The record-union., 1897-04-23
| | L.


after watching Scanderson's figure
slouching away down the hill, wrote to
the President, thinking it might unduly
precipitate matters if l showed myself
in the town. where feeling was beginning
to run high Dom Miguel sent me an
ambiguous answer, but the arrest war
rant was not executed" Allansford
paused to light another cigar. Out of
the sultry darkness, which had closed
by this time, arose a doleful minor mel
ody, wherein the singer likened his love
to the urpillachay, the turtle dove. AL
| lansford shouted a remonstrance, and
the sound ceased. 1 could see nothing
but the glowing tip of his cigar as he
resumed.
For the next two days I was in the
deuce of a stew; for, though l lay low,
side winds brought me disquieting ru-
mors. If anything went wrong, of
course all the blame of the misunder-
standing would fall on my shoulders.
l should certainly be reprimanded, and
possibly recalled-if 1 lived long
enough; and as I'm getting on towards
the end of my time out here, l wished
to avoid that The bit of marshland
that Kopsel had pitched upon was
No Mans Land, which made this
blessed little republic twice as sure it
was theirs. In the ordinary course of
events I could have arranged the whole
business exhaustively over a whisky
and soda; but in this case it was differ
| ent, because the Government was
working for a row, and would not be
satisfied without one
Them didn't know where it would
stop; for once a South American repub-
| lie gets the bit between its teeth, there's
| no saying where it will see fit to pull
up short of judgment day. There
were some scores of English residents
scattered about, some with wives and
children, and [ knew from experience
| that the first word of war would bring
all the cross breeds about their ears.
ION the afternoon of the third day
got into something clean, reached down
my sun hat, and rode round to inter-
view Dom Miguel. l was told he was
with the ladies, and he left me to cool
my heels in the ante-room for a quarter
| of an hour. When he did come along
it was with that stilted hypocritica
| gait he always adopted when bound
on arriving too late to exercise Glenn
| ency at an execution.
Il greeted him as usual and he be-
gan off-hand about the aggressive spir-
it manifested by certain foreign Pow
ers. The republic, he assured me, would
not suffer foreign aggression. They
might be but a small and feeble State.
yet for all that they would on no ac-
count forego their natural rights. No
nation, however great, should encroach
l Oh ha foI+
his duty to his country to adopt a firm
attitude.
Patriotism in South American
President invariably means mischief.
/ knew he was just going to name
names. so I dropped a hint about the
Destroyer.
pointedly.
" expect her to-day 1 replied, with
| my heart in my mouth From the
Terrace we can no doubt see her in the
offing.'
"A livid hue crept up into Dom Mig
uel's big blue cheeks.
Let us see,' he said coldly. and pre-
coded me to the Terrace.
| You can bet | hopad ScandarSop
would be as good as his word as
walked out after the President. You
know what the Pacific is like on such
a day-as if the light of the universe
were focused to make the glare. Not
shadow anywhere on the binding
blue of sea and sky the glitter folds
round you till you feel that if YOU
flung out your fist you'd SILVER the
world like mirror into splinters of
glass at your feet
Il could see nothing at first for the
dazzle. Then on the far edge of the
sky l perceived a trail of smoke. Pres
entity the Destroyer crawled UP out OF
the horizon like a black slug on the