Reginald Wright Kauffman

“ IT WAS late in the night when he bent over Buster's hammock. Explanations, regrets, accusations against the Minister of Finance, bribes for Kent and threats for all tumbled out of lips fearful lest each syllable might betray their owner to his sleeping companions:
“He's got them—somewhere—Trujillo: and I believed he was an honest man! He thinks I'm up to something: I can see that. I never was so disappointed in anybody! We're both Americans, you and me, and we've got to stick together. You can't trust any of these foreigners. ”

“ Everyone in Catamarca had known that the Señorita Eulalia Savedra y Loreto was somewhere out of the country. By four o'clock everyone knew she had returned.
Strong personalities are speedily felt. Señorita Eulalia had landed from Spain less than eighteen months before the evening of her balcony conversation with Don Ricardo. She had come as a coloratura soprano; had captured all ears and most hearts—but she had begun by being too popular with the gentlemen to suit any of the ladies, and shortly became too expensive a stage-idol for the worship of any of the gentlemen except the gilded few. ”

“ Cheavey's mouth worked. His eyes changed from amazement to rage. He fumbled in a pocket.
But she was before him, a figure of power.
“Yes, I told! How else could I force you into action? Am I not to marry you? And is it conceivable that I marry a man in danger of arrest for embezzlement? Your one chance—you have said it—is to seize the Presidency. Seize it now—and be safe—and then claim me!”
An hour later, when Don Cipriano believed her to be asleep in her own house, Eulalia was again closeted with His Excellency. ”

“ Cheavey vouchsafed one look of livid malice; but he did as he was told.
“A splendid choice,” said a deputy who rode beside Kent. “Trujillo is popular.”
“It looks that way. Do you call this a revolution?”
“Not at all, señor—at least not yet. Don Ricardo has resigned. Under pressure? None can ever prove it. Of course, so long as he remains among us—he is still secluded in the palace—there is chance of some misguided persons fighting for him; but it is not likely. Certainly the Chamber hopes not; we wish he would go away: revolutions do not help our country's good name abroad.” ”

“ He was already half-way across the basin; a lean, clean-shaven man, quietly dressed—a man with a beak nose, high cheek-bones and a hard eye.
“Trujillo!” cried Cheavey.
“Of course,” thought Buster. “I'd stopped believing he was headed for these parts. I wonder how it happened the President didn't lie about that, too!”
If the Señor Orellano y Trujillo felt any tension in the atmosphere, he gave no hint. Quite as if such a meeting were usual, he bowed punctiliously to Cheavey and secured the presentation of Kent. ”

“ Those were terrible days, when an unscrupulous tyrant had our dear republic beneath his iron heel and was stripping her, for his own aggrandizement, of—of the very shirt upon her back. I, with a few other patriots—we burned to give our lives for the salvation of Catamarca, for the rescue of her civil liberties. But such things are not to be bought by lives alone: the seizure of a government is expensive. ”

“ Well, reflected Buster—always with one eye on the white-faced captive, riding with him in apparent freedom—the event surely resembled more a holiday than a fight. The nearer the deputation approached the core of the town, the denser grew the crowds. Men of all degrees flung hats aloft; women tossed roses, or held children high for a glimpse of the new executive. ”

“ Mazie Cheavey—Minnie Milson of the movies—had been used to that, too. Her reaction to his bold request was precisely that raising of the eyebrows which a picture director would have demanded.
“A detective?”
It gave Buster the cue he wanted: “I'm not after the rewards—if you fix it so's I can find him, they're yours.”
Instantly all artificiality dropped from her. Her body shook with vindictiveness, her voice with greed. ”

“ Buster felt as if nothing lived there—as if nothing could live—and yet as if the jungle itself had a sort of malignant existence, a slow, evil consciousness, biding its certain chance to envelop and asphyxiate them in a gaseous embrace. ”

“ The deputation clattered down the avenue and into the Plaza from which, at right angles to the Cathedral and the Presidential Palace, rise the long steps and Corinthian pillars of the Chamber of Deputies. Troops held back the huzzaing multitude and cleared a square and an entrance to it.
Buster all but rubbed his eyes. In the open space stood at ease a quite authentic company of American Marines.
“Here,” he said to Cheavey, “you ride over there with me!”
Cheavey gave the Marines one green glance: “I won't.”
“You will if you don't want to be shot,” said Buster. ”

“ They were friends only when Don Cipriano's money put Don Ricardo into power. Now Don Cipriano knows nothing of the President's plans, except that he has stolen. By use of that knowledge, he is quietly fomenting a revolution. He does not know the President knows this, but His Excellency does. Let me go, Don Buster!”
“Excellency! I'll tell the world he's that!”
“You must tell nobody. You must wait until all is ready. On the ship I told you of my influence: I shall make all well for you.”
“Wait? If I'm not on the Senator Reed tomorrow, Barboza will smell a rat and lock me up! ”

“ His rich father will be inquiring for him, and there is that North American war-ship at Tierra Blanca. You must lock him up, yes—but tonight, before he can communicate with this war-ship; you must get the jewels from the jungle—buy whatever of the army remains unbought—strike too suddenly to suit even the taste of Don Ricardo Ruiz—and then release your Kent and Bridgeman on condition of their sworn silence for all time! ”

“ Then he returned to the twilight of the balcony.
“There are days,” he said to someone in the shadow, “when Don Cipriano does not possess my entire confidence.”
He looked down, across the rail, at the Plaza de la Constitución. A military band was playing on the central platform that encircled the fountain. Lights sparkled from the score of cafés, and at the tables on the pavements in front of them citizens and soldiers drank their wine and chatted with the ladies of the capital. A cooling air blew from the harbor, and overhead the stars hung large and low. ”

“ He wants both you and this detective safely out of Catamarca. Find the real Mangus Cheavey? You have found him. The real Mangus Cheavey is Señor Cipriano Barboza!”
“CIPRIANO?” gasped Buster. “Why, the President said——”
“The President wants to save Señor Barboza.”
“They're friends?”
“Enemies. Don Ricardo counts on Don Cipriano to lead a revolution.”
“What? I've just insured him against one! Why can't he let me scotch the fellow, now, instead of waiting to kill him off in a revolution?”
“He wants the revolution to succeed.” ”

“ Now, then, Mr. Atwater, I've brought back your man: are you ready to take out that policy?”
“When you make good, young fellow. The agreement was for the man and the jewels. Hand them over.”
It was come! Buster had been dreading this moment all the way from Catamarca. He hung his head.
“I couldn't find 'em.”
“Buster!” cried his father.
“They were never put on the market,” declared Atwater. “I'll swear to that.”
Mrs. Cheavey fanned herself with a scented handkerchief and registered proper dismay.
“No,” said Buster, “I don't believe they were, but I never saw any of them.” ”

“ Buster's hopes for his mad insurance venture waxed apace; but not for his other mission. His conviction of Trujillo's per sonal honesty deepened; politics, however, too frequently have an unfortunate habit of interference with private character. Especially in this garden of conspiracy, who dared say to what extent some far-flung roots of the Cheavey greed might not entangle those of the Trujillo flower? Of course, Buster could fight, but publicity before arrest was precisely what the Travelers' and Tailors' Trust Company did not want. ”

“ You consider that, when you are President, you can dispose of those who guess your identity—that no one would suspect the Chief Executive to be the New York embezzler—that, even if it were suspected, Americans would not let their great country make war on a little sister republic to avenge a wrong committed only against their Wall Street. ”

“ IT WAS a dull voyage for Buster. There was the usual run of uninteresting passengers: only one that he cared to talk to and another who insisted on talking to him. The former was a tiny, bald-headed man, with a white beard streaked with yellow, and birdlike eyes that peered up at Buster through thick spectacles. ”

“ Don Ruiz made a gesture that meant “What matter?” “Quién sabe?” he replied. “Tomorrow—next week—when Don Cipriano thinks he can depose me. Besides, I cannot wait forever: that conscientious Trujillo is becoming too inquisitive—as if prying into the business transactions of a President were among the duties of a Minister of Finance! It certainly must not be more than a month hence.”
The lady laughed at the picture thus presented. However, in this selfish world, the most disinterested must sometimes think of themselves. ”

“ Till I heard from an agent in Tierra Blanca, I thought you had gone to the war-ship. Why did you go otherwhere?”
He countered her question: “Won't Ruiz starve?”
She would not press him: “He has much money in New York. That Catamarca will not contest with him: the new government wants no scandal. Let us call it a pension.”
“I believe,” said Buster sulkily, “that you're in love with him.”
“No, no!” she laughed. “But one does not arrest a suitor solely for the reason of not loving him.”
“Then how about Cheavey?” ”

“ Buster admitted he was his father's son.
“Why, I know him!” said Mr. Bridgeman. “All our people are bonded by the Keystone Indemnity; but your concern's a pacemaker. Going to establish a branch in Catamarca?”
Buster was not on his way to the little republic without a reasonable excuse, quite apart from his real purpose: he prided himself on a new idea in insurance. He said that he intended to survey the field.
“Better lay off it!” laughed Bridgeman. “I understand there ain't a good risk in the whole country. ”

“ Where'd you suppose he'd go?”
“Give it up,” said Buster. “Catamarca, as like as not. I think I heard the professor calling me.”
“Catamarca? That's a good one! The place is too little to hide in—except the jungle: they say it's thicker'n friendship. But any sensible man'd rather be in jail than there.” ”

“ But he was patently by no means so sure of himself as he wanted Buster to believe.
“I'm unarmed,” said Kent.
“Then you can put down your hands.”
Buster wished that the man were not quite so much afraid: a coward is always dangerous. “What are you going to do with me?”
A queer touch of pride brushed Cheavey; it alleviated, somewhat, his ferocity.
“I'm going to take you to Catamarca City and lock you up. I'm President of Catamarca—or will be in a few hours after we get there. Well, I'll turn you loose, as soon as that's arranged—on two conditions.” ”

“ Buster was ashamed of himself for blushing. Then he was ashamed of himself for never once having so much as wondered what, in all this mess, had been the fate of the Doña Eulalia.
Somehow, his eyes wandered to the Presidential Palace, and there, from between the curtains of a high window, he saw a white arm wave.
“This man,” said Buster, with the most cursory of nods at Cheavey, “is a New York embezzler that I came down to get. Look after him for a minute, will you?”
Mangus Cheavey nearly fell from his horse. “I protest!” he panted. “The man lies. ”

“ After her kiss, her first words were: “The people?”
Trujillo patted her shoulder: “They are content.”
Kent would have gone, but she would not permit it until he had admired the new president. “Is he not wonderful?” It was the real Eulalia at last. Only once her former mockery peeped out: “You will insure him also against revolution—yes? But he is so popular we should waste money to pay for it!” Not until then did she return to the affairs of their visitor. “And you recovered those jewels?”
It was the last thing needed to complete Buster's embarrassment. “Why—Cheavey hasn't got 'em. ”