouble they were taking.  She felt how good every one was, and
+how wonderfully kind and generous was the world that she lived
+in.
+
+Her brother came over to the carriage and bowed with mock
+courtesy.
+
+``I trust, now that we have done all the work,'' he said, ``that
+your excellencies will condescend to share our frugal fare, or
+must we bring it to you here?''
+
+The clay oven stood in the middle of a hut of laced twigs,
+through which the smoke drifted freely.  There was a row of
+wooden benches around it, and they all seated themselves and ate
+ravenously of rice and fried plantains, while the woman patted
+and tossed tortillas between her hands, eyeing her guests
+curiously.  Her glance fell upon Langham's shoulder, and rested
+there for so long that Hope followed the direction of her eyes. 
+She leaped to her feet with a cry of fear and reproach, and ran
+toward her brother.
+
+``Ted!'' she cried, ``you are hurt! you are wounded, and you
+never told me!  What is it?  Is it very bad?'' Clay
+crossed the floor in a stride, his face full of concern.
+
+``Leave me alone!'' cried the stern brother, backing away and
+warding them off with the coffeepot.  ``It's only scratched. 
+You'll spill the coffee.''
+
+But at the sight of the blood Hope had turned very white, and
+throwing her arms around her brother's neck, hid her eyes on his
+other shoulder and began to cry.
+
+``I am so selfish,'' she sobbed.  ``I have been so happy and you
+were suffering all the time.''
+
+Her brother stared at the others in dismay.  ``What nonsense,''
+he said, patting her on the shoulder.  ``You're a bit tired, and
+you need rest.  That's what you need.  The idea of my sister
+going off in hysterics after behaving like such a sport--and
+before these young ladies, too.  Aren't you ashamed?''
+
+``I should think they'd be ashamed,'' said MacWilliams, severely,
+as he continued placidly with his supper.  ``They haven't got
+enough clothes on.''
+
+Langham looked over Hope's shoulder at Clay and nodded
+significantly.  ``She's been on a good deal of a strain,'' he
+explained apologetically, ``and no wonder; it's been rather an
+unusual night for her.''
+
+Hope raised her head and smiled at him through her tears.  Then
+she turned and moved toward Clay.  She brushed her eyes with the
+back of her hand and laughed.  ``It has been an unusual night,''
+she said.  ``Shall I tell him?'' she asked.
+
+Clay straightened himself unconsciously, and stepped beside her
+and took her hand; MacWilliams quickly lowered to the bench the
+dish from which he was eating, and stood up, too.  The people of
+the house stared at the group in the firelight with puzzled
+interest, at the beautiful young girl, and at the tall, sunburned
+young man at her side.  Langham looked from his sister to Clay
+and back again, and laughed uneasily.
+
+``Langham, I have been very bold,'' said Clay.  ``I have asked
+your sister to marry me--and she has said that she would.''
+
+Langham flushed as red as his sister.  He felt himself at a
+disadvantage in the presence of a love as great and strong as he
+knew this must be.  It made him seem strangely young and
+inadequate.  He crossed over to his sister awkwardly and kissed
+her, and then took Clay's hand, and the three stood together and
+looked at one another, and there was no sign of doubt or question
+in the face of any one of them.  They stood so for some little
+time, smiling and exclaiming together, and utterly unconscious of
+anything but their own delight and happiness.  MacWilliams
+watched them, his face puckered into odd wrinkles and his eyes
+half-closed.  Hope suddenly broke away from the others and turned
+toward him with her hands held out.
+
+``Have you nothing to say to me, Mr. MacWilliams?'' she asked.
+
+MacWilliams looked doubtfully at Clay, as though from force of
+habit he must ask advice from his chief first, and then took the
+hands that she held out to him and shook them up and down.  His
+usual confidence seemed to have forsaken him, and he stood,
+shifting from one foot to the other, smiling and abashed.
+
+``Well, I always said they didn't make them any better than
+you,'' he gasped at last.  ``I was always telling him that,
+wasn't I?''  He nodded energetically at Clay.  ``And that's so;
+they don't make 'em any better than you.''
+
+He dropped her hands and crossed over to Clay, and stood
+surveying him with a smile of wonder and admiration.
+
+``How'd you do it?'' he demanded.  ``How did you do it?  I
+suppose you know,'' he asked sternly, ``that you're not good
+enough for Miss Hope?  You know that, don't you?''
+
+``Of course I know that,'' said Clay.
+
+MacWilliams walked toward the door and stood in it for a
+second, looking back at them over his shoulder.  ``They don't
+make them any better than that,'' he reiterated gravely, and
+disappeared in the direction of the horses, shaking his head and
+muttering his astonishment and delight.
+
+``Please give me some money,'' Hope said to Clay.  ``All the
+money you have,'' she added, smiling at her presumption of
+authority over him, ``and you, too, Ted.''  The men emptied their
+pockets, and Hope poured the mass of silver into the hands of the
+women, who gazed at it uncomprehendingly.
+
+``Thank you for your trouble and your good supper,'' Hope said in
+Spanish, ``and may no evil come to your house.''
+
+The woman and her daughters followed her to the carriage, bowing
+and uttering good wishes in the extravagant metaphor of their
+country; and as they drove away, Hope waved her hand to them as
+she sank closer against Clay's shoulder.
+
+``The world is full of such kind and gentle souls,'' she said.
+
+In an hour they had regained the main road, and a little later
+the stars grew dim and the moonlight faded, and trees and bushes
+and rocks began to take substance and to grow into form and
+outline.  They saw by the cool, gray light of the morning the
+familiar hills around the capital, and at a cry from the
+boys on the box-seat, they looked ahead and beheld the harbor of
+Valencia at their feet, lying as placid and undisturbed as the
+water in a bath-tub.  As they turned up the hill into the road
+that led to the Palms, they saw the sleeping capital like a city
+of the dead below them, its white buildings reddened with the
+light of the rising sun.  From three places in different parts of
+the city, thick columns of smoke rose lazily to the sky.
+
+``I had forgotten!'' said Clay; ``they have been having a
+revolution here.  It seems so long ago.''
+
+By five o'clock they had reached the gate of the Palms, and their
+appearance startled the sentry on post into a state of
+undisciplined joy.  A riderless pony, the one upon which Jose'
+had made his escape when the firing began, had crept into the
+stable an hour previous, stiff and bruised and weary, and had led
+the people at the Palms to fear the worst.
+
+Mr. Langham and his daughter were standing on the veranda as the
+horses came galloping up the avenue.  They had been awake all the
+night, and the face of each was white and drawn with anxiety and
+loss of sleep.  Mr. Langham caught Hope in his arms and held her
+face close to his in silence.
+
+``Where have you been?'' he said at last.  ``Why did you
+treat me like this?  You knew how I would suffer.''
+
+``I could not help it,'' Hope cried.  ``I had to go with Madame
+Alvarez.''
+
+Her sister had suffered as acutely as had Mr. Langham himself, as
+long as she was in ignorance of Hope's whereabouts.  But now that
+she saw Hope in the flesh again, she felt a reaction against her
+for the anxiety and distress she had caused them.
+
+``My dear Hope,'' she said, ``is every one to be sacrificed for
+Madame Alvarez?  What possible use could you be to her at such a
+time?  It was not the time nor the place for a young girl.  You
+were only another responsibility for the men.''
+
+``Clay seemed willing to accept the responsibility,'' said
+Langham, without a smile.  ``And, besides,'' he added, ``if Hope
+had not been with us we might never have reached home alive.''
+
+But it was only after much earnest protest and many explanations
+that Mr. Langham was pacified, and felt assured that his son's
+wound was not dangerous, and that his daughter was quite safe.
+
+Miss Langham and himself, he said, had passed a trying night. 
+There had been much firing in the city, and continual uproar. 
+The houses of several of the friends of Alvarez had been burned
+and sacked.  Alvarez himself had been shot as soon as he had
+entered the yard of the military prison.  It was then given out
+that he had committed suicide.  Mendoza had not dared to kill
+Rojas, because of the feeling of the people toward him, and had
+even shown him to the mob from behind the bars of one of the
+windows in order to satisfy them that he was still living.  The
+British Minister had sent to the Palace for the body of Captain
+Stuart, and had had it escorted to the Legation, from whence it
+would be sent to England.  This, as far as Mr. Langham had heard,
+was the news of the night just over.
+
+``Two native officers called here for you about midnight, Clay,''
+he continued, ``and they are still waiting for you below at your
+office.  They came from Rojas's troops, who are encamped on the
+hills at the other side of the city.  They wanted you to join
+them with the men from the mines.  I told them I did not know
+when you would return, and they said they would wait.  If you
+could have been here last night, it is possible that we might
+have done something, but now that it is all over, I am glad that
+you saved that woman instead.  I should have liked, though, to
+have struck one blow at them.  But we cannot hope to win against
+assassins.  The death of young Stuart has hurt me terribly, and
+the murder of Alvarez, coming on top of it, has made me wish I
+had never heard of nor seen Olancho.  I have decided to go
+away at once, on the next steamer, and I will take my daughters
+with me, and Ted, too.  The State Department at Washington can
+fight with Mendoza for the mines.  You made a good stand, but
+they made a better one, and they have beaten us.  Mendoza's coup
+d'etat has passed into history, and the revolution is at an
+end.''
+
+On his arrival Clay had at once asked for a cigar, and while Mr.
+Langham was speaking he had been biting it between his teeth,
+with the serious satisfaction of a man who had been twelve hours
+without one.  He knocked the ashes from it and considered the
+burning end thoughtfully.  Then he glanced at Hope as she stood
+among the group on the veranda.  She was waiting for his reply
+and watching him intently.  He seemed to be confident that she
+would approve of the only course he saw open to him.
+
+``The revolution is not at an end by any means, Mr. Langham,'' he
+said at last, simply.  ``It has just begun.''  He turned abruptly
+and walked away in the direction of the office, and MacWilliams
+and Langham stepped off the veranda and followed him as a matter
+of course.
+
+The soldiers in the army who were known to be faithful to General
+Rojas belonged to the Third and Fourth regiments, and numbered
+four thousand on paper, and two thousand by count of heads. 
+When they had seen their leader taken prisoner, and swept off the
+parade-ground by Mendoza's cavalry, they had first attempted to
+follow in pursuit and recapture him, but the men on horseback had
+at once shaken off the men on foot and left them, panting and
+breathless, in the dust behind them.  So they halted uncertainly
+in the road, and their young officers held counsel together. 
+They first considered the advisability of attacking the military
+prison, but decided against doing so, as it would lead, they
+feared, whether it proved successful or not, to the murder of
+Rojas.  It was impossible to return to the city where Mendoza's
+First and Second regiments greatly outnumbered them.  Having no
+leader and no headquarters, the officers marched the men to the
+hills above the city and went into camp to await further
+developments.
+
+Throughout the night they watched the illumination of the city
+and of the boats in the harbor below them; they saw the flames
+bursting from the homes of the members of Alvarez's Cabinet, and
+when the morning broke they beheld the grounds of the Palace
+swarming with Mendoza's troops, and the red and white barred flag
+of the revolution floating over it.  The news of the
+assassination of Alvarez and the fact that Rojas had been
+spared for fear of the people, had been carried to them early in
+the evening, and with this knowledge of their General's safety
+hope returned and fresh plans were discussed.  By midnight they
+had definitely decided that should Mendoza attempt to dislodge
+them the next morning, they would make a stand, but that if the
+fight went against them, they would fall back along the mountain
+roads to the Valencia mines, where they hoped to persuade the
+fifteen hundred soldiers there installed to join forces with them
+against the new Dictator.
+
+In order to assure themselves of this help, a messenger was
+despatched by a circuitous route to the Palms, to ask the aid of
+the resident director, and another was sent to the mines to work
+upon the feelings of the soldiers themselves.  The officer who
+had been sent to the Palms to petition Clay for the loan of his
+soldier-workmen, had decided to remain until Clay returned, and
+another messenger had been sent after him from the camp on the
+same errand.
+
+These two lieutenants greeted Clay with enthusiasm, but he at
+once interrupted them, and began plying them with questions as to
+where their camp was situated and what roads led from it to the
+Palms.
+
+``Bring your men at once to this end of our railroad,'' he
+said.  ``It is still early, and the revolutionists will sleep
+late.  They are drugged with liquor and worn out with excitement,
+and whatever may have been their intentions toward you last
+night, they will be late in putting them into practice this
+morning.  I will telegraph Kirkland to come up at once with all
+of his soldiers and with his three hundred Irishmen.  Allowing
+him a half-hour to collect them and to get his flat cars
+together, and another half-hour in which to make the run, he
+should be here by half-past six--and that's quick mobilization. 
+You ride back now and march your men here at a double-quick. 
+With your two thousand we shall have in all three thousand and
+eight hundred men.  I must have absolute control over my own
+troops.  Otherwise I shall act independently of you and go into
+the city alone with my workmen.''
+
+``That is unnecessary,'' said one of the lieutenants.  ``We have
+no officers.  If you do not command us, there is no one else to
+do it.  We promise that our men will follow you and give you
+every obedience.  They have been led by foreigners before, by
+young Captain Stuart and Major Fergurson and Colonel Shrevington. 
+They know how highly General Rojas thinks of you, and they know
+that you have led Continental armies in Europe.''
+
+``Well, don't tell them I haven't until this is over,'' said
+Clay.  ``Now, ride hard, gentlemen, and bring your men here as
+quickly as possible.''
+
+The lieutenants thanked him effusively and galloped away, radiant
+at the success of their mission, and Clay entered the office
+where MacWilliams was telegraphing his orders to Kirkland.  He
+seated himself beside the instrument, and from time to time
+answered the questions Kirkland sent back to him over the wire,
+and in the intervals of silence thought of Hope.  It was the
+first time he had gone into action feeling the touch of a woman's
+hand upon his sleeve, and he was fearful lest she might think he
+had considered her too lightly.
+
+He took a piece of paper from the table and wrote a few lines
+upon it, and then rewrote them several times.  The message he
+finally sent to her was this:  ``I am sure you understand, and
+that you would not have me give up beaten now, when what we do
+to-day may set us right again.  I know better than any one else
+in the world can know, what I run the risk of losing, but you
+would not have that fear stop me from going on with what we have
+been struggling for so long.  I cannot come back to see you
+before we start, but I know your heart is with me.  With great
+love, Robert Clay.''
+
+He gave the note to his servant, and the answer was brought
+to him almost immediately.  Hope had not rewritten her message: 
+``I love you because you are the sort of man you are, and had you
+given up as father wished you to do, or on my account, you would
+have been some one else, and I would have had to begin over again
+to learn to love you for some different reasons.  I know that you
+will come back to me bringing your sheaves with you.  Nothing can
+happen to you now.  Hope.''
+
+He had never received a line from her before, and he read and
+reread this with a sense of such pride and happiness in his face
+that MacWilliams smiled covertly and bent his eyes upon his
+instrument.  Clay went back into his room and kissed the page of
+paper gently, flushing like a boy as he did so, and then folding
+it carefully, he put it away beneath his jacket.  He glanced
+about him guiltily, although he was quite alone, and taking out
+his watch, pried it open and looked down into the face of the
+photograph that had smiled up at him from it for so many years. 
+He thought how unlike it was to Alice Langham as he knew her.  He
+judged that it must have been taken when she was very young, at
+the age Hope was then, before the little world she lived in had
+crippled and narrowed her and marked her for its own.  He
+remembered what she had said to him the first night he had
+seen her.  ``That is the picture of the girl who ceased to exist
+four years ago, and whom you have never met.''  He wondered if
+she had ever existed.
+
+``It looks more like Hope than her sister,'' he mused.  ``It
+looks very much like Hope.''  He decided that he would let it
+remain where it was until Hope gave him a better one; and smiling
+slightly he snapped the lid fast, as though he were closing a
+door on the face of Alice Langham and locking it forever.
+
+Kirkland was in the cab of the locomotive that brought the
+soldiers from the mine.  He stopped the first car in front of the
+freight station until the workmen had filed out and formed into a
+double line on the platform.  Then he moved the train forward the
+length of that car, and those in the one following were mustered
+out in a similar manner.  As the cars continued to come in, the
+men at the head of the double line passed on through the freight
+station and on up the road to the city in an unbroken column. 
+There was no confusion, no crowding, and no haste.
+
+When the last car had been emptied, Clay rode down the line and
+appointed a foreman to take charge of each company, stationing
+his engineers and the Irish-Americans in the van.  It looked more
+like a mob than a regiment.  None of the men were in
+uniform, and the native soldiers were barefoot.  But they showed
+a winning spirit, and stood in as orderly an array as though they
+were drawn up in line to receive their month's wages.  The
+Americans in front of the column were humorously disposed, and
+inclined to consider the whole affair as a pleasant outing.  They
+had been placed in front, not because they were better shots than
+the natives, but because every South American thinks that every
+citizen of the United States is a master either of the rifle or
+the revolver, and Clay was counting on this superstition.  His
+assistant engineers and foremen hailed him as he rode on up and
+down the line with good-natured cheers, and asked him when they
+were to get their commissions, and if it were true that they were
+all captains, or only colonels, as they were at home.
+
+They had been waiting for a half-hour, when there was the sound
+of horses' hoofs on the road, and the even beat of men's feet,
+and the advance guard of the Third and Fourth regiments came
+toward them at a quickstep.  The men were still in the full-dress
+uniforms they had worn at the review the day before, and in
+comparison with the soldier-workmen and the Americans in flannel
+shirts, they presented so martial a showing that they were
+welcomed with tumultuous cheers.  Clay threw them into a double
+line on one side of the road, down the length of which his
+own marched until they had reached the end of it nearest to the
+city, when they took up their position in a close formation, and
+the native regiments fell in behind them.  Clay selected twenty
+of the best shots from among the engineers and sent them on ahead
+as a skirmish line.  They were ordered to fall back at once if
+they saw any sign of the enemy.  In this order the column of four
+thousand men started for the city.
+
+It was a little after seven when they advanced.  and the air was
+mild and peaceful.  Men and women came crowding to the doors and
+windows of the huts as they passed, and stood watching them in
+silence, not knowing to which party the small army might belong. 
+In order to enlighten them, Clay shouted, ``Viva Rojas.''  And
+his men took it up, and the people answered gladly.
+
+They had reached the closely built portion of the city when the
+skirmish line came running back to say that it had been met by a
+detachment of Mendoza's cavalry, who had galloped away as soon as
+they saw them.  There was then no longer any doubt that the fact
+of their coming was known at the Palace, and Clay halted his men
+in a bare plaza and divided them into three columns.  Three
+streets ran parallel with one another from this plaza to the
+heart of the city, and opened directly upon the garden of
+the Palace where Mendoza had fortified himself.  Clay directed
+the columns to advance up these streets, keeping the head of each
+column in touch with the other two.  At the word they were to
+pour down the side streets and rally to each other's assistance.
+
+As they stood, drawn up on the three sides of the plaza, he rode
+out before them and held up his hat for silence.  They were there
+with arms in their hands, he said, for two reasons: the greater
+one, and the one which he knew actuated the native soldiers, was
+their desire to preserve the Constitution of the Republic. 
+According to their own laws, the Vice-President must succeed when
+the President's term of office had expired, or in the event of
+his death.  President Alvarez had been assassinated, and the
+Vice-President, General Rojas, was, in consequence, his legal
+successor.  It was their duty, as soldiers of the Republic, to
+rescue him from prison, to drive the man who had usurped his
+place into exile, and by so doing uphold the laws which they had
+themselves laid down.  The second motive, he went on, was a less
+worthy and more selfish one.  The Olancho mines, which now gave
+work to thousands and brought millions of dollars into the
+country, were coveted by Mendoza, who would, if he could, convert
+them into a monopoly of his government.  If he remained in
+power all foreigners would be driven out of the country, and the
+soldiers would be forced to work in the mines without payment. 
+Their condition would be little better than that of the slaves in
+the salt mines of Siberia.  Not only would they no longer be paid
+for their labor, but the people as a whole would cease to receive
+that share of the earnings of the mines which had hitherto been
+theirs.
+
+``Under President Rojas you will have liberty, justice, and
+prosperity,'' Clay cried.  ``Under Mendoza you will be ruled by
+martial law.  He will rob and overtax you, and you will live
+through a reign of terror.  Between them--which will you
+choose?''
+
+The native soldiers answered by cries of ``Rojas,'' and breaking
+ranks rushed across the plaza toward him, crowding around his
+horse and shouting, ``Long live Rojas,'' ``Long live the
+Constitution,'' ``Death to Mendoza.''  The Americans stood as
+they were and gave three cheers for the Government.
+
+They were still cheering and shouting as they advanced upon the
+Palace, and the noise of their coming drove the people indoors,
+so that they marched through deserted streets and between closed
+doors and sightless windows.  No one opposed them, and no one
+encouraged them.  But they could now see the facade of the
+Palace and the flag of the Revolutionists hanging from the mast
+in front of it.
+
+Three blocks distant from the Palace they came upon the buildings
+of the United States and English Legations, where the flags of
+the two countries had been hung out over the narrow thoroughfare.
+
+The windows and the roofs of each legation were crowded with
+women and children who had sought refuge there, and the column
+halted as Weimer, the Consul, and Sir Julian Pindar, the English
+Minister, came out, bare-headed, into the street and beckoned to
+Clay to stop.
+
+``As our Minister was not here,'' Weimer said, ``I telegraphed to
+Truxillo for the man-of-war there.  She started some time ago,
+and we have just heard that she is entering the lower harbor. 
+She should have her blue-jackets on shore in twenty minutes.  Sir
+Julian and I think you ought to wait for them.''
+
+The English Minister put a detaining hand on Clay's bridle.  ``If
+you attack Mendoza at the Palace with this mob,'' he
+remonstrated, ``rioting and lawlessness generally will break out
+all over the city.  I ask you to keep them back until we get your
+sailors to police the streets and protect property.''
+
+Clay glanced over his shoulder at the engineers and the
+Irish workmen standing in solemn array behind him.  ``Oh, you can
+hardly call this a mob,'' he said.  ``They look a little rough
+and ready, but I will answer for them.  The two other columns
+that are coming up the streets parallel to this are Government
+troops and properly engaged in driving a usurper out of the
+Government building.  The best thing you can do is to get down to
+the wharf and send the marines and blue-jackets where you think
+they will do the most good.  I can't wait for them.  And they
+can't come too soon.''
+
+The grounds of the Palace occupied two entire blocks; the
+Botanical Gardens were in the rear, and in front a series of low
+terraces ran down from its veranda to the high iron fence which
+separated the grounds from the chief thoroughfare of the city.
+
+Clay sent word to the left and right wing of his little army to
+make a detour one street distant from the Palace grounds and form
+in the street in the rear of the Botanical Gardens.  When they
+heard the firing of his men from the front they were to force
+their way through the gates at the back and attack the Palace in
+the rear.
+
+``Mendoza has the place completely barricaded,'' Weimer warned
+him, ``and he has three field pieces covering each of these
+streets.  You and your men are directly in line of one of them
+now.  He is only waiting for you to get a little nearer
+before he lets loose.''
+
+From where he sat Clay could count the bars of the iron fence in
+front of the grounds.  But the boards that backed them prevented
+his forming any idea of the strength or the distribution of
+Mendoza's forces.  He drew his staff of amateur officers to one
+side and explained the situation to them.
+
+``The Theatre National and the Club Union,'' he said, ``face the
+Palace from the opposite corners of this street.  You must get
+into them and barricade the windows and throw up some sort of
+shelter for yourselves along the edge of the roofs and drive the
+men behind that fence back to the Palace.  Clear them away from
+the cannon first, and keep them away from it.  I will be waiting
+in the street below.  When you have driven them back, we will
+charge the gates and have it out with them in the gardens.  The
+Third and Fourth regiments ought to take them in the rear about
+the same time.  You will continue to pick them off from the
+roof.''
+
+The two supporting columns had already started on their
+roundabout way to the rear of the Palace.  Clay gathered up his
+reins, and telling his men to keep close to the walls, started
+forward, his soldiers following on the sidewalks and leaving
+the middle of the street clear.  As they reached a point a
+hundred yards below the Palace, a part of the wooden shield
+behind the fence was thrown down, there was a puff of white smoke
+and a report, and a cannon-ball struck the roof of a house which
+they were passing and sent the tiles clattering about their
+heads.  But the men in the lead had already reached the stage-
+door of the theatre and were opposite one of the doors to the
+club.  They drove these in with the butts of their rifles, and
+raced up the stairs of each of the deserted buildings until they
+reached the roof.  Langham was swept by a weight of men across a
+stage, and jumped among the music racks in the orchestra.  He
+caught a glimpse of the early morning sun shining on the tawdry
+hangings of the boxes and the exaggerated perspective of the
+scenery.  He ran through corridors between two great statues of
+Comedy and Tragedy, and up a marble stair case to a lobby in
+which he saw the white faces about him multiplied in long
+mirrors, and so out to an iron balcony from which he looked down,
+panting and breathless, upon the Palace Gardens, swarming with
+soldiers and white with smoke.  Men poured through the windows of
+the club opposite, dragging sofas and chairs out to the balcony
+and upon the flat roof.  The men near him were tearing down the
+yellow silk curtains in the lobby and draping them along the
+railing of the balcony to better conceal their movements from the
+enemy below.  Bullets spattered the stucco about their heads, and
+panes of glass broke suddenly and fell in glittering particles
+upon their shoulders.  The firing had already begun from the
+roofs near them.  Beyond the club and the theatre and far along
+the street on each side of the Palace the merchants were slamming
+the iron shutters of their shops, and men and women were running
+for refuge up the high steps of the church of Santa Maria. 
+Others were gathered in black masses on the balconies and roofs
+of the more distant houses, where they stood outlined against the
+soft blue sky in gigantic silhouette.  Their shouts of
+encouragement and anger carried clearly in the morning air, and
+spurred on the gladiators below to greater effort.  In the Palace
+Gardens a line of Mendoza's men fought from behind the first
+barricade, while others dragged tables and bedding and chairs
+across the green terraces and tumbled them down to those below,
+who seized them and formed them into a second line of defence.
+
+Two of the assistant engineers were kneeling at Langham's feet
+with the barrels of their rifles resting on the railing of the
+balcony.  Their eyes had been trained for years to judge
+distances and to measure space, and they glanced along the
+sights of their rifles as though they were looking through
+the lens of a transit, and at each report their faces grew more
+earnest and their lips pressed tighter together.  One of them
+lowered his gun to light a cigarette, and Langham handed him his
+match-box, with a certain feeling of repugnance.
+
+``Better get under cover, Mr. Langham,'' the man said, kindly. 
+``There's no use our keeping your mines for you if you're not
+alive to enjoy them.  Take a shot at that crew around the gun.''
+
+``I don't like this long range business,'' Langham answered.  ``I
+am going down to join Clay.  I don't like the idea of hitting a
+man when he isn't looking at you.''
+
+The engineer gave an incredulous laugh.
+
+``If he isn't looking at you, he's aiming at the man next to you.
+
+`Live and let Live' doesn't apply at present.''
+
+As Langham reached Clay's side triumphant shouts arose from the
+roof-tops, and the men posted there stood up and showed
+themselves above the barricades and called to Clay that the
+cannon were deserted.
+
+Kirkland had come prepared for the barricade, and, running across
+the street, fastened a dynamite cartridge to each gate post and
+lit the fuses.  The soldiers scattered before him as he came
+leaping back, and in an instant later there was a racking
+roar, and the gates were pitched out of their sockets and thrown
+forward, and those in the street swept across them and surrounded
+the cannon.
+
+Langham caught it by the throat as though it were human, and did
+not feel the hot metal burning the palms of his hands as he
+choked it and pointed its muzzle toward the Palace, while the
+others dragged at the spokes of the wheel.  It was fighting at
+close range now, close enough to suit even Langham.  He found
+himself in the front rank of it without knowing exactly how he
+got there.  Every man on both sides was playing his own hand, and
+seemed to know exactly what to do.  He felt neglected and very
+much alone, and was somewhat anxious lest his valor might be
+wasted through his not knowing how to put it to account.  He saw
+the enemy in changing groups of scowling men, who seemed to eye
+him for an instant down the length of a gun-barrel and then
+disappear behind a puff of smoke.  He kept thinking that war made
+men take strange liberties with their fellow-men, and it struck
+him as being most absurd that strangers should stand up and try
+to kill one another, men who had so little in common that they
+did not even know one another's names.  The soldiers who were
+fighting on his own side were equally unknown to him, and he
+looked in vain for Clay.  He saw MacWilliams for a moment
+through the smoke, jabbing at a jammed cartridge with his pen-
+knife, and hacking the lead away to make it slip.  He was
+remonstrating with the gun and swearing at it exactly as though
+it were human, and as Langham ran toward him he threw it away and
+caught up another from the ground.  Kneeling beside the wounded
+man who had dropped it and picking the cartridges from his belt,
+he assured him cheerfully that he was not so badly hurt as he
+thought.
+
+``You all right?'' Langham asked.
+
+``I'm all right.  I'm trying to get a little laddie hiding behind
+that blue silk sofa over there.  He's taken an unnatural dislike
+to me, and he's nearly got me three times.  I'm knocking horse-
+hair out of his rampart, though.''
+
+The men of Stuart's body-guard were fighting outside of the
+breastworks and mattresses.  They were using their swords as
+though they were machetes, and the Irishmen were swinging their
+guns around their shoulders like sledge-hammers, and beating
+their foes over the head and breast.  The guns at his own side
+sounded close at Langham's ear, and deafened him, and those of
+the enemy exploded so near to his face that he was kept
+continually winking and dodging, as though he were being taken by
+a flashlight photograph.  When he fired he aimed where the
+mass was thickest, so that he might not see what his bullet did,
+but he remembered afterward that he always reloaded with the most
+anxious swiftness in order that he might not be killed before he
+had had another shot, and that the idea of being killed was of no
+concern to him except on that account.  Then the scene before him
+changed, and apparently hundreds of Mendoza's soldiers poured out
+from the Palace and swept down upon him, cheering as they came,
+and he felt himself falling back naturally and as a matter of
+course, as he would have stepped out of the way of a locomotive,
+or a runaway horse, or any other unreasoning thing.  His
+shoulders pushed against a mass of shouting, sweating men, who in
+turn pressed back upon others, until the mass reached the iron
+fence and could move no farther.  He heard Clay's voice shouting
+to them, and saw him run forward, shooting rapidly as he ran, and
+he followed him, even though his reason told him it was a useless
+thing to do, and then there came a great shout from the rear of
+the Palace, and more soldiers, dressed exactly like the others,
+rushed through the great doors and swarmed around the two wings
+of the building, and he recognized them as Rojas's men and knew
+that the fight was over.
+
+He saw a tall man with a negro's face spring out of the
+first mass of soldiers and shout to them to follow him.  Clay
+gave a yell of welcome and ran at him, calling upon him in
+Spanish to surrender.  The negro stopped and stood at bay,
+glaring at Clay and at the circle of soldiers closing in around
+him.  He raised his revolver and pointed it steadily.  It was as
+though the man knew he had only a moment to live, and meant to do
+that one thing well in the short time left him.
+
+Clay sprang to one side and ran toward him, dodging to the right
+and left, but Mendoza followed his movements carefully with his
+revolver.
+
+It lasted but an instant.  Then the Spaniard threw his arm
+suddenly across his face, drove the heel of his boot into the
+turf, and spinning about on it fell forward.
+
+``If he was shot where his sash crosses his heart, I know the man
+who did it,'' Langham heard a voice say at his elbow, and turning
+saw MacWilliams wetting his fingers at his lips and touching them
+gingerly to the heated barrel of his Winchester.
+
+The death of Mendoza left his followers without a leader and
+without a cause.  They threw their muskets on the ground and held
+their hands above their heads, shrieking for mercy.  Clay and his
+officers answered them instantly by running from one group
+to another, knocking up the barrels of the rifles and calling
+hoarsely to the men on the roofs to cease firing, and as they
+were obeyed the noise of the last few random shots was drowned in
+tumultuous cheering and shouts of exultation, that, starting in
+the gardens, were caught up by those in the streets and passed on
+quickly as a line of flame along the swaying housetops.
+
+The native officers sprang upon Clay and embraced him after their
+fashion, hailing him as the Liberator of Olancho, as the
+Preserver of the Constitution, and their brother patriot.  Then
+one of them climbed to the top of a gilt and marble table and
+proclaimed him military President.
+
+``You'll proclaim yourself an idiot, if you don't get down from
+there,'' Clay said, laughing.  ``I thank you for permitting me to
+serve with you, gentlemen.  I shall have great pleasure in
+telling our President how well you acquitted yourself in this
+row--battle, I mean.  And now I would suggest that you store the
+prisoners' weapons in the Palace and put a guard over them, and
+then conduct the men themselves to the military prison, where you
+can release General Rojas and escort him back to the city in a
+triumphal procession.  You'd like that, wouldn't you?''
+
+But the natives protested that that honor was for him alone. 
+Clay declined it, pleading that he must look after his wounded.
+
+``I can hardly believe there are any dead,'' he said to Kirkland.
+
+``For, if it takes two thousand bullets to kill a man in European
+warfare, it must require about two hundred thousand to kill a man
+in South America.''
+
+He told Kirkland to march his men back to the mines and to see
+that there were no stragglers.  ``If they want to celebrate, let
+them celebrate when they get to the mines, but not here.  They
+have made a good record to-day and I won't have it spoiled by
+rioting.  They shall have their reward later.  Between Rojas and
+Mr. Langham they should all be rich men.''
+
+The cheering from the housetops since the firing ceased had
+changed suddenly into hand-clappings, and the cries, though still
+undistinguishable, were of a different sound.  Clay saw that the
+Americans on the balconies of the club and of the theatre had
+thrown themselves far over the railings and were all looking in
+the same direction and waving their hats and cheering loudly, and
+he heard above the shouts of the people the regular tramp of
+men's feet marching in step, and the rattle of a machine gun as
+it bumped and shook over the rough stones.  He gave a shout of
+pleasure, and Kirkland and the two boys ran with him up the
+slope, crowding each other to get a better view.  The mob
+parted at the Palace gates, and they saw two lines of blue-
+jackets, spread out like the sticks of a fan, dragging the gun
+between them, the middies in their tight-buttoned tunics and
+gaiters, and behind them more blue-jackets with bare, bronzed
+throats, and with the swagger and roll of the sea in their legs
+and shoulders.  An American flag floated above the white helmets
+of the marines.  Its presence and the sense of pride which the
+sight of these men from home awoke in them made the fight just
+over seem mean and petty, and they took off their hats and
+cheered with the others.
+
+A first lieutenant, who felt his importance and also a sense of
+disappointment at having arrived too late to see the fighting,
+left his men at the gate of the Palace, and advanced up the
+terrace, stopping to ask for information as he came.  Each group
+to which he addressed himself pointed to Clay.  The sight of his
+own flag had reminded Clay that the banner of Mendoza still hung
+from the mast beside which he was standing, and as the officer
+approached he was busily engaged in untwisting its halyards and
+pulling it down.
+
+The lieutenant saluted him doubtfully.
+
+``Can you tell me who is in command here?'' he asked.  He spoke
+somewhat sharply, for Clay was not a military looking personage,
+covered as he was with dust and perspiration, and with his
+sombrero on the back of his head.
+
+``Our Consul here told us at the landing-place,'' continued the
+lieutenant in an aggrieved tone, ``that a General Mendoza was in
+power, and that I had better report to him, and then ten minutes
+later I hear that he is dead and that a General Rojas is
+President, but that a man named Clay has made himself Dictator. 
+My instructions are to recognize no belligerents, but to report
+to the Government party.  Now, who is the Government party?''
+
+Clay brought the red-barred flag down with a jerk, and ripped it
+free from the halyards.  Kirkland and the two boys were watching
+him with amused smiles.
+
+``I appreciate your difficulty,'' he said.  ``President Alvarez
+is dead, and General Mendoza, who tried to make himself Dictator,
+is also dead, and the real President, General Rojas, is still in
+jail.  So at present I suppose that I represent the Government
+party, at least I am the man named Clay.  It hadn't occurred to
+me before, but, until Rojas is free, I guess I am the Dictator of
+Olancho.  Is Madame Alvarez on board your ship?''
+
+``Yes, she is with us,'' the officer replied, in some confusion. 
+``Excuse me--are you the three gentlemen who took her to the
+yacht?  I am afraid I spoke rather hastily just now, but you
+are not in uniform, and the Government seems to change so quickly
+down here that a stranger finds it hard to keep up with it.''
+
+Six of the native officers had approached as the lieutenant was
+speaking and saluted Clay gravely.  ``We have followed your
+instructions,'' one of them said, ``and the regiments are ready
+to march with the prisoners.  Have you any further orders for
+us--can we deliver any messages to General Rojas?''
+
+``Present my congratulations to General Rojas, and best wishes,''
+said Clay.  ``And tell him for me, that it would please me
+greatly if he would liberate an American citizen named Burke, who
+is at present in the cuartel.  And that I wish him to promote all
+of you gentlemen one grade and give each of you the Star of
+Olancho.  Tell him that in my opinion you have deserved even
+higher reward and honor at his hands.''
+
+The boy-lieutenants broke out into a chorus of delighted thanks. 
+They assured Clay that he was most gracious; that he overwhelmed
+them, and that it was honor enough for them that they had served
+under him.  But Clay laughed, and drove them off with a paternal
+wave of the hand.
+
+The officer from the man-of-war listened with an uncomfortable
+sense of having blundered in his manner toward this powder-
+splashed young man who set American citizens at liberty, and
+created captains by the half-dozen at a time.
+
+``Are you from the States?'' he asked as they moved toward the
+man-of-war's men.
+
+``I am, thank God.  Why not?''
+
+``I thought you were, but you saluted like an Englishman.''
+
+``I was an officer in the English army once in the Soudan, when
+they were short of officers.''  Clay shook his head and looked
+wistfully at the ranks of the blue-jackets drawn up on either
+side of them.  The horses had been brought out and Langham and
+MacWilliams were waiting for him to mount.  ``I have worn several
+uniforms since I was a boy,'' said Clay.  ``But never that of my
+own country.''
+
+The people were cheering him from every part of the square. 
+Women waved their hands from balconies and housetops, and men
+climbed to awnings and lampposts and shouted his name.  The
+officers and men of the landing party took note of him and of
+this reception out of the corner of their eyes, and wondered.
+
+``And what had I better do?'' asked the commanding officer.
+
+``Oh, I would police the Palace grounds, if I were you, and
+picket that street at the right, where there are so many
+wine shops, and preserve order generally until Rojas gets here. 
+He won't be more than an hour, now.  We shall be coming over to
+pay our respects to your captain to-morrow.  Glad to have met
+you.''
+
+``Well, I'm glad to have met you,'' answered the officer,
+heartily.  ``Hold on a minute.  Even if you haven't worn our
+uniform, you're as good, and better, than some I've seen that
+have, and you're a sort of a commander-in-chief, anyway, and I'm
+damned if I don't give you a sort of salute.''
+
+Clay laughed like a boy as he swung himself into the saddle.  The
+officer stepped back and gave the command; the middies raised
+their swords and Clay passed between massed rows of his
+countrymen with their muskets held rigidly toward him.  The
+housetops rocked again at the sight, and as he rode out into the
+brilliant sunshine, his eyes were wet and winking.
+
+The two boys had drawn up at his side, but MacWilliams had turned
+in the saddle and was still looking toward the Palace, with his
+hand resting on the hindquarters of his pony.
+
+``Look back, Clay,'' he said.  ``Take a last look at it, you'll
+never see it after to-day.  Turn again, turn again, Dictator of
+Olancho.''
+
+The men laughed and drew rein as he bade them, and looked
+back up the narrow street.  They saw the green and white flag of
+Olancho creeping to the top of the mast before the Palace, the
+blue-jackets driving back the crowd, the gashes in the walls of
+the houses, where Mendoza's cannonballs had dug their way through
+the stucco, and the silk curtains, riddled with bullets, flapping
+from the balconies of the opera-house.
+
+``You had it all your own way an hour ago,'' MacWilliams said,
+mockingly.  ``You could have sent Rojas into exile, and made us
+all Cabinet Ministers--and you gave it up for a girl.  Now,
+you're Dictator of Olancho.  What will you be to-morrow?  To-
+morrow you will be Andrew Langham's son-in-law--Benedict, the
+married man.  Andrew Langham's son-in-law cannot ask his wife to
+live in such a hole as this, so--Goodbye, Mr. Clay.  We have been
+long together.''
+
+Clay and Langham looked curiously at the boy to see if he were in
+earnest, but MacWilliams would not meet their eyes.
+
+``There were three of us,'' he said, ``and one got shot, and one
+got married, and the third--?  You will grow fat, Clay, and live
+on Fifth Avenue and wear a high silk hat, and some day when
+you're sitting in your club you'll read a paragraph in a
+newspaper with a queer Spanish date-line to it, and this will all
+come back to you,--this heat, and the palms, and the fever,
+and the days when you lived on plantains and we watched our
+trestles grow out across the canons, and you'll be willing to
+give your hand to sleep in a hammock again, and to feel the sweat
+running down your back, and you'll want to chuck your gun up
+against your chin and shoot into a line of men, and the policemen
+won't let you, and your wife won't let you.  That's what you're
+giving up.  There it is.  Take a good look at it.  You'll never
+see it again.''
+
+
+
+XV
+
+The steamer ``Santiago,'' carrying ``passengers, bullion, and
+coffee,'' was headed to pass Porto Rico by midnight, when she
+would be free of land until she anchored at the quarantine
+station of the green hills of Staten Island.  She had not yet
+shaken off the contamination of the earth; a soft inland breeze
+still tantalized her with odors of tree and soil, the smell of
+the fresh coat of paint that had followed her coaling rose from
+her sides, and the odor of spilt coffee-grains that hung around
+the hatches had yet to be blown away by a jealous ocean breeze,
+or washed by a welcoming cross sea.
+
+The captain stopped at the open entrance of the Social Hall. 
+``If any of you ladies want to take your last look at Olancho
+you've got to come now,'' he said.  ``We'll lose the Valencia
+light in the next quarter hour.''
+
+Miss Langham and King looked up from their novels and smiled, and
+Miss Langham shook her head.  ``I've taken three final farewells
+of Olancho already,'' she said: ``before we went down to
+dinner, and when the sun set, and when the moon rose.  I have no
+more sentiment left to draw on.  Do you want to go?'' she asked.
+
+``I'm very comfortable, thank you,'' King said, and returned to
+the consideration of his novel.
+
+But Clay and Hope arose at the captain's suggestion with
+suspicious alacrity, and stepped out upon the empty deck, and
+into the encompassing darkness, with a little sigh of relief.
+
+Alice Langham looked after them somewhat wistfully and bit the
+edges of her book.  She sat for some time with her brows knitted,
+glancing occasionally and critically toward King and up with
+unseeing eyes at the swinging lamps of the saloon.  He caught her
+looking at him once when he raised his eyes as he turned a page,
+and smiled back at her, and she nodded pleasantly and bent her
+head over her reading.  She assured herself that after all King
+understood her and she him, and that if they never rose to
+certain heights, they never sank below a high level of mutual
+esteem, and that perhaps was the best in the end.
+
+King had placed his yacht at the disposal of Madame Alvarez, and
+she had sailed to Colon, where she could change to the steamers
+for Lisbon, while he accompanied the Langhams and the wedding
+party to New York.
+
+Clay recognized that the time had now arrived in his life
+when he could graduate from the position of manager-director and
+become the engineering expert, and that his services in Olancho
+were no longer needed.
+
+With Rojas in power Mr. Langham had nothing further to fear from
+the Government, and with Kirkland in charge and young Langham
+returning after a few months' absence to resume his work, he felt
+himself free to enjoy his holiday.
+
+They had taken the first steamer out, and the combined efforts of
+all had been necessary to prevail upon MacWilliams to accompany
+them; and even now the fact that he was to act as Clay's best man
+and, as Langham assured him cheerfully, was to wear a frock coat
+and see his name in all the papers, brought on such sudden panics
+of fear that the fast-fading coast line filled his soul with
+regret, and a wilful desire to jump overboard and swim back.
+
+Clay and Hope stopped at the door of the chief engineer's cabin
+and said they had come to pay him a visit.  The chief had but
+just come from the depths where the contamination of the earth
+was most evident in the condition of his stokers; but his chin
+was now cleanly shaven, and his pipe was drawing as well as his
+engine fires, and he had wrapped himself in an old P. & O. white
+duck jacket to show what he had been before he sank to the
+level of a coasting steamer.  They admired the clerk-like
+neatness of the report he had just finished, and in return he
+promised them the fastest run on record, and showed them the
+portrait of his wife, and of their tiny cottage on the Isle of
+Wight, and his jade idols from Corea, and carved cocoanut gourds
+from Brazil, and a picture from the ``Graphic'' of Lord
+Salisbury, tacked to the partition and looking delightedly down
+between two highly colored lithographs of Miss Ellen Terry and
+the Princess May.
+
+Then they called upon the captain, and Clay asked him why
+captains always hung so much lace about their beds when they
+invariably slept on a red velvet sofa with their boots on, and
+the captain ordered his Chinese steward to mix them a queer drink
+and offered them the choice of a six months' accumulation of
+paper novels, and free admittance to his bridge at all hours. 
+And then they passed on to the door of the smoking-room and
+beckoned MacWilliams to come out and join them.  His manner as he
+did so bristled with importance, and he drew them eagerly to the
+rail.
+
+``I've just been having a chat with Captain Burke,'' he said, in
+an undertone.  ``He's been telling Langham and me about a new
+game that's better than running railroads.  He says there's a
+country called Macedonia that's got a native prince who
+wants to be free from Turkey, and the Turks won't let him, and
+Burke says if we'll each put up a thousand dollars, he'll
+guarantee to get the prince free in six months.  He's made an
+estimate of the cost and submitted it to the Russian Embassy at
+Washington, and he says they will help him secretly, and he knows
+a man who has just patented a new rifle, and who will supply him
+with a thousand of them for the sake of the advertisement.  He
+says it's a mountainous country, and all you have to do is to
+stand on the passes and roll rocks down on the Turks as they come
+in.  It sounds easy, doesn't it?''
+
+``Then you're thinking of turning professional filibuster
+yourself?'' said Clay.
+
+``Well, I don't know.  It sounds more interesting than
+engineering.  Burke says I beat him on his last fight, and he'd
+like to have me with him in the next one--sort of young-blood-in-
+the-firm idea--and he calculates that we can go about setting
+people free and upsetting governments for some time to come.  He
+says there is always something to fight about if you look for it. 
+And I must say the condition of those poor Macedonians does
+appeal to me.  Think of them all alone down there bullied by that
+Sultan of Turkey, and wanting to be free and independent.  That's
+not right.  You, as an American citizen, ought to be the
+last person in the world to throw cold water on an
+undertaking like that.  In the name of Liberty now?''
+
+``I don't object; set them free, of course,'' laughed Clay. 
+``But how long have you entertained this feeling for the enslaved
+Macedonians, Mac?''
+
+``Well, I never heard of them until a quarter of an hour ago, but
+they oughtn't to suffer through my ignorance.''
+
+``Certainly not.  Let me know when you're going to do it, and
+Hope and I will run over and look on.  I should like to see you
+and Burke and the Prince of Macedonia rolling rocks down on the
+Turkish Empire.''
+
+Hope and Clay passed on up the deck laughing, and MacWilliams
+looked after them with a fond and paternal smile.  The lamp in
+the wheelhouse threw a broad belt of light across the forward
+deck as they passed through it into the darkness of the bow,
+where the lonely lookout turned and stared at them suspiciously,
+and then resumed his stern watch over the great waters.
+
+They leaned upon the rail and breathed the soft air which the
+rush of the steamer threw in their faces, and studied in silence
+the stars that lay so low upon the horizon line that they looked
+like the harbor lights of a great city.
+
+``Do you see that long line of lamps off our port bow?'' asked
+Clay.
+
+Hope nodded.
+
+``Those are the electric lights along the ocean drive at Long
+Branch and up the Rumson Road, and those two stars a little
+higher up are fixed to the mast-heads of the Scotland Lightship. 
+And that mass of light that you think is the Milky Way, is the
+glare of the New York street lamps thrown up against the sky.''
+
+``Are we so near as that?'' said Hope, smiling.  ``And what lies
+over there?'' she asked, pointing to the east.
+
+``Over there is the coast of Africa.  Don't you see the
+lighthouse on Cape Bon?  If it wasn't for Gibraltar being in the
+way, I could show you the harbor lights of Bizerta, and the
+terraces of Algiers shining like a cafe' chantant in the
+night.''
+
+``Algiers,'' sighed Hope, ``where you were a soldier of Africa,
+and rode across the deserts.  Will you take me there?''
+
+``There, of course, but to Gibraltar first, where we will drive
+along the Alameda by moonlight.  I drove there once coming home
+from a mess dinner with the Colonel.  The drive lies between
+broad white balustrades, and the moon shone down on us between
+the leaves of the Spanish bayonet.  It was like an Italian
+garden.  But he did not see it, and he would talk to me
+about the Watkins range finder on the lower ramparts, and he
+puffed on a huge cigar.  I tried to imagine I was there on my
+honeymoon, but the end of his cigar would light up and I would
+see his white mustache and the glow on his red jacket, so I vowed
+I would go over that drive again with the proper person.  And we
+won't talk of range finders, will we?
+
+``There to the North is Paris; your Paris, and my Paris, with
+London only eight hours away.  If you look very closely, you can
+see the thousands of hansom cab lamps flashing across the
+asphalt, and the open theatres, and the fairy lamps in the
+gardens back of the houses in Mayfair, where they are giving
+dances in your honor, in honor of the beautiful American bride,
+whom every one wants to meet.  And you will wear the finest tiara
+we can get on Bond Street, but no one will look at it; they will
+only look at you.  And I will feel very miserable and tease you
+to come home.''
+
+Hope put her hand in his, and he held her finger-tips to his lips
+for an instant and closed his other hand upon hers.
+
+``And after that?'' asked Hope.
+
+``After that we will go to work again, and take long journeys to
+Mexico and Peru or wherever they want me, and I will sit in
+judgment on the work other chaps have done.  And when we get
+back to our car at night, or to the section house, for it will be
+very rough sometimes,''--Hope pressed his hand gently in
+answer,--``I will tell you privately how very differently your
+husband would have done it, and you, knowing all about it, will
+say that had it been left to me, I would certainly have
+accomplished it in a vastly superior manner.''
+
+``Well, so you would,'' said Hope, calmly.
+
+``That's what I said you'd say,'' laughed Clay.  ``Dearest,'' he
+begged, ``promise me something.  Promise me that you are going to
+be very happy.''
+
+Hope raised her eyes and looked up at him in silence, and had the
+man in the wheelhouse been watching the stars, as he should have
+been, no one but the two foolish young people on the bow of the
+boat would have known her answer.
+
+The ship's bell sounded eight times, and Hope moved slightly.
+
+``So late as that,'' she sighed.  ``Come.  We must be going
+back.''
+
+A great wave struck the ship's side a friendly slap, and the wind
+caught up the spray and tossed it in their eyes, and blew a
+strand of her hair loose so that it fell across Clay's face, and
+they laughed happily together as she drew it back and he took her
+hand again to steady her progress across the slanting deck.
+
+As they passed hand in hand out of the shadow into the light from
+the wheelhouse, the lookout in the bow counted the strokes of the
+bell to himself, and then turned and shouted back his measured
+cry to the bridge above them.  His voice seemed to be a part of
+the murmuring sea and the welcoming winds.
+
+``Listen,'' said Clay.
+
+``Eight bells,'' the voice sang from the darkness.  ``The for'ard
+light's shining bright--and all's well.''
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Soldiers of Fortune, by Davis
+
diff --git a/old/soldf10.zip b/old/soldf10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4955eee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/soldf10.zip