Wolcott LeCléar Beard

“ As O'Neill had said, Thrale was not afraid of Lady Gaunt. His lack of imagination prevented his conceiving any circumstances in which an old and crippled woman could imperil his interests. By dint of an effort almost suicidal he had thus far succeeded in controlling his temper, simply in order that no mental heat might blunt the edge of what he considered his cutting sarcasm, of which he was very proud. ”

“ His squeaky voice soared to a pitch almost unprecedented even in the voice of Thrale.
"Listen!" he shrilled. "I've played cards with Douglas—yes! He's lost. Not much. Enough to make him wild to get even. No more. Now it'll be different. Get that? Different! He's going to lose big. Big! And you won't do a thing. Not you! You'll sit tight and see Duggy take his medicine. Yes, you will! There's a reason. Here!"
Leering triumphantly, Thrale flung a folded paper on the table before Lady Gaunt and stalked majestically toward the door. ”

“ Lady Gaunt again! The iteration of that name began to get on Archie's nerves.
"Who is this Lady Gaunt, anyway?" he asked impatiently. "And how does it happen that an Englishwoman has so much inside information about the affairs of Ecuador?"
"She isn't an Englishwoman; she's an American," answered O'Neill. "Old Phil Gaunt was English, of course. He was always messing around these little countries and their little wars—like me. He wasn't very successful. Hadn't any brains worth mentioning—only brute courage and good looks. But somehow he induced Lady Gaunt to marry him. ”

“ The intimacy must stop; it must stop at once and stop for all time. You left the army of your native country because you attempted to swindle a brother officer. That in itself naturally unfits you for association with gentlemen. Your connection with Alfaro, whose jackal you are, has no tendency to sweeten an unsavory record. Therefore, you will leave Archie Douglas alone. Do you understand?"
"Oh!" cried Thrale, elaborately sneering. "I'm to leave Douglas alone—eh?" ”

“ Bright costumes of women and the gay uniforms of many officers made the old Plaza de Toros like a great bowl of gray stone, bordered with flowers. In this border there was one dull spot, and only one. ”

“ Forming mechanically into a ragged column behind its leader, the crowd followed him, serpentwise, into the street which led into the Upper City.
"Nothing can stop them now," said Lady Gaunt. "All need for theatricals is over. A great actor was lost, however, when that man became a merchant. Take me home, McCabe. Major, please come with us."
They took her home, but not by the most direct route, for the direct route was occupied by that column, as it wound its upward way into the plaza mayor. There stands the palacio. There also stands the house in which Archie Douglas had his rooms. ”

“ For that I shall break Thrale—yes—in passing; taken alone he's a nuisance merely. But Alfaro! O'Neill, I shall see to it that Alfaro receives, while still in this world, a foretaste of the other world to which he shall go this very night."
"But I say," O'Neill objected, in his most insinuating tone, "aren't you afraid that those Yankee cruisers—there are two of 'em no farther away than Puno—will come blundering in and spoil the show?"
With a suddenness that seemed almost miraculous. Lady Gaunt's fury had passed. ”

“ In some occult way she seems to know everything she wants to know. Well, the corrida is over, and that poor devil of a bull at last can get some rest. Are you bound for the club?"
Archie rose. "I have an engagement there with Thrale," said he. "I wish I hadn't, now."
"Don't let that trouble you," advised Major O'Neill, as they made their way to the exit and the street. "Thrale won't be there. The note you saw McCabe deliver was a summons before the throne—from Lady Gaunt, you know."
"Thrale won't obey any such summons," returned Archie, unconvinced. ”

“ No one, as yet, has noticed its absence. Men have been detailed to stone the legation windows whenever your ladyship gives the word. Colonel Thrale's quarters were entered, thoroughly searched, his papers collected, brought here, and burned—all under my own supervision."
"Burned!" cried O'Neill. "And without having been read? How are we to tell whether the original of that forgery was among them or not?"
"We don't care," answered Lady Gaunt. "There'll have been records there of any amount of Alfaro's characteristic business. ”

“ I've known the senior officer for years. So I sent a telegram informing him that in the absence of the United States minister the legation here at Quito had been mobbed and the emblem of the country insulted, adding that ample proof that it had been done by adherents of Alfaro would be forthcoming. So the cruisers will take possession of the custom-house at Guayaquil until apologies and reparation shall have been made. Both will be made. But it is Leonidas Plaza who will make them."
"But—hang it all, Lady Gaunt—Plaza isn't in the country!" cried O'Neill. "He doesn't dare cross the frontiers. ”

“ McCabe—that's the man's name—was a burglar, 'wanted' in both Europe and the United States. He escaped, came here, and was caught, but Lady Gaunt prevented his extradition. She has her own ways of doing those things. She took him on as a sort of general factotum and says he's the most honest man she knows. But I wanted to speak with you concerning another matter, Douglas. I heard what you said to Thrale about falling suddenly out of Alfaro's favor. ”

“ He hates her. And she him."
"Which is a jolly bad lookout for Alfaro," O'Neill observed.
"Anyhow," Thrale hastened to continue, "my being here won't bother him. He won't care. Not he! He don't care—within limits—what his officers do."
"Nor whom," added O'Neill. Thrale hastily changed the subject.
"See that man?" he giggled. "That servant. Eh! He's Lady Gaunt's—her majordomo. Yep. Also a crook—fugitive—all that. Fact! Yet she——"
O'Neill frowned. Thrale's flow of staccato speech took another abrupt turn.
"’Scuse me, Duggy. Got to leave you. Yep. Got to," he said. "Somebody I must speak to. ”

“ Now I think of it there was a fat and fussy little Dutchman hanging around——"
"You mean the man talking with Thrale?" asked O'Neill, interrupting. "Over there by that pillar. Can't you find him? Look! There comes McCabe, Lady Gaunt's man. He's handing Thrale a note. Now can't you——"
"I see him!" cried Archie. "He's the man. Do you know him, O'Neill?"
"Not personally," was the reply. "I've seen him, and was told that his name was Müller, and that he was after your concession as soon as Alfaro intimated that it probably would lapse, and so be open for regranting. Lady Gaunt told me ”