The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-03-28

the lottery.
you must know, Sonora" he ex-
planned as he lifted his fourth glass
to his lips, ''that we are upon the
brink of great events there at ku-
mani"
LOPEZ Wants a Place in the sun
I'VE are about to extend our ter
ritory, to invade the neighboring dis
trict of Hemarda, and to annex the
little river port of that State by that
name, which will give US communica-
ton with the great world without"
He explained at length the details
of this mad-brained scheme. He had
the men in the shape of a band Of
adventures some of them, by the
way, were Englishmen and Colonials
wanted by their governments-but he
sorely needed equipment. He said
that he would get together an army OF
5000 men who would be relied upon
to give a good account of themselves
in meeting the Brazilian Regulars.
They were good fighters, many of
them good horsemen, and they were
loyal to him. But what they needed
was modern weapons for his adven-
ture; and his winnings in his lottery
would make fine addition to the
money he was scraping together for
the purpose.
No Fool Is This Lopez
Madame" he said to me, "you
have no doubt heard of Lopez, every
one in Rio knows Lopez-Lopez the
rnadman! Ha! but they do not know
the real Lopez. Some day they will
hear of this other lopez"
And truly this was not the Popez
whom people thought was a mailman.
He was not even the Lopez [ had
met at the entrance of the lottery es-
Establishment; this was a. different Lo-
pez indeed, and I had to watch. But
his ideas and plans sounded mad. Was
he big enough to put these into ex-
ecution? The more he talked to me
of his great dreams and his mad ideas
the more L took an attitude of "a
mere child. I listened to him atten-
lively as though I was an innocent
young girl and every word of his flu
ent speech was captivating me. Al
last when he had reached the height
of his fluency in describing the great
ness of his prospective State grabbed
his hand and kissed it fervantly and
said almost in a whisper; 'My noble
senior, you are great"
She Has Got Him
I pretended the utmost enthusiasm
for the scheme, representing myself
as an unmarried wealthy woman anC
lover of freedom, prepared to &c
to any length in support of such {
cause" as his.
1t sounded absurd to me as I said It
but it represented his own point o.
view completely; and he swallowed
the statement without the faintest de
mure.
'rHow could you possibly introduc'
weapons in any Quantity?'' L asket
him. at seems4to me that the closes
restrictions are observed in rail il
such matters"
'I could land twenty shiploads o
arms if had them" he replied eager
ly. Believe me, Kunani has all sort
of friends in Brazil"
What he told ne4in brief was this
All the material for the railway o
Kunani has been landed at littl
river port on a branch of the grea
river Amazon.
Thousands of tons of rails for hi
railroad and all sorts of other meT
chandise has been introduced into Ku
mani by this means, and the Brazilia
government had winked at the Who'll
proceedings, and turned its head tn
other way.
There seemed no reason to dout
that all our arms and munitions coul
easily be landed at this place, if
cared to undertake it, if we filled u
big cases with medium calibre gum
machine guns, rifles and all sorts c
munitions for them. We could sen
to Lopez Republic carloads, train
loads and even shiploads or arms C.4s
label them railroad materials an
no one would suspect anything as the
never took Lopez seriously in Rio. Br
how could take Lopez into our cor
fidence?
Likes Lopez
I was feeling more and more that
liked him, and that made it yer
, difficult for me to PROFOUND a pla
whereby I could get him. 1 wante
to be above board with him, but no
could I if he did not consent to OIL
plans? For that reason had to e
slow. About this time he had alread
Drank d STSdI VI "AAAS SNAAN1
myself was a little flushed with
He again was about to fill his gla
when held his hand and said: don
let us drink any more wine, not tn
-fme," I said this with considerab
pretended concern about his welfar
NV words meant much more to hi
than 1 really intended that the
should. My soul 1 felt terribly gui
ty. My difficulties were rapidly il
creasing. I had to fight against n
0wn emotions, and yet 1 had du
TO perform-I was a soldier of Il
Service. remembered the words
nv brother on the occasion of his e
destinations with ms not to join wit
the Service. He had said: 'Whi
trading on others hearts, you you
self might some day fall an unhapI
victim" Yes, was beginning to lii
this man Lopez too much. He W
captivating me. But 1 had tiAn
which, il Lopez would only consel&,
could serve the service and serve hi
too.
The Double Plot
I said: "Senor, you have captiSRtI
me. You have a great idea. You q
in need of funds. L have none
plenty. so plenty that can not fiji
real happiness in my wealth, but a