Richard Harding Davis

“ Of Porto Banos, of the Republic of Colombia, where as consul Mr. Marshall was upholding the dignity of the United States, little could be said except that it possessed a sure harbor. When driven from the Caribbean Sea by stress of weather, the largest of ocean tramps, and even battle-ships, could find in its protecting arms of coral a safe shelter. But, as young Mr. Aiken, the wireless operator, pointed out, unless driven by a hurricane and the fear of death, no one ever visited it. ”

“ He’s too confoundedly touchy. He hates the idea of influence, hates men like Hanley, who abuse it. If he thought anything was given to him except on his merits, he wouldn’t take it.”
“Then we won’t tell him,” said the girl. For a moment she hesitated.
“If I spoke to Mr. Hanley,” she asked, “told him what I learned to-night of Mr. Marshall, would it have any effect?”
“Don’t know how it will affect Hanley,” said the sailor, “but if you asked me to make anybody a consul-general, I’d make him an ambassador.”
Later in the evening Hanley and Livingstone were seated alone on deck. ”

“ They had lost interest, had grown lax, irritable, morose. Their white duck was seldom white. Their cheeks were unshaven. When the sun sank into the swamp and the heat still turned Porto Banos into a Turkish bath, they threw dice on the greasy tables of the Café Bolivar for drinks. The petty gambling led to petty quarrels; the drinks to fever. The coming of Mr. Marshall changed that. His standard of life, his tact, his worldly wisdom, his cheerful courtesy, his fastidious personal neatness shamed the younger men ”

“ Men like Senator Hanley use it to pay their debts. While Henry’s been serving his country abroad, he’s lost his friends, lost his ‘pull.’ Those politicians up at Washington have no use for him. They don’t consider that a consul like Henry can make a million dollars for his countrymen. He can keep them from shipping goods where there’s no market, show them where there is a market.” The admiral snorted contemptuously. ”

“ Eagerly, before the other would answer, Senator Hanley tossed his cigar into the water and, scrambling forward, seized Marshall by the hand.
“Mr. Marshall,” he cried, “our President has great faith in Abraham Lincoln’s judgment of men. And this salute means that this morning he appointed you our new minister to The Hague. I’m one of those politicians who keeps his word. ”

“ And the sleepy, pretty village had become a bustling commercial centre. In the lanes where, as a young man, he had walked among wheatfields, trolley-cars whirled between rows of mills and factories. The children had grown to manhood, with children of their own. ”

“ Then José would return to writing a letter to his lady-love; not that there was any-thing to tell her, but because writing on the official paper of the consulate gave him importance in his eyes, and in hers. And in the inner office the consul would continue to gaze at the empty harbor, the empty coral reefs, the empty, burning sky.
The little band of exiles were at second break fast when the wireless man came in late to announce that a Red D. boat and the island of Curaçao had both reported a hurricane coming north. Also, that much concern was felt for the safety of the yacht Serapis. ”

“ The Frenchman looked inquiringly at Marshall.
“The position of the boss is the more dangerous,” said Marshall gravely, “because it is unofficial, because there are no laws to curtail his powers. Men like Senator Hanley are a menace to good government. ”

“ They all sit round a table and listen to an old gentleman talk world politics.”
If Henry Marshall brought content to the exiles of Porto Banos, there was little in return that Porto Banos could give to him. Magazines and correspondents in six languages kept him in touch with those foreign lands in which he had represented his country, but of the country he had represented, newspapers and periodicals showed him only too clearly that in forty years it had grown away from him, had changed beyond recognition. ”

“ They see in public office only a reward for party workers.”
“That’s right,” assented Aiken. “Your forty years’ service, Mr. Consul, wouldn’t count with Hanley. If he wanted your job, he’d throw you out as quick as he would a drunken cook.”
Mr. Marshall flushed painfully, and the French consul hastened to interrupt.
“Then, let us pray,” he exclaimed, with fervor, “that the hurricane has sunk the Serapis, and all on board.”
Two hours later, the Serapis, showing she had met the hurricane and had come out second best, steamed into the harbor. ”

“ His official reports, in a quaint, stately hand, were models of English; full of information, intelligent, valuable, well observed. And those few of his countrymen, who stumbled upon him in the out-of-the-world places to which of late he had been banished, wrote of him to the department in terms of admiration and awe. ”

“ Marshall?” she asked. The senator smiled tolerantly.
“I don’t know that I was thinking of Mr. Marshall,” he said. “I can’t recall anything he has done for this administration. You see, Miss Cairns,” he explained, in the tone of one addressing a small child, “Marshall has been abroad now for forty years, at the expense of the taxpayers. Some of us think men who have lived that long on their fellow-countrymen had better come home and get to work.”
Livingstone nodded solemnly in assent. He did not wish a post abroad at the expense of the taxpayers. He was willing to pay for it. ”

“ Marshall explained. “There was bubonic plague there, or something like it. You would be in no danger from that. It is only that you might be held up by the regulations. Passenger steamers can’t land any one who has been there at any other port of the West Indies. The English are especially strict. The Royal Mail won’t even receive any one on board here without a certificate from the English consul saying he has not visited Las Bocas. For an American they would require the same guarantee from me. But I don’t think the regulations extend to yachts. ”

“ But for forty-eight hours nothing had been heard from her, and it was believed she had been overhauled by the hurricane. Owing to the presence on board of Senator Hanley, the closest friend of the new President, the man who had made him president, much concern was felt at Washington. To try to pick her up by wireless, the gun-boat Newark had been ordered from Culebra, the cruiser Raleigh, with Admiral Hardy on board, from Colon. It was possible she would seek shelter at Porto Banos. The consul was ordered to report. ”