SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
BY RICHARD HARDING DAVIS. 
 
 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE. Illustrated by C. D. 
 Gibson. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 GALLEGHER AND OTHER STORIES. 12010. 
 $1.00. 
 
 CINDERELLA AND OTHER STORIES. Illus 
 trated, lamo. $1.00. 
 
 STORIES FOR BOYS. Illustrated. i2mo. $1.00. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 BY 
 RICHARD HARDING DAVIS 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 C. D. GIBSON 
 
 NEW YOEK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 1897 
 
4 
 
 \) 
 
 > * 
 
 Copyright, 1897, 
 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS. 
 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 
 
TO 
 
 IRENE AND DANA GIBSON 
 
 372573 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 "YOU, SlR, WERE A GREAT SOLDIER " . . Frontispiece 
 
 " Now YOU CAN GO " to face page 64 
 
 " THEY DON T EVEN KNOW TOMMY ATKINS " . 96 
 LANGHAM SHOVED HIS FACE DOWN BETWEEN HIS 
 
 KNEES INTO THE SAND ....... 242 
 
 HE STRODE ON UP THE STAIRS 272 
 
 " OVER THERE IS THE COAST OF AFRICA " 360 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "!T is so good of you to come early," said 
 Mrs. Porter, as Alice Langham entered the 
 drawing-room. " I want to ask a favor of you. 
 I m sure you won t mind. I would ask one of 
 the debutantes, except that they re always so 
 cross if one puts them next to men they don t 
 know and who can t help them, and so I thought 
 I d just ask you, you re so good-natured. You 
 don t mind, do you ? " 
 
 "I mind being called good-natured," said 
 Miss Langham, smiling/ "Mind what, Mrs. 
 Porter ? " she asked. 
 
 "He is a friend of George s," Mrs. Porter 
 explained, vaguely. " He s a cowboy. It 
 seems he was very civil to George when he was 
 out there shooting in New Mexico, or Old 
 Mexico, I don t remember which. He took 
 George to his hut and gave him things to shoot, 
 and all that, and now he is in New York with a 
 1 
 
2 XOLI lERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 letter of introduction. It s just like George. 
 He may be a most impossible sort of man, but, 
 as I said to Mr. Porter, the people I ve asked 
 can t complain because I don t know anything 
 more about him than they do. He called to-day 
 when I was out and left his card and George s 
 letter of introduction, and as a man had failed 
 me for to-night, I just thought I would kill two 
 birds with one stone, and ask him to fill his 
 ,place, and he s here. And, oh, yes," Mrs. 
 Porter added, " I m going to put him next to 
 you, do you mind ? " 
 
 " Unless he wears leather leggings and long 
 spurs I shall mind very much," said Miss 
 Langham. 
 
 " Well, that s very nice of you," purred Mrs. 
 Porter, as she moved away. " He may not be 
 so bad, after all ; and I 11 put Reginald King 
 on your other side, shall I ? " she asked, paus 
 ing and glancing back. 
 
 The look on Miss Langham s face, which had 
 been one of amusement, changed consciously, 
 and she smiled with polite acquiescence. 
 
 "As you please, Mrs. Porter," she answered. 
 She raised her eyebrows slightly. "I am, as 
 the politicians say, in the hands of my 
 friends. 
 
 "Entirely too much in the hands of my 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 3 
 
 friends," she repeated, as she turned away. 
 This was the twelfth time during that same 
 winter that she and Mr. King had been placed 
 next to one another at dinner, and it had passed 
 beyond the point when she could say that it did 
 not matter what people thought as long as she 
 and he understood. It had now reached that 
 stage when she was not quite sure that she 
 understood either him or herself. They had 
 known each other for a very long time; too 
 long, she sometimes thought, for them ever to 
 grow to know each other any better. But there 
 was always the chance that he had another 
 side, one that had not disclosed itself, and 
 which she could not discover in the strict social 
 environment in which they both lived. And 
 she was the surer of this because she had once 
 seen him when he did not know that she was 
 near, and he had been so different that it had 
 puzzled her and made her wonder if she knew 
 the real Reggie King at all. 
 
 It was at a dance at a studio, and some 
 French pantomi mists gave a little play. When 
 it was over, King sat in the corner talking to 
 
 one of the Frenchwomen, and while he waited 
 
 v. * 
 
 on her he was laughirig at her and at her efforts 
 to speak English. He was telling her how to 
 say certain phrases and not telling her cor- 
 
4 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 rectly, and she suspected this and was accusing 
 him of it, and they were rhapsodizing and 
 exclaiming over certain delightful places and 
 dishes of which they both knew in Paris with 
 the enthusiasm of two children. Miss Langham 
 saw him off his guard for the first time, and 
 instead of a somewhat bored and clever man of 
 the world, he appeared as sincere and interested 
 as a boy. When he joined her, later, the same 
 evening, he was as entertaining as usual, and 
 as polite and attentive as he had been to the 
 Frenchwoman, but he was not greatly interested, 
 and his laugh was modulated and not sponta 
 neous. She had wondered that night, and fre 
 quently since then, if, in the event of his asking 
 her to marry him, which was possible, and of 
 her accepting him, which was also possible, 
 whether she would find him, in the closer 
 knowledge of married life, as keen and light- 
 hearted with her as he had been with the 
 French dancer. If he would but treat her more 
 like a comrade and equal, and less like a prime 
 minister conferring with his queen ! She wanted 
 something more intimate than the deference 
 that he showed her, and she did not like his 
 taking it as an accepted fact that she was as 
 worldly-wise as himself, even though it were 
 true. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 5 
 
 She was a woman and wanted to be loved, in 
 spite of the fact that she had been loved by 
 many men at least it was so supposed and 
 had rejected them. 
 
 Each had offered her position, or had wanted 
 her because she was fitted to match his own 
 great state, or because he was ambitious, or 
 because she was rich. The man who could love 
 her as she once believed men could love, and 
 who could give her something else besides 
 approval of her beauty and her mind, had not 
 disclosed himself. She had begun to think 
 that he never would, that he did not exist, that 
 he was an imagination of the play-house and 
 the novel. The men whom she knew were 
 careful to show her that they appreciated how 
 distinguished was her position, and how inac 
 cessible she was to them. They seemed to 
 think that by so humbling themselves, and by 
 emphasizing her position they pleased her best, 
 when it was what she wanted them to forget. 
 Each of them would draw away backward, bow 
 ing and protesting that he was unworthy to 
 raise his eyes to such a prize, but that if she 
 would only stoop to him, how happy his life 
 would be. Sometimes they meant it sincerely ; 
 sometimes they were gentlemanly adventurers 
 of title, from whom it was a business proposi- 
 
6 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 tion, and in either case she turned restlessly 
 away and asked herself how long it would be 
 before the man would come who would pick her 
 up on his saddle and gallop off with her, with 
 his arm around her waist and his horse s hoofs 
 clattering beneath them, and echoing the tumult 
 in their hearts. 
 
 She had known too many great people in the 
 world to feel impressed with her own position 
 at home in America; but she sometimes com 
 pared herself to the Queen in "In a Balcony," 
 and repeated to herself, with mock serious 
 ness : 
 
 " And you the marble statue all the time 
 They praise and point at as preferred to life. 
 Yet leave for the first breathing woman s cheek, 
 First dancer s, gypsy s or street balladine s ! " 
 
 And if it were true, she asked herself, that 
 the man she had imagined was only an ideal 
 and an illusion, was not King the best of the 
 others, the unideal and ever-present others ? 
 Every one else seemed to think so. The society 
 they knew put them constantly together and 
 approved. Her people approved. Her own 
 mind approved, and as her heart was not appar 
 ently ever to be considered, who could say that 
 it did not approve as well ? He was certainly 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 7 
 
 a very charming fellow, a manly, clever com 
 panion, and one who bore about him the evi 
 dences of distinction and thorough breeding. 
 As far as family went, the Kings were as old as 
 a young country could expect, and Reggie King 
 was, moreover, in spite of his wealth, a man of 
 action and ability. His yacht journeyed from 
 continent to continent, and not merely up the 
 Sound to Newport, and he was as well known 
 and welcome to the consuls along the coasts of 
 Africa and South America as he was at Cowes or 
 Nice. His books of voyages were recognized 
 by geographical societies and other serious 
 bodies, who had given him permission to put 
 long disarrangements of the alphabet after his 
 name. She liked him because she had grown 
 to be at home with him, because it was good to 
 know that there was some one who would not 
 misunderstand her, and who, should she so 
 indulge herself, would not take advantage of 
 any appeal she might make to his sympathy, 
 who would always be sure to do the tactful 
 thing and the courteous thing, and who, while 
 he might never do a great thing, could not do 
 an unkind one. 
 
 Miss Langham had entered the Porters 
 drawing-room after the greater number of the 
 guests had arrived, and she turned from her 
 
8 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 hostess to listen to an old gentleman with a 
 passion for golf, a passion in which he had for 
 a long time been endeavoring to interest her. 
 She answered him and his enthusiasm in kind, 
 and with as much apparent interest as she 
 would have shown in a matter of state. It was 
 her principle to be all things to all men, 
 whether they were great artists, great diplomats, 
 or great bores. If a man had been pleading 
 with her to leave the conservatory and run away 
 with him, and another had come up innocently 
 and announced that it was his dance, she would 
 have said : " Oh, is it ? " with as much apparent 
 delight as though his coming had been the one 
 bright hope in her life. 
 
 She was growing enthusiastic over the de 
 lights of golf and unconsciously making a very 
 beautiful picture of herself in her interest and 
 forced vivacity, when she became conscious for 
 the first time of a strange young man who was 
 standing alone before the fireplace looking at 
 her, and frankly listening to all the nonsense 
 she was talking. She guessed that he had 
 been listening for some time, and she also saw, 
 before he turned his eyes quickly away, that he 
 was distinctly amused. Miss Langham stopped 
 gesticulating and lowered her voice, but con 
 tinued to keep her eyes on the face of the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 9 
 
 stranger, whose own eyes were wandering around 
 the room, to give her, so she guessed, the idea 
 that he had not been listening, but that she 
 had caught him at it in the moment he had 
 first looked at her. He was a tall, broad- 
 shouldered youth, with a handsome face, tanned 
 and dyed, either by the sun or by exposure to 
 the wind, to a deep ruddy brown, which con 
 trasted strangely with his yellow hair and 
 mustache, and with the pallor of the other faces 
 about him. He was a stranger apparently to 
 every one present, and his bearing suggested, 
 in consequence that ease of manner which 
 comes to a person who is not only sure of him 
 self, but who has no knowledge of the claims 
 and pretensions to social distinction of those 
 about him. His most attractive feature was 
 his eyes, which seemed to observe all that was 
 going on, not only what was on the surface, but 
 beneath the surface, and that not rudely or 
 covertly but with the frank, quick look of the 
 trained observer. Miss Langham found it an 
 interesting face to watch, and she did not look 
 away from it. She was acquainted with every 
 one else in the room, and hence she knew this 
 must be the cowboy of whom Mrs. Porter had 
 spoken, and she wondered how any one who 
 had lived the rough life of the West could still 
 
10 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 retain the look when in formal clothes of one who 
 was in the habit of doing informal things in them. 
 
 Mrs. Porter presented her cowboy simply as 
 "Mr. Clay, of whom I spoke to you," with a 
 significant raising of the eyebrows, and the 
 cowboy made way for King, who took Miss 
 Langham in. He looked frankly pleased, how 
 ever, when he found himself next to her again, 
 but did not take advantage of it throughout the 
 first part of the dinner, during which time he 
 talked to the young married woman on his 
 right, and Miss Langham and King continued 
 where they had left off at their last meeting. 
 They knew each other well enough to joke of 
 the way in which they were thrown into each 
 other s society, and, as she said, they tried to 
 make the best of it. But while she spoke, Miss 
 Langham was continually conscious of the 
 presence of her neighbor, who piqued her inter 
 est and her curiosity in different ways. He 
 seemed to be at his ease, and yet from the 
 manner in which he glanced up and down the 
 table and listened to snatches of talk on either 
 side of him he had the appearance of one to 
 whom it was all new, and who was seeing it for 
 the first time. 
 
 There was a jolly group at one end of the 
 long table, and they wished to emphasize the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 11 
 
 fact by laughing a little more hysterically at 
 their remarks than the humor of those witti 
 cisms seemed to justify. A daughter-in-law of 
 Mrs. Porter was their leader in this, and at one 
 point she stopped in the middle of a story and 
 waving her hand at the double row of faces 
 turned in her direction, which had been 
 attracted by the loudness of her voice, cried, 
 gayly, "Don t listen. This is for private cir 
 culation. It is not a jeune-fille story." The 
 debutantes at the table continued talking again 
 in steady, even tones, as though they had not 
 heard the remark or the first of the story, and 
 the men next to them appeared equally uncon 
 scious. But the cowboy, Miss Langham noted 
 out of the corner of her eye, after a look of 
 polite surprise, beamed with amusement and 
 continued to stare up and down the table as 
 though he had discovered a new trait in a 
 peculiar and interesting animal. For some 
 reason, she could not tell why, she felt annoyed 
 with herself and with her friends, and resented 
 the attitude which the new-comer assumed to 
 ward them. 
 
 " Mrs. Porter tells me that you know her son 
 George ? " she said. He did not answer her at 
 once, but bowed his head in assent, with a look 
 of interrogation, as though, so it seemed to her, 
 
12 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 he had expected her, when she did speak, to 
 say something less conventional. 
 
 "Yes," he replied, after a pause, "he joined 
 us at Ayutla. It was the terminus of the 
 Jalisco and Mexican Railroad then. He came 
 out over the road and went in from there with 
 an outfit after mountain lions. I believe he 
 had very good sport." 
 
 "That is a very wonderful road, I am told," 
 said King, bending forward and introducing 
 himself into the conversation with a nod of 
 the head toward Clay; "quite a remarkable 
 feat of engineering." 
 
 "It will open up the country, I believe," 
 assented the other, indifferently. 
 
 "I know something of it," continued King, 
 " because I met the men who were putting it 
 through at Pariqua, when we touched there in 
 the yacht. They shipped most of their plant to 
 that port, and we saw a good deal of them. 
 They were a very jolly lot, and they gave me 
 a most interesting account of their work and 
 its difficulties." 
 
 Clay was looking at the other closely, as 
 though he was trying to find something back of 
 what he was saying, but as his glance seemed 
 only to embarrass King he smiled freely again 
 in assent, and gave him his full attention. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 13 
 
 "There are no men to-day, Miss Langham," 
 King exclaimed, suddenly, turning toward her, 
 " to my mind, who lead as picturesque lives as 
 do civil engineers. And there are no men 
 whose work is as little appreciated." 
 
 " Really? " said Miss Langham, encouragingly. 
 
 "Now those men I met," continued King, 
 settling himself with his side to the table, 
 "were all young fellows of thirty or there 
 abouts, but they were leading the lives of 
 pioneers and martyrs at least that s what 
 I d call it. They were marching through an 
 almost unknown part of Mexico, fighting Nature 
 at every step and carrying civilization with 
 them. They were doing better work than 
 soldiers, because soldiers destroy things, and 
 these chaps were creating, and making the way 
 straight. They had no banners either, nor 
 brass bands. They fought mountains and 
 rivers, and they were attacked on every side by 
 fever and the lack of food and severe exposure. 
 They had to sit down around a camp-fire at 
 night and calculate whether they were to tunnel 
 a mountain, or turn the bed of a river or bridge 
 it. And they knew all the time that whatever 
 they decided to do out there in the wilderness 
 meant thousands of dollars to the stockholders 
 somewhere up in God s country, who would 
 
14 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 some day hold them to account for them. They 
 dragged their chains through miles and miles 
 of jungle, and over flat alkali beds and cactus, 
 and they reared bridges across roaring canons. 
 We "know nothing about them and we care less. 
 When their work is done we ride over the road 
 in an observation-car and look down thousands 
 and thousands of feet into the depths they have 
 bridged, and we never give them a thought. 
 They are the bravest soldiers of the present 
 day, and they are the least recognized. I have 
 forgotten their names, and you never heard 
 them. But it seems to me the civil engineer, 
 for all that, is the chief civilizer of our 
 century. " 
 
 Miss Langham was looking ahead of her with 
 her eyes half-closed, as though she were going 
 over in her mind the situation King had 
 described. 
 
 "I never thought of that," she said. "It 
 sounds very fine. As you say, the reward is so 
 inglorious. But that is what makes it fine. " 
 
 The cowboy was looking down at the table 
 and pulling at a flower in the centre-piece. He 
 had ceased to smile. Miss Langham turned on 
 him somewhat sharply, resenting his silence, 
 and said, with a slight challenge in her voice : 
 
 "Do you agree, Mr. Clay," she asked, "or do 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 15 
 
 you prefer the chocolate-cream soldiers, in red 
 coats and gold lace ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don t know, " the young man answered, 
 with some slight hesitation. " It s a trade for 
 each of them. The engineer s work is all the 
 more absorbing, I imagine, when the difficul 
 ties are greatest. He has the fun of overcom 
 ing them." 
 
 "You see nothing in it then," she asked, 
 "but a source of amusement?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, a good deal more, " he replied. " A 
 livelihood, for one thing. I I have been an 
 engineer all my life. I built that road Mr. 
 King is talking about." 
 
 An hour later, when Mrs. Porter made the 
 move to go, Miss Langham rose with a protest 
 ing sigh. " I am so sorry, " she said, " it has 
 been most interesting. I never met two men 
 who had visited so many inaccessible places 
 and come out whole. You have quite inspired 
 Mr. King, he was never so amusing. But I 
 should like to hear the end of that adventure; 
 won t you tell it to me in the other room ? " 
 
 Clay bowed. " If I have n t thought of some 
 thing more interesting in the meantime," he 
 said. 
 
 "What I can t understand," said King, as 
 
16 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 he moved up into Miss Langham s place, " is 
 how you had time to learn so much of the rest 
 of the world. You don t act like a man who 
 had spent his life in the brush." 
 
 "How do you mean?" asked Clay, smiling 
 "that I don t use the wrong forks?" 
 
 "No," laughed King, "but you told us that 
 this was your first visit East, and yet you re 
 talking about England and Vienna and Voisin . 
 How is it you ve been there, while you have 
 never been in New York ? " 
 
 " Well, that s partly due to accident and 
 partly to design," Clay answered. "You see 
 I ve worked for English and German and 
 French companies, as well as for those in the 
 States, and 1 go abroad to make reports and to 
 receive instructions. And then I m what you 
 call a self-made man; that is, I ve never been 
 to college. I ve always had to educate myself, 
 and whenever I did get a holiday it seemed to 
 me that I ought to put it to the best advantage, 
 and to spend it where civilization was the 
 furthest advanced advanced, at least, in years. 
 When I settle down and become an expert, and 
 demand large sums for just looking at the work 
 other fellows have done, then I hope to live in 
 New York, but until then I go where the art 
 galleries are biggest and where they have got 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 17 
 
 the science of enjoying themselves down to the 
 very finest point. I have enough rough work 
 eight months of the year to make me appreciate 
 that. So whenever I get a few months to my 
 self I take the Royal Mail to London, and from 
 there to Paris or Vienna. I think I like 
 Vienna the best. The directors are generally 
 important people in their own cities, and they 
 ask one about, and so, though I hope I am a 
 good American, it happens that I ve more 
 friends on the Continent than in the United 
 States." 
 
 " And how does this strike you ? " asked 
 King, with a movement of his shoulder toward 
 the men about the dismantled table. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know, " laughed Clay. " You ve 
 lived abroad yourself; how does it strike you ? " 
 
 Clay was the first man to enter the drawing- 
 room. He walked directly away from the 
 others and over to Miss Langham, and, taking 
 her fan out of her hands as though to assure 
 himself of some hold upon her, seated himself 
 with his back to every one else. 
 
 " You have come to finish that story ? " she 
 said, smiling. 
 
 Miss Langham was a careful young person, 
 and would not have encouraged a man she knew 
 even as well as she knew King, to talk to her 
 2 
 
18 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 through dinner, and after it as well. She 
 fully recognized that because she was conspicu 
 ous certain innocent pleasures were denied her 
 which other girls could enjoy without attract 
 ing attention or comment. But Clay interested 
 her beyond her usual self, and the look in his 
 eyes was a tribute which she had no wish to put 
 away from her. 
 
 "I ve thought of something more interesting 
 to talk about," said Clay. "I m going to talk 
 about you. You see I ve known you a long 
 time." 
 
 " Since eight o clock ? " asked Miss Langham. 
 
 "Oh, no, since your coming out, four years 
 ago." 
 
 " It s not polite to remember so far back, " 
 she said. " Were you one of those who assisted 
 at that important function ? There were so 
 many there I don t remember." 
 
 "No, I only read about it. I remember it 
 very well; I had ridden over twelve miles for 
 the mail that day, and I stopped half-way back 
 to the ranch and camped out in the shade of a 
 rock and read all the papers and magazines 
 through at one sitting, until the sun went down 
 and I could n t see the print. One of the papers 
 had an account of your coming out in it, and a 
 picture of you, and I wrote East to the pho- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 19 
 
 tographer for the original. It knocked about 
 the West for three months and then reached 
 me at Laredo, on the border between Texas 
 and Mexico, and I have had it with me ever 
 since." 
 
 Miss Langham looked at Clay for a moment 
 in silent dismay and with a perplexed smile. 
 
 " Where is it now ? " she asked at last. 
 
 "In my trunk at the hotel." 
 
 "Oh," she said, slowly. She was still in 
 doubt as how to treat this act of unconvention- 
 ality. "Not in your watch?" she said, to 
 cover up the pause. "That would have been 
 more in keeping with the rest of the story." 
 
 The young man smiled grimly, and pulling 
 out his watch pried back the lid and turned it 
 to her so that she could see a photograph inside. 
 The face in the watch was that of a young girl 
 in the dress of a fashion of several years ago. 
 It was a lovely, frank face, looking out of the 
 picture into the world kindly and questioningly, 
 and without fear. 
 
 " Was I once like that ? " she said, lightly. 
 "Well, go on." 
 
 "Well," he said, with a little sigh of relief, 
 "I became greatly interested in Miss Alice 
 Langham, and in her comings out and goings 
 in, and in her gowns. Thanks to our having a 
 
20 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 press in the States that makes a specialty of 
 personalities, I was able to follow you pretty 
 closely, for, wherever I go, I have my papers 
 sent after me. I can get along without a com 
 pass or a medicine-chest, but I can t do with 
 out the newspapers and the magazines. There 
 was a time when I thought you were going to 
 marry that Austrian chap, and I did n t approve 
 of that. I knew things about him in Vienna. 
 And then I read of your engagement to others 
 well several others ; some of them I 
 thought worthy, and others not. Once I even 
 thought of writing you about it, and once I saw 
 you in Paris. You were passing on a coach. 
 The man with me told me it was you, and I 
 wanted to follow the coach in a fiacre, but he 
 said he knew at what hotel you were stopping, 
 and so I let you go, but you were not at that 
 hotel, or at any other at least, I could n t find 
 you." 
 
 " What would you have done ? " asked Miss 
 Langham. "Never mind," she interrupted, 
 "go on." 
 
 "Well, that s all," said Clay, smiling. 
 "That s all, at least, that concerns you. That 
 is the romance of this poor young man. " 
 
 "But not the only one," she said, for the 
 sake of saying something. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 21 
 
 " Perhaps not, " answered Clay, "but the only 
 one that counts. I always knew I was going 
 to meet you some day. And now I have met 
 you." 
 
 " Well, and now that you have met me, " said 
 Miss Langham, looking at him in some amuse 
 ment, " are you sorry ? " 
 
 "No " said Clay, but so slowly and with 
 such consideration that Miss Langham laughed 
 and held her head a little higher. " Not sorry to 
 meet you, but to meet you in such surroundings." 
 
 " What fault do you find with my surround 
 ings ? " 
 
 "Well, these people," answered Clay, "they 
 are so foolish, so futile. You should n t be 
 here. There must be something else better 
 than this. You can t make me believe that 
 you choose it. In Europe you could have a 
 salon, or you could influence statesmen. There 
 surely must be something here for you to turn 
 to as well. Something better than golf-sticks 
 and salted almonds." 
 
 " What do you know of me ? " said Miss 
 Langham, steadily. "Only what you have 
 read of me in impertinent paragraphs. How 
 do you know I am fitted for anything else but 
 just this ? You never spoke with me before 
 to-night." 
 
22 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "That has nothing to do with it," said Clay, 
 quickly. " Time is made for ordinary people. 
 When people who amount to anything meet 
 they don t have to waste months in finding 
 each other out. It is only the doubtful ones 
 who have to be tested again and again. When 
 I was a kid in the diamond mines in Kimberley, 
 I have seen the experts pick out a perfect 
 diamond from the heap at the first glance, and 
 without a moment s hesitation. It was the 
 cheap stones they spent most of the afternoon 
 over. Suppose 1 have only seen you to-night 
 for the first time ; suppose I shall not see you 
 again, which is quite likely, for I sail to 
 morrow for South America what of that ? I 
 am just as sure of what you are as though I 
 had known you for years." 
 
 Miss Langham looked at him for a moment 
 in silence. Her beauty was so great that she 
 could take her time to speak. She was not 
 afraid of losing any one s attention. 
 
 " And have you come out of the West, know 
 ing me so well, just to tell me that I am wast 
 ing myself ? " she said. " Is that all ? " 
 
 "That is all," answered Clay. "You know 
 the things I would like to tell you," he added, 
 looking at her closely. 
 
 " I think I like to be told the other things 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 23 
 
 best," she said, "they are the easier to 
 believe." 
 
 "You have to believe whatever I tell you," 
 said Clay, smiling. The girl pressed her 
 hands together in her lap, and looked at him 
 curiously. The people about them were mov 
 ing and making their farewells, and they 
 brought her back to the present with a start. 
 "I m sorry you re going away," she said, 
 " It has been so odd. You come suddenly up 
 out of the wilderness, and set me to thinking 
 and try to trouble me with questions about 
 myself, and then steal away again without 
 stopping to help me to settle them. Is it 
 fair ? " She rose and put out her hand, and he 
 took it and held it for a moment, while they 
 stood looking at one another. 
 
 "I am coming back," he said, "and I will 
 find that you have settled them for your 
 self." 
 
 "Good-by," she said, in so low a tone that 
 the people standing near them could not hear. 
 "You haven t asked me for it, you know, but 
 I think I shall let you keep that picture. " 
 
 "Thank you," said Clay, smiling, "I meant 
 to." 
 
 "You can keep it," she continued, turning 
 back, " because it is not my picture. It is a 
 
24 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 picture of a girl who ceased to exist four years 
 ago, and whom you have never met. Good 
 night." 
 
 Mr. Langham and Hope, his younger daughter, 
 had been to the theatre. The performance had 
 been one which delighted Miss Hope, and 
 which satisfied her father because he loved to 
 hear her laugh. Mr. Langham was the slave of 
 his own good fortune. By instinct and educa 
 tion he was a man of leisure and culture, but 
 the wealth he had inherited was like an unruly 
 child that needed his constant watching, and 
 in keeping it well in hand he had become a 
 man of business, with time for nothing else. 
 
 Alice Langham, on her return from Mrs. 
 Porter s dinner, found him in his study engaged 
 with a game of solitaire, while Hope was 
 kneeling on a chair beside him with her elbows 
 on the table. Mr. Langham had been troubled 
 with insomnia of late, and so it often happened 
 that when Alice returned from a ball she would 
 find him sitting with a novel, or his game of 
 solitaire, and Hope, who had crept down-stairs 
 from her bed, dozing in front of the open fire 
 and keeping him silent company. The father 
 and the younger daughter were very close to 
 one another, and had grown especially so since 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 25 
 
 his wife had died and his son and heir had 
 gone to college. This fourth member of the 
 family was a great bond of sympathy and 
 interest between them, and his triumphs and 
 escapades at Yale were the chief subjects of 
 their conversation. It was told by the directors 
 of a great Western railroad, who had come to 
 New York to discuss an important question 
 with Mr. Langham, that they had been ushered 
 downstairs one night into his basement, where 
 they had found the President of the Board and 
 his daughter Hope working out a game of foot 
 ball on the billiard-table. They had chalked 
 it off into what corresponded to five-yard lines, 
 and they were hurling twenty -two chess-men 
 across it in " flying wedges " and practising the 
 several tricks which young Langham had in 
 trusted to his sister under an oath of secrecy. 
 The sight filled the directors with the horrible 
 fear that business troubles had turned the 
 President s mind, but after they had sat for 
 half an hour perched on the high chairs around 
 the table, while Hope excitedly explained the 
 game to them, they decided that he was wiser 
 than they knew, and each left the house regret 
 ting he had no son worthy enough to bring 
 "that young girl" into the Far West. 
 
 "You are home early," said Mr. Langham, 
 
26 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 as Alice stood above him pulling at her gloves. 
 " I thought you said you were going on to some 
 dance." 
 
 "I was tired," his daughter answered. 
 
 " Well, when I m out, " commented Hope, " I 
 won t come home at eleven o clock. Alice 
 always was a quitter." 
 
 " A what ? " asked the older sister. 
 
 "Tell us what you had for dinner," said 
 Hope. "I know it isn t nice to ask," she 
 added, hastily, "but I always like to know." 
 
 " I don t remember," Miss Langham answered, 
 smiling at her father, " except that he was very 
 much sunburned and had most perplexing 
 eyes. " 
 
 "Oh, of course," assented Hope, "I suppose 
 you mean by that that you talked with some 
 man all through dinner. Well, I think there 
 is a time for everything. " 
 
 "Father," interrupted Miss Langham, "do 
 you know many engineers I mean do you 
 come in contact with them through the rail 
 roads and mines you have an interest in ? I 
 am rather curious about them," she said, 
 lightly. " They seem to be a most picturesque 
 lot of young men. " 
 
 " Engineers ? Of course," said Mr. Langham, 
 vaguely, with the ten of spades held doubtfully 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 27 
 
 in air. " Sometimes we have to depend upon 
 them altogether. We decide from what the 
 engineering experts tell us whether we will 
 invest in a thing or not." 
 
 "I dpn t think I mean the big men of the 
 profession," said his daughter, doubtfully. "I 
 mean those who do the rough work. The men 
 who dig the mines and lay out the railroads. 
 Do you know any of them ? " 
 
 "Some of them," said Mr. Langham, leaning 
 back and shuffling the cards for a new game. 
 " Why ? " 
 
 "Did you ever hear of a Mr. Robert Clay ? " 
 
 Mr. Langham smiled as he placed the cards 
 one above the other in even rows. "Very 
 often," he said. "He sails to-morrow to open 
 up the largest iron deposits in South America. 
 He goes for the Valencia Mining Company. 
 Valencia is the capital of Olancho, one of those 
 little republics down there." 
 
 "Do you are you interested in that com 
 pany ? " asked Miss Langham, seating herself 
 before the fire and holding out her hands toward 
 it. "Does Mr. Clay know that you are ? " 
 
 " Yes I am interested in it," Mr. Langham 
 replied, studying the cards before him, " but I 
 don t think Clay knows it nobody knows it 
 yet, except the president and the other officers." 
 
28 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 He lifted a card and put it down again in some 
 indecision. "It s generally supposed to be 
 operated by a company, but all the stock is 
 owned by one man. As a matter of .fact, my 
 dear children," exclaimed Mr. Lfangham, as he 
 placed a deuce of clubs upon a deuce of spades 
 with a smile of content, "the Valencia Mining 
 Company is your beloved father." 
 
 "Oh," said Miss Langham, as she looked 
 steadily into the fire. 
 
 Hope tapped her lips gently with the back 
 of her hand to hide the fact that she was sleepy, 
 and nudged her father s elbow. " You should n t 
 have put the deuce there," she said, "you 
 should have used it to build with on the ace." 
 
II 
 
 A YEAR before Mrs. Porter s dinner a tramp 
 steamer on her way to the capital of Brazil had 
 steered so close to the shores of Olancho that 
 her solitary passenger could look into the 
 caverns the waves had tunnelled in the lime 
 stone cliffs along the coast. The solitary pas 
 senger was Robert Clay, and he made a guess 
 that the white palisades which fringed the base 
 of the mountains along the shore had been 
 forced up above the level of the sea many years 
 before by some volcanic action. Olancho, as 
 many people know, is situated on the north 
 eastern coast of South America, and its shores 
 are washed by the main equatorial current. 
 From the deck of a passing vessel you can 
 obtain but little idea of Olancho or of the 
 abundance and tropical beauty which lies hid 
 den away behind the rampart of mountains on 
 her shore. You can see only their desolate 
 dark-green front, and the white caves at their 
 base, into which the waves rush with an echo 
 ing roar, and in and out of which fly continually 
 
30 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 thousands of frightened bats. The mining 
 engineer on the rail of the tramp steamer 
 observed this peculiar formation of the coast 
 with listless interest, until he noted, when the 
 vessel stood some thirty miles north of the 
 harbor of Valencia, that the limestone forma 
 tion had disappeared, and that the waves now 
 beat against the base of the mountains them 
 selves. There were five of these mountains 
 which jutted out into the ocean, and they sug 
 gested roughly the five knuckles of a giant 
 hand clenched and lying flat upon the surface 
 of the water. They extended for seven miles, 
 and then the caverns in the palisades began 
 again and continued on down the coast to the 
 great cliffs that guard the harbor of Olancho s 
 capital. 
 
 " The waves tunnelled their way easily 
 enough until they ran up against those five 
 mountains," mused the engineer, " and then they 
 had to fall back." He walked to the captain s 
 cabin and asked to look at a map of the coast 
 line. " I believe I won t go to Rio," he said 
 later in the day ; " I think I will drop off here 
 at Valencia." 
 
 So he left the tramp steamer at that place 
 and disappeared into the interior with an ox 
 cart and a couple of pack-mules, and returned 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 31 
 
 to write a lengthy letter from the Consul s office 
 to a Mr. Langham in the United States, knowing 
 he was largely interested in mines and in min 
 ing. " There are five mountains filled with 
 ore," Clay wrote, "which should be extracted 
 by open-faced workings. I saw great masses of 
 red hematite lying exposed on the side of the 
 mountain, only waiting a pick and shovel, and 
 at one place there were five thousand tons in 
 plain sight. I should call the stuff first-class 
 Bessemer ore, running about sixty-three per 
 cent metallic iron. The people know it is 
 there, but have no knowledge of its value, and 
 are too lazy to ever work it themselves. As to 
 transportation, it would only be necessary to 
 run a freight railroad twenty miles along the 
 sea coast to the harbor of Valencia and dump 
 your ore from your own pier into your own ves 
 sels. It would not, I think, be possible to ship 
 direct from the mines themselves, even though, 
 as I say, the ore runs right down into the water, 
 because there is no place at which it would be 
 safe for a large vessel to touch. I will look into 
 the political side of it and see what sort of a 
 concession I can get for you. I should think 
 ten per cent of the output would satisfy them,, 
 and they would, of course, admit machinery 
 and plant free of duty." 
 
32 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Six months after this communication had 
 arrived in New York City, the Valencia Mining 
 Company was formally incorporated, and a man 
 named Van Antwerp, with two hundred work 
 men and a half-dozen assistants, was sent South 
 to lay out the freight railroad, to erect the 
 dumping-pier, and to strip the five mountains of 
 their forests and underbrush. It was not a 
 task for a holiday, but a stern, difficult, and per 
 plexing problem, and Van Antwerp was not 
 quite the man to solve it. He was stubborn, 
 self-confident, and indifferent by turns. He did 
 not depend upon his lieutenants, but jealously 
 guarded his own opinions from the least question 
 or discussion, and at every step he antagonized 
 the easy-going people among whom he had come 
 to work. He had no patience with their habits 
 of procrastination, and he was continually 
 offending their lazy good-nature and their pride. 
 He treated the rich planters, who owned the 
 land between the mines and the harbor over 
 which the freight railroad must run, with as 
 little consideration as he showed the regiment 
 of soldiers which the Government had farmed 
 out to the company to serve as laborers in 
 the mines. Six months after Van Antwerp 
 had taken charge at Valencia, Clay, who had 
 finished the railroad in Mexico, of which King 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 33 
 
 had spoken, was asked by telegraph to under 
 take the work of getting the ore out of the 
 mountains he had discovered, and shipping it 
 North. He accepted the offer and was given the 
 title of General Manager and Resident Director, 
 and an enormous salary, and was also given to 
 understand that the rough work of preparation 
 had been accomplished, and that the more 
 important service of picking up the five moun 
 tains and putting them in fragments into tramp 
 steamers would continue under his direction. 
 He had a letter of recall for Van Antwerp, and 
 a letter of introduction to the Minister of Mines 
 and Agriculture. Farther than that he knew 
 nothing of the work before him, but he con 
 cluded, from the fact that he had been paid the 
 almost prohibitive sum he had asked for his ser 
 vices, that it must be important, or that he had 
 reached that place in his career when he could 
 stop actual work and live easily, as an expert, 
 on the work of others. 
 
 Clay rolled along the coast from Valencia to 
 the mines in a paddle-wheeled steamer that had 
 served its usefulness on the Mississippi, and 
 which had been rotting at the levees in New 
 Orleans, when Van Antwerp had chartered it to 
 carry tools and machinery to the mines and to 
 serve as a private launch for himself. It was a 
 3 
 
34 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 choice either of this steamer and landing in a 
 small boat, or riding along the line of the unfin 
 ished railroad on horseback. Either route con 
 sumed six valuable hours, and Clay, who was 
 anxious to see his new field of action, beat im 
 patiently upon the rail of the rolling tub as it 
 wallowed in the sea. 
 
 lie spent the first three days after his arrival 
 at the mines in the mountains, climbing them on 
 foot and skirting their base on horseback, and 
 sleeping where night overtook him. Van Ant 
 werp did not accompany him on his tour of 
 inspection through the mines, but delegated that 
 duty to an engineer named MacWilliams, and to 
 Weimcr, the United States Consul at Valencia, 
 who had served the company in many ways and 
 who was in its closest confidence. 
 
 For three days the men toiled heavily over 
 fallen trunks and trees, slippery with the moss 
 of centuries, or slid backward on the rolling 
 stones in the waterways, or clung to their 
 ponies backs to dodge the hanging creepers. 
 At times for hours together they walked in 
 single file, bent nearly double, and seeing noth 
 ing before them but the shining backs and shoul 
 ders of the negroes who hacked out the way for 
 them to go. And again they would come sud 
 denly upon a precipice, and drink in the soft 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 35 
 
 cool breath of the ocean, and look down thou 
 sands of feet upon the impenetrable green under 
 which they had been crawling, out to where it 
 met the sparkling surface of the Caribbean Sea. 
 It was three days of unceasing activity while the 
 sun shone, and of anxious questionings around 
 the camp-fire when the darkness fell, and when 
 there were no sounds on the mountain-side but 
 that of falling water in a distant ravine or the 
 calls of the night-birds. 
 
 On the morning of the fourth day Clay and 
 his attendants returned to camp and rode to 
 where the men had just begun to blast away the 
 sloping surface of the mountain. 
 
 As Clay passed between the zinc sheds and 
 palm huts of the soldier-workmen, they came 
 running out to meet him, and one, who seemed 
 to be a leader, touched his bridle, and with his 
 straw sombrero in his hand begged for a word 
 with cl Scnor the Director. 
 
 The news of Clay s return had reached the 
 opening, and the throb of the dummy-engines 
 an; I the roar of the blasting ceased as the 
 assistant-engineers came down the valley to 
 greet the new manager. They found him 
 seated on his horse gazing ahead of him, and 
 listening to the story of the soldier, whose 
 fingers, as he spoke, trembled in the air, with 
 
36 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 all the grace and passion of his Southern na 
 ture, while back of him his companions stood 
 humbly, in a silent chorus, with eager, suppli 
 cating eyes. Clay answered the man s speech 
 curtly, with a few short words, in the Spanish 
 patois in which he had been addressed, and then 
 turned and smiled grimly upon the expectant 
 group of engineers. He kept them waiting for 
 some short space, while he looked them over 
 carefully, as though he had never seen them 
 before. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," he said, "I m glad to 
 have you here all together. I am only sorry 
 you didn t come in time to hear what this fellow 
 has had to say. I don t as a rule listen that 
 long to complaints, but he told me what I have 
 seen for myself and what has been told me by 
 others. I have been here three days now, and I 
 assure you, gentlemen, that my easiest course 
 would be to pack up my things and go home on 
 the next steamer. I was sent down here to take 
 charge of a mine in active operation, and I find 
 what ? I find that in six months you have done 
 almost nothing, and that the little you have con 
 descended to do has been done so badly that it 
 will have to be done over again ; that you have 
 not only wasted a half year of time and 1 can t 
 tell how much money but that you have sue- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 37 
 
 ceeded in antagonizing all the people on whose 
 good-will we are absolutely dependent; you 
 have allowed your machinery to rust in the rain, 
 and your workmen to rot with sickness. You 
 have not only done nothing, but you have n t a 
 blue print to show me what you meant to do. 
 I have never in my life come across laziness and 
 mismanagement and incornpetency upon such a 
 magnificent and reckless scale. You have not 
 built the pier, you have not opened the freight 
 road, you have not taken out an ounce of ore. 
 You know more of Valencia than you know of 
 these mines; you kno\\ r it from the Alameda to 
 the Canal. You can tell me what night the 
 band plays in the Plaza, but you can t give me 
 the elevation of one of these hills. You have 
 spent your days on the pavements in front of 
 cafe s, and your nights in dance-halls, and you 
 have been drawing salaries every month. I ve 
 more respect for these half -breeds that you ve 
 allowed to starve in this fever-bed than I have 
 for you. You have treated them worse than 
 they d treat a dog, and if any of them die, it s 
 on your heads. You have put them in a fever- 
 camp which you have not even taken the trouble 
 to drain. Your commissariat is rotten, and you 
 have let them drink all the rum they wanted. 
 There is not one of you " 
 
38 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 The group of silent men broke, and one of 
 them stepped forward and shook his forefinger 
 at Clay. 
 
 " No man can talk to me like that," he said, 
 warningly, " and think I 11 work under him. I 
 resign here and now." 
 
 " You what " cried Clay, "you resign ?" 
 
 He whirled his horse round with a dig of his 
 spur and faced them. " How dare you talk of 
 resigning ? I 11 pack the whole lot of you hack 
 to New York on the first steamer, if I want to, 
 and I 11 give you such characters that you 11 be 
 glad to get a job carrying a transit. You re in 
 no position to talk of resigning yet not one 
 of you. Yes," he added, interrupting himself, 
 " one of you is Mac Williams, the man who had 
 charge of the railroad. It s no fault of his that 
 the road s not working. I understand that he 
 could n t get the right of way from the people 
 who owned the land, but I have seen what he 
 has done, and his plans, and I apologize to him 
 to MacWilliams. As for the rest of you, I 11 
 give you a month s trial. It will be a month be 
 fore the next steamer could get here anyway, and 
 I 11 give you that long to redeem yourselves. At 
 the end of that time we will have another talk, 
 but you are here now only on your good behavior 
 and on my sufferance. Good-morning." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 89 
 
 As Clay had boasted, he was not the man to 
 throw up his position because he found the part 
 he had to play was not that of leading man, but 
 rather one of general utility, and although it 
 had been several years since it had been part of 
 his duties to oversee the setting up of ma 
 chinery, and the policing of a mining camp, he 
 threw himself as earnestly into the work before 
 him as though to show his subordinates that it 
 did not matter who did the work, so long as it 
 was done. The men at first were sulky, resent 
 ful, and suspicious, but they could not long 
 resist the fact that Clay was doing the work of 
 five men and five different kinds of work, not 
 only without grumbling, but apparently with the 
 keenest pleasure. He conciliated the rich cof 
 fee planters who owned the land which he 
 wanted for the freight road by calls of the most 
 formal state and dinners of much less formality, 
 for he saw that the iron mine had its social as 
 well as its political side. And with this fact in 
 mind, he opened the railroad with great cere 
 mony, and much music and feasting, and the 
 first piece of ore taken out of the mine was pre 
 sented to the wife of the Minister of the Inte 
 rior in a cluster of diamonds, which made the 
 wives of the other members of the Cabinet 
 regret that their husbands had not chosen that 
 
40 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 portfolio. Six months followed of hard, unre 
 mitting work, during which time the great pier 
 grew out into the bay from Mac Williams rail 
 road, and the face of the first mountain was 
 scarred and torn of its green, and left in man 
 gled nakedness, while the ringing of hammers 
 and picks, and the racking blasts of dynamite, 
 and the warning whistles of the dummy-engines 
 drove away the accumulated silence of centuries. 
 It had been a long uphill fight, and Clay had 
 enjoyed it mightily. Two unexpected events 
 had contributed to help it. One was the arrival 
 in Valencia of young Teddy Langham, who 
 came ostensibly to learn the profession of which 
 Clay was so conspicuous an example, and in 
 reality to watch over his father s interests. He 
 was put at Clay s elbow, and Clay made him 
 learn in spite of himself, for he ruled him and 
 Mac Williams, of both of whom he was very 
 fond, as though, so they complained, they were 
 the laziest and the most rebellious members of 
 his entire staff. The second event of impor 
 tance was the announcement made one day by 
 young Langham that his father s physician had 
 ordered rest in a mild climate, and that he and 
 his daughters were coming in a month to spend 
 the winter in Valencia, and to see how the son 
 and heir had developed as a man of business. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 41 
 
 The idea of Mr. Langham s coming to visit 
 Olancho to inspect his new possessions was not 
 a surprise to Clay. It had occurred to him as 
 possible before, especially after the son had 
 come to join them there. The place was inter 
 esting and beautiful enough in itself to justify a 
 visit, and it was only a ten days voyage from 
 New York. But he had never considered the 
 chance of Miss Langham s coming, and when 
 that was now not only possible but a certainty, 
 he dreamed of little else. He lived as earnestly 
 and toiled as indefatigably as before, but the 
 place was utterly transformed for him. He 
 saw it now as she would see it when she came, 
 even while at the same time his own eyes 
 retained their point of view. It was as though 
 he had lengthened the focus of a glass, and 
 looked beyond at what was beautiful and 
 picturesque, instead of what was near at hand 
 and practicable. He found himself smiling 
 with anticipation of her pleasure in the orchids 
 hanging from the dead trees, high above the 
 opening of the mine, and in the parrots hurling 
 themselves like gayly colored missiles among 
 the vines; and he considered the harbor at 
 night with its colored lamps floating on the 
 black water as a scene set for her eyes. He 
 planned the dinners that he would give in her 
 
42 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 honor on the balcony of the great restaurant in 
 the Plaza on those nights when the band 
 played, and the senoritas circled in long lines 
 between admiring rows of officers and cabal- 
 leros. And he imagined how, when the ore- 
 boats had been filled and his work had slack 
 ened, he would be free to ride with her along 
 the rough mountain roads, between magnifi 
 cent pillars of royal palms, or to venture forth 
 in excursions down the bay, to explore the 
 caves and to lunch on board the rolling paddle- 
 wheel steamer, which he would have repainted 
 and gilded for her coming. He pictured him 
 self acting as her guide over the great mines, 
 answering her simple questions about the 
 strange machinery, and the crew of workmen, 
 and the local government by which he ruled 
 two thousand men. It was not on account of 
 any personal pride in the mines that he wanted 
 her to see them, it was not because he had dis 
 covered and planned and opened them that he 
 wished to show them to her, but as a curious 
 spectacle that he hoped would give her a 
 moment s interest. 
 
 But his keenest pleasure was when young 
 Langham suggested that they should build a 
 house for his people on the edge of the hill that 
 jutted out over the harbor and the great ore 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 43 
 
 pier. If this were done, Langham urged, it 
 would be possible for him to see much more of 
 his family than he would be able to do were 
 they installed in the city, five miles away. 
 
 " We can still live in the office at this end of 
 the railroad, the boy said, "and then we shall 
 have them within call at night when we get 
 back from work; but if they are in Valencia, 
 it will take the greater part of the evening 
 going there and all of the night getting back, 
 for I can t pass that club under three hours. It 
 will keep us out of temptation." 
 
 "Yes, exactly," said Clay, with a guilty 
 smile, "it will keep us out of temptation." 
 
 So they cleared away the underbrush, and 
 put a double force of men to work on what was 
 to be the most beautiful and comfortable bunga 
 low on the edge of the harbor. It had blue and 
 green and white tiles on the floors, and walls 
 of bamboo, and a red roof of curved tiles to let 
 in the air, and dragons heads for water-spouts, 
 and verandas as broad as the house itself. 
 There was an open court in the middle hung 
 with balconies looking down upon a splashing 
 fountain, and to decorate this patio, they levied 
 upon people for miles around for tropical plants 
 and colored mats and awnings. They cut down 
 the trees that hid the view of the long harbor 
 
44 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 leading from the sea into Valencia, and planted 
 a rampart of other trees to hide the iron-ore 
 pier, and they sodded the raw spots where the 
 men had been building, until the place was as 
 completely transformed as though a fairy had 
 waved her wand above it. 
 
 It was to be a great surprise, and they were 
 all Clay, MacWilliams, and Langham as 
 keenly interested in it as though each were 
 preparing it for his honeymoon. They would 
 be walking together in Valencia when one 
 would say, " We ought to have that for the 
 house," and without question they would march 
 into the shop together and order whatever they 
 fancied to be sent out to the house of the presi 
 dent of the mines on the hill. They stocked it 
 with wine and linens, and hired a volante and 
 six horses, and fitted out the driver with a new 
 pair of boots that reached above his knees, and 
 a silver jacket and a sombrero that was so 
 heavy with braid that it flashed like a halo 
 about his head in the sunlight, and he was 
 ordered not to wear it until the ladies came, 
 under penalty of arrest. It delighted Clay to 
 find that it was only the beautiful things and 
 the fine things of his daily routine that sug 
 gested her to him, as though she could not be 
 associated in his mind with anything less 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 45 
 
 worthy, and he kept saying to himself, "She 
 will like this view from the end of the terrace," 
 and "This will be her favorite walk," or "She 
 will swing her hammock here," and "I know 
 she will not fancy the rug that Weimer chose. " 
 
 While this fairy palace was growing the three 
 men lived as roughly as before in the wooden 
 hut at the terminus of the freight road, three 
 hundred yards below the house, and hidden 
 from it by an impenetrable rampart of brush 
 and Spanish bayonet. There was a rough road 
 leading from it to the city, five miles away, 
 which they had extended still farther up the 
 hill to the Palms, which was the name Langham 
 had selected for his father s house. And when 
 it was finally finished, they continued to live 
 under the corrugated zinc roof of their office 
 building, and locking up the Palms, left it in 
 charge of a gardener and a watchman until the 
 coming of its rightful owners. 
 
 It had been a viciously hot, close day, and 
 even now the air came in sickening waves, like 
 a blast from the engine-room of a steamer, and 
 the heat lightning played round the mountains 
 over the harbor and showed the empty wharves, 
 and the black outlines of the steamers, and the 
 white front of the Custom-House, and the long 
 half-circle of twinkling lamps along the quay. 
 
46 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 MacWilliams and Laugham sat panting on the 
 lower steps of the office-porch considering 
 whether they were too lazy to clean themselves 
 and be rowed over to the city, where, as it 
 was Sunday night, was promised much enter 
 tainment. They had been for the last hour 
 trying to make up their minds as to this, and 
 appealing to Clay to stop work and decide for 
 them. But he sat inside at a table figuring 
 and writing under the green shade of a student s 
 lamp and made no answer. The walls of Clay s 
 office were of unplancd boards, bristling with 
 splinters, and hung with blue prints and outline 
 maps of the mine. A gaudily colored portrait 
 of Madame la Prcsidanta, the noble and beau 
 tiful woman whom Alvarez, the President of 
 Olancho, had lately married in Spain, was 
 pinned to the wall above the table. This table, 
 with its green oil-cloth top, and the lamp, 
 about which winged insects beat noisily, and 
 an earthen water-jar from which the water 
 dripped as regularly as the ticking of a clock 
 - were the only articles of furniture in the 
 office. On a shelf at one side of the door lay 
 the men s machetes, a belt of cartridges, and a 
 revolver in a holster. 
 
 Clay rose from the table and stood in the 
 light of the open door, stretching himself 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 47 
 
 gingerly, for his joints were sore and stiff with 
 fording streams and climbing the surfaces of 
 rocks. The red ore and yellow mud of the 
 mines were plastered over his boots and riding- 
 breeches, where he had stood knee-deep in the 
 water, and his shirt stuck to him like a wet 
 bathing-suit, showing his ribs when he breathed 
 and the curves of his broad chest. A ring of 
 burning paper and hot ashes fell from his 
 cigarette to his breast and burnt a hole through 
 the cotton shirt, and he let it lie there and 
 watched it burn with a grim smile. 
 
 "I wanted to see," he explained, catching 
 the look of listless curiosity in MacWilliams s 
 eye, "whether there was anything hotter than 
 my blood. It s racing around like boiling 
 water in a pot." 
 
 "Listen," said Langham, holding up his 
 hand. " There goes the call for prayers in the 
 convent, and now it s too late to go to town. 
 I am glad, rather. I m too tired to keep 
 awake, and besides, they don t know how to 
 amuse themselves in a civilized way at least 
 not in my way. I wish I could just drop in at 
 home about now; don t you, MacWilliams ? 
 Just about this time up in God s country all 
 the people are at the theatre, or they vc just 
 finished dinner and are sitting around sipping 
 
48 SOLDI EH S OF FORTUNE 
 
 cool green mint, trickling through little lumps 
 of ice. What I d like " he stopped and shut 
 one eye and gazed, with his head on one side, at 
 the unimaginative Mac Williams "what I d 
 like to do now," he continued, thoughtfully, 
 "would be to sit in the front row at a comic 
 opera, on the aisle. The prima donna must he 
 very, very beautiful, and sing most of her songs 
 at me, and there must be three comedians, all 
 good, and a chorus entirely composed of girls. 
 I never could see why they have men in the 
 chorus, anyway. No one ever looks at them. 
 Now that s where I d like to be. What would 
 you like, MacWilliams ? " 
 
 MacWilliams was a type with which Clay 
 was intimately familiar, but to the college-bred 
 Langham he was a revelation and a joy. He 
 came from some little town in the West, and 
 had learned what he knew of engineering at the 
 transit s mouth, after he had first served his 
 apprenticeship by cutting sage-brush and driv 
 ing stakes. His life had been spent in Mexico 
 and Central America, and he spoke of the home 
 he had not seen in ten years, with the aggres 
 sive loyalty of the confirmed wanderer, and lie 
 was known to prefer and to import canned corn 
 and canned tomatoes in preference to eating the 
 wonderful fruits of the country, because the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 49 
 
 former came from the States and tasted to him 
 of home. He had crowded into his young life 
 experiences that would have shattered the 
 nerves of any other man with a more sensitive 
 conscience and a less happy sense of humor; 
 but these same experiences had only served to 
 make him shrewd and self-confident and at his 
 ease when the occasion or difficulty came. 
 
 He pulled meditatively on his pipe and con 
 sidered Langham s question deeply, while Clay 
 and the younger boy sat with their arms upon 
 their knees and waited for his decision in 
 thoughtful silence. 
 
 "I d like to go to the theatre, too," said 
 Mac Williams, with an air as though to show 
 that he also was possessed of artistic tastes. 
 "I d like to see a comical chap I saw once in 
 80 oh, long ago before I joined the P. Q. 
 & M. He ivas funny. His name was Owens ; 
 that was his name, John B. Owens " 
 
 "Oh, for heaven s sake, MacWilliams," pro 
 tested Langham, in dismay; "he s been dead 
 for five years. " 
 
 "Has he?" said MacWilliams, thoughtfully. 
 " Well " he concluded, unabashed, " I can t 
 help that, he s the one I d like to see best. " 
 
 "You can have another wish, Mac, you 
 know," urged Langham, "can t he, Clay?" 
 4 
 
50 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Clay nodded gravely, and MacWilliams 
 frowned again in thought. "No," he said 
 after an effort, "Owens, John E. Owens; that s 
 the one 1 want to see. " 
 
 "Well, now I want another wish, too," said 
 Langham. " I move we can each have two 
 wishes. I wish " 
 
 "Wait until I ve had mine," said Clay. 
 "You ve had one turn. I want to be in a 
 place I know in Vienna. It s not hot like this, 
 but cool and fresh. It s an open, out-of-door 
 concert-garden, with hundreds of colored lights 
 and trees, and there s always a breeze coming 
 through. And Eduard Strauss, the son, you 
 know, leads the orchestra there, and they play 
 nothing but waltzes, and he stands in front of 
 them, and begins by raising himself on his 
 toes, and then he lifts his shoulders gently 
 and then sinks back again and raises his baton 
 as though he were drawing the music out after 
 it, and the whole place seems to rock and 
 move. It s like being picked up and carried 
 on the deck of a yacht over great waves ; and 
 all around you are the beautiful Viennese 
 women and those tall Austrian officers in their 
 long, blue coats and flat hats and silver swords. 
 And there are cool drinks " continued Clay, 
 with his eyes fixed on the coming storm " all 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 51 
 
 sorts of cool drinks in high, thin glasses, 
 full of ice, all the ice you want 
 
 " Oh, drop it, will you ? " cried Langham, 
 with a shrug of his damp shoulders. " I can t 
 stand it, I in parching. " 
 
 " Wait a minute," interrupted MacWilliams, 
 leaning forward and looking into the night. 
 "Some one s coming." There was a sound 
 down the road of hoofs and the rattle of the 
 land-crabs as they scrambled off into the bushes, 
 and two men on horseback came suddenly out 
 of the darkness and drew rein in the light 
 from the open door. The first was General 
 Mendoza, the leader of the opposition in the 
 Senate, and the other, his orderly. The Gen 
 eral dropped his Panama hat to his knee and 
 bowed in the saddle three times. 
 
 "Good-evening, your Excellency," said Clay, 
 rising. "Tell that peon to get my coat, will 
 you ? " he added, turning to Langham. Lang- 
 ham clapped his hands, and the clanging of a 
 guitar ceased, and their servant and cook came 
 out from the back of the hut and held the 
 General s horse while he dismounted. " Wait 
 until I get you a chair," said Clay. "You ll 
 find those steps rather bad for white duck." 
 
 "I am fortunate in finding you at home," 
 said the officer, smiling, and showing his white 
 
52 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 teeth. " The telephone is not working. I tried 
 at the club, but I could not call you." 
 
 "It s the storm, I suppose," Clay answered, 
 as he struggled into his jacket. " Let me offer 
 you something to drink." He entered the 
 house, and returned with several bottles on a 
 tray and a bundle of cigars. The Spanish- 
 American poured himself out a glass of water, 
 mixing it with Jamaica rum, and said, smil 
 ing again, "It is a saying of your countrymen 
 that when a man first comes to Olancho he puts 
 a little rum into his water, and that when he 
 is here some time he puts a little water in his 
 rum. " 
 
 "Yes," laughed Clay. "I m afraid that s 
 true." 
 
 There was a pause while the men sipped at 
 their glasses, and looked at the horses and the 
 orderly. The clanging of the guitar began 
 again from the kitchen. "You have a very 
 beautiful view here of the harbor, yes," said 
 Mendoza. He seemed to enjoy the pause after 
 his ride, and to be in no haste to begin on 
 the object of his errand. MacWilliams and 
 Langham eyed each other covertly, and Clay 
 examined the end of his cigar, and they all 
 waited. 
 
 " And how are the mines progressing, eh ? " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 53 
 
 asked the officer, genially. "You find much 
 good iron in them, they tell me." 
 
 " Yes, we are doing very well, " Clay assented ; 
 "it was difficult at first, but now that things 
 are in working order, we are getting out about 
 ten thousand tons a month. We hope to in 
 crease that soon to twenty thousand when the 
 new openings are developed and our shipping 
 facilities are in better shape." 
 
 " So much ! " exclaimed the General, pleas 
 antly. "Of which the Government of my 
 country is to get its share of ten per cent one 
 thousand tons ! It is munificent ! " He laughed 
 and shook his head slyly at Clay, who smiled 
 in dissent. 
 
 "But you see, sir," said Clay, "you cannot 
 blame us. The mines have always been there, 
 before this Government came in, before the 
 Spaniards were here, before there was any 
 Government at all, but there was not the capital 
 to open them up, I suppose, or and it needed 
 a certain energy to begin the attack. Your 
 people let the chance go, and, as it turned out, 
 I think they were very wise in doing so. They 
 get ten per cent of the output. That s ten per 
 cent on nothing, for the mines really did n t 
 exist, as far as you were concerned, until we 
 came, did they ? They were just so much waste 
 
54 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 land, and they would have remained so. And 
 look at the price we paid down before we cut a 
 tree. Three millions of dollars ; that s a good 
 deal of money. It will be some time before we 
 realize anything on that investment." 
 
 Mendoza shook his head and shrugged his 
 shoulders. "I will be frank with you," he 
 said, with the air of one to whom dissimulation 
 is difficult. "I come here to-night on an un 
 pleasant errand, but it is with me a matter of 
 duty, and I am a soldier, to whom duty is the 
 foremost ever. I have come to tell you, Mr. 
 Clay, that we, the Opposition, are not satisfied 
 with the manner in which the Government has 
 disposed of these great iron deposits. When I 
 say not satisfied, my dear friend, I speak most 
 moderately. I should say that we are surprised 
 and indignant, and we are determined the 
 wrong it has done our country shall be righted. 
 I have the honor to have been chosen to speak 
 for our party on this most important question, 
 and on next Tuesday, sir," the General stood 
 up and bowed, as though he were before a great 
 assembly, "I will rise in the Senate and move 
 a vote of want of confidence in the Government 
 for the manner in which it has given away the 
 richest possessions in the storehouse of my 
 country, giving it not only to aliens, but for a 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 55 
 
 pittance, for a share which is not a share, but 
 a bribe, to blind the eyes of the people. It 
 has been a shameful bargain, and I cannot say 
 who is to blame ; I accuse no one. But I sus 
 pect, and I will demand an investigation; I 
 will demand that the value not of one-tenth, 
 but of one-half of all the iron that your com 
 pany takes out of Olancho shall be paid into the 
 treasury of the State. And I come to you to 
 night, as the Resident Director, to inform you 
 beforehand of my intention. I do not wish to 
 take you unprepared. I do not blame your 
 people ; they are business men, they know how 
 to make good bargains, they get what they best 
 can. That is the rule of trade, but they have 
 gone too far, and I advise you to communicate 
 with your people in New York and learn what 
 they are prepared to offer now now that they 
 have to deal with men who do not consider 
 their own interests but the interests of their 
 country. " 
 
 Mendoza made a sweeping bow and seated 
 himself, frowning dramatically, with folded 
 arms. His voice still hung in the air, for he 
 had spoken as earnestly as though he imagined 
 himself already standing in the hall of the 
 Senate championing the cause of the people. 
 
 MacWilliams looked up at Clay from where 
 
56 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 he sat on the steps below him, but Clay did 
 not notice him, and there was no sound, except 
 the quick sputtering of the nicotine in Lang- 
 ham s pipe, at which he pulled quickly, and 
 which was the only outward sign the boy gave 
 of his interest. Clay shifted one muddy boot 
 over the other and leaned back with his hands 
 stuck in his belt. 
 
 "Why didn t you speak of this sooner ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 "Ah, yes, that is fair," said the General, 
 quickly. "I know that it is late, and I regret 
 it, and I see that we cause you inconvenience; 
 but how could I speak sooner when I was 
 ignorant of what was going on ? I have been 
 away with my troops. I am a soldier first, a 
 politician after. During the last year I have 
 been engaged in guarding the frontier. No 
 news comes to a General in the field moving 
 from camp to camp and always in the saddle; 
 but I may venture to hope, sir, that news has 
 come to you of me ? " 
 
 Clay pressed his lips together and bowed his 
 head. 
 
 " We have heard of your victories, General, 
 yes," he said; "and on your return you say 
 you found things had not been going to your 
 liking ? " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 57 
 
 "That is it," assented the other, eagerly. 
 "I find that indignation reigns on every side. 
 I find my friends complaining of the railroad 
 which you run across their land. I find that 
 fifteen hundred soldiers are turned into laborers, 
 with picks and spades, working by the side of 
 negroes and your Irish; they have not been 
 paid their wages, and they have been fed worse 
 than though they were on the march; sickness 
 and " 
 
 Clay moved impatiently and dropped his boot 
 heavily on the porch. "That was true at 
 first," he interrupted, "but it is not so now. 
 I should be glad, General, to take you over the 
 men s quarters at any time. As for their not 
 having been paid, they were never paid by their 
 own Government before they came to us and 
 for the same reason, because the petty officers 
 kept back the money, just as they have always 
 done. But the men are paid now. However, 
 this is not of the most importance. Who is it 
 that complains of the terms of our concession ? " 
 
 "Every one!" exclaimed Mendoza, throwing 
 out his arms, " and they ask, moreover, this : 
 they ask why, if this mine is so rich, why was 
 not the stock offered here to us in this country ? 
 Why was it not put on the market, that any 
 one might buy ? We have rich men in Olancho, 
 
58 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 why should not they benefit first of all others 
 by the wealth of their own lands ? But no ! we 
 are not asked to buy. All the stock is taken in 
 New York, no one benefits but the State, and it 
 receives only ten per cent. It is monstrous. " 
 
 "I see," said Clay, gravely. "That had not 
 occurred to me before. They feel they have 
 been slighted. I see. " He paused for a moment 
 as if in serious consideration. "Well," he 
 added, "that might be arranged." 
 
 He turned and jerked his head toward the 
 open door. "If you boys mean to go to town 
 to-night, you d better be moving," he said. 
 The two men rose together and bowed silently 
 to their guest. 
 
 " I should like if Mr. Langham would remain 
 a moment with us," said Mendoza, politely. " I 
 understand that it is his father who controls 
 the stock of the company. If we discuss any 
 arrangement it might be well if he were here." 
 
 Clay was sitting with his chin on his breast, 
 and he did not look up, nor did the young man 
 turn to him for any prompting. " I m not 
 down here as my father s son," he said, "I am 
 an employee of Mr. Clay s. He represents the 
 company. Good-night, sir." 
 
 "You think, then," said Clay, "that if your 
 friends were given an opportunity to subscribe 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 59 
 
 to the stock they would feel less resentful 
 toward us ? They would think it was fairer to 
 all ? " 
 
 "I know it," said Mendoza; "why should 
 the stock go out of the country when those 
 living here are able to buy it ? " 
 
 "Exactly," said Clay, "of course. Can you 
 tell me this, General ? Are the gentlemen who 
 want to buy stock in the mine the same men 
 who are in the Senate ? The men who are 
 objecting to the terms of our concession ? " 
 
 "With a few exceptions they are the same 
 men. " 
 
 Clay looked out over the harbor at the lights 
 of the town, and the General twirled his hat 
 around his knee and gazed with appreciation at 
 the stars above him. 
 
 "Because if they are," Clay continued, "and 
 they succeed in getting our share cut down 
 from ninety per cent to fifty per cent, they 
 must see that the stock would be worth just 
 forty per cent less than it is now." 
 
 "That is true," assented the other. "I have 
 thought of that, and if the Senators in Opposi 
 tion were given a chance to subscribe, I am 
 sure they would see that it is better wisdom to 
 drop their objections to the concession, and as 
 stockholders allow you to keep ninety per cent 
 
60 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 of the output. And, again," continued Men- 
 doza, " it is really better for the country that 
 the money should go to its people than that it 
 should be stored up in the vaults of the treasury, 
 when there is always the danger that the Presi 
 dent will seize it; or, if not this one, the next 
 one." 
 
 " I should think that is it seems to me," 
 said Clay with careful consideration, "that 
 your Excellency might be able to render us 
 great help in this matter yourself. We need a 
 friend among the Opposition. In fact I see 
 where you could assist us in many ways, where 
 your services would be strictly in the line of 
 your public duty and yet benefit us very much. 
 Of course I cannot speak authoritatively with 
 out first consulting Mr. Langham; but I should 
 think he would allow you personally to pur 
 chase as large a block of the stock as you could 
 wish, either to keep yourself or to resell and 
 distribute among those of your friends in Oppo 
 sition where it would do the most good." 
 
 Clay looked over inquiringly to where 
 Mendoza sat in the light of the open door, and 
 the General smiled faintly, and emitted a 
 pleased little sigh of relief. "Indeed," con 
 tinued Clay, "I should think Mr. Langham 
 might even save you the formality of purchas- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 61 
 
 
 
 ing the stock outright by sending you its money 
 equivalent. I beg your pardon," he asked, 
 interrupting himself, " does your orderly under 
 stand English ? " 
 
 "He does not," the General assured him, 
 eagerly, dragging his chair a little closer. 
 
 " Suppose now that Mr. Langham were to put 
 fifty or let us say sixty thousand dollars to 
 your account in the Valencia Bank, do you 
 think this vote of want of confidence in the 
 Government on the question of our concession 
 would still be moved ? " 
 
 "I am sure it would not," exclaimed the 
 leader of the Opposition, nodding his head 
 violently. 
 
 "Sixty thousand dollars," repeated Clay, 
 slowly, "for yourself; and do you think, Gen 
 eral, that were you paid that sum you would be 
 able to call off your friends, or would they 
 make a demand for stock also ? " 
 
 "Have no anxiety at all, they do just what I 
 say," returned Mendoza, in an eager whisper. 
 "If I say It is all right, I am satisfied with 
 what the Government has done in my absence, 
 it is enough. And I will say it, I give you the 
 word of a soldier, I will say it. I will not 
 move a vote of want of confidence on Tuesday. 
 You need *go no farther than myself. I am 
 
62 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 glad that I am powerful enough to serve you, 
 and if you doubt me " he struck his heart and 
 bowed with a deprecatory smile "you need 
 not pay in the money in exchange for the stock 
 all at the same time. You can pay ten thou 
 sand this year, and next year ten thousand 
 more and so on, and so feel confident that I 
 shall have the interests of the mine always in 
 my heart. Who knows what may not happen 
 in a year ? I may be able to serve you even 
 more. Who knows how long the present Gov 
 ernment will last ? But I give you my word of 
 honor, no matter whether I be in Opposition or 
 at the head of the Government, if I receive 
 every six months the retaining fee of which 
 you speak, I will be your representative. And 
 my friends can do nothing. I despise them. 
 Jam the Opposition. You have done well, my 
 dear sir, to consider me alone." 
 
 Clay turned in his chair and looked back of 
 him through the office to the room beyond. 
 
 "Boys," he called, "you can come out now." 
 
 He rose and pushed his chair away and 
 beckoned to the orderly who sat in the saddle 
 holding the General s horse. Langham and 
 MacWilliams came out and stood in the open 
 door, and Mendoza rose and looked at Clay. 
 
 "You can go now," Clay said to him, quietly. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 63 
 
 "And you can rise in the Senate on Tuesday 
 and move your vote of want of confidence and 
 object to our concession, and when you have 
 resumed your seat the Secretary of Mines will 
 rise in his turn and tell the Senate how you 
 stole out here in the night and tried to black 
 mail me, and begged me to bribe you to bo 
 silent, and that you offered to throw over your 
 friends and to take all that we would give you 
 and keep it yourself. That will make you 
 popular with your friends, and will show the 
 Government just what sort of a leader it has 
 working against it." 
 
 Clay took a step forward and shook his finger 
 in the officer s face. " Try to break that con 
 cession ; try it. It was made by one Govern 
 ment to a body of honest, decent business men, 
 with a Government of their own back of them, 
 and if you interfere with our conceded rights to 
 work those mines, I 11 have a man-of-war down 
 here with white paint on her hull, and she 11 
 blow you and your little republic back up there 
 into the mountains. Now you can go." 
 
 Mendoza had straightened with surprise when 
 Clay first began to speak, and had then bent 
 forward slightly as though he meant to inter 
 rupt him. His eyebrows were lowered in a 
 straight line, and his lips moved quickly. 
 
64 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " You poor " he began, contemptuously. 
 "Bah," he exclaimed, "you re a fool; 1 should 
 have sent a servant to talk with you. You are 
 a child but you are an insolent child," he 
 cried suddenly, his anger breaking out, "and 
 I shall punish you. You dare to call me 
 names ! You shall fight me, you shall fight me 
 to-morrow. You have insulted an officer, and 
 you shall meet me at once, to-morrow." 
 
 "If I meet you to-morrow," Clay replied, "I 
 will thrash you for your impertinence. The 
 only reason I don t do it now is because you 
 are on my doorstep. You had better not meet 
 me to-morrow, or at any other time. And I 
 have no leisure to fight duels with anybody." 
 
 "You arc a coward," returned the other, 
 quietly, "and I tell you so before my servant." 
 
 Clay gave a short laugh and turned to 
 MacWilliams in the doorway. 
 
 "Hand me my gun, MacWilliams," he said, 
 "it s on the shelf to the right." 
 
 MacWilliams stood still and shook his head. 
 "Oh, let him alone," he said. "You ve got 
 him where you want him." 
 
 " Give me the gun, I tell you," repeated Clay. 
 " I m not going to hurt him, I m only going to 
 show him how I can shoot." 
 
 MacWilliams moved grudgingly across the 
 
"NOW YOU CAN GO. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 65 
 
 porch and brought back the revolver and handed 
 it to Clay. "Look out now," he said, "it s 
 loaded." 
 
 At Clay s words the General had retreated 
 hastily to his horse s head and had begun 
 unbuckling the strap of his holster, and the 
 orderly reached back into the boot for his car 
 bine. Clay told him in Spanish to throw up 
 his hands, and the man, with a frightened 
 look at his officer, did as the revolver sug 
 gested. Then Clay motioned with his empty 
 hand for the other to desist. "Don t do that," 
 he said, " I m not going to hurt you ; I m only 
 going to frighten you a little." 
 
 He turned and looked at the student lamp 
 inside, where it stood on the table in full view. 
 Then he raised his revolver. He did not 
 apparently hold it away from him by the butt, 
 as other men do, but let it lie in the palm of 
 his hand, into which it seemed to fit like the 
 hand of a friend. His first shot broke the top 
 of the glass chimney, the second shattered the 
 green globe around it, the third put out the 
 light, and the next drove the lamp crashing to 
 the floor. There was a wild yell of terror from 
 the back of the house, and the noise of a guitar 
 falling down a flight of steps. " I have prob 
 ably killed a very good cook," said Clay, "as I 
 5 
 
66 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 should as certainly kill you, if I were to meet 
 you. Langham," he continued, "go tell that 
 cook to come back." 
 
 The General sprang into his saddle, and the 
 altitude it gave him seemed to bring back some 
 of the jauntiness he had lost. 
 
 "That was very pretty," he said; "you have 
 been a cowboy, so they tell me. It is quite 
 evident by your manners. No matter, if we do 
 not meet to-morrow it will be because I have 
 more serious work to do. Two months from 
 to-day there will be a new Government in 
 Olancho and a new President, and the mines 
 will have a new director. I have tried to be 
 your friend, Mr. Clay. See how you like me 
 for an enemy. Good-night, gentlemen." 
 
 "Good-night," said Mac Williams, unmoved. 
 "Please ask your man to close the gate after 
 you." 
 
 When the sound of the hoofs had died away 
 the men still stood in an uncomfortable silence, 
 with Clay twirling the revolver around his 
 middle finger. "I m sorry I had to make a 
 gallery play of that sort," he said. "But it 
 was the only way to make that sort of man 
 understand." 
 
 Langham sighed and shook his head ruefully. 
 
 "Well, "he said, "I thought all the trouble 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 67 
 
 was over, but it looks to me as though it had 
 just begun. So far as I can see they re going 
 to give the governor a run for his money yet. " 
 
 Clay turned to MacWilliams. 
 
 "How many of Mendoza s soldiers have we 
 in the mines, Mac ? " he asked. 
 
 "About fifteen hundred," MacWilliams an 
 swered. " But you ought to hear the way they 
 talk of him. " 
 
 "They do, eh?" said Clay, with a smile of 
 satisfaction. " That s good. Six hundred 
 slaves who hate their masters. What do they 
 say about me ? " 
 
 "Oh, they think you re all right. They 
 know you got them their pay and all that. 
 They d do a lot for you." 
 
 " Would they fight for me ? " asked Clay. 
 
 MacWilliams looked up and laughed uneasily. 
 "I don t know," he said. "Why, old man? 
 What do you mean to do ? " 
 
 "Oh, I don t know," Clay answered. "I was 
 just wondering whether I should like to be 
 President of Olancho." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE Langhams were to arrive on Friday, and 
 during the week before that day Clay went 
 about with a long slip of paper in his pocket 
 which he would consult earnestly in corners, 
 and upon which he would note down the things 
 that they had left undone. At night he would 
 sit staring at it and turning it over in much 
 concern, and would beg Langham to tell him 
 what he could have meant when he wrote " see 
 Weimer," or "clean brasses," or "S. Q. M." 
 " Why should I see Weimer, " he would ex 
 claim, "and which brasses, and what does 
 S. Q. M. stand for, for heaven s sake ? " 
 
 They held a full-dress rehearsal in the bunga 
 low to improve its state of preparation, and 
 drilled the servants and talked English to 
 them, so that they would know what was wanted 
 when the young ladies came. It was an inter 
 esting exercise, and had the three young men 
 been less serious in their anxiety to welcome 
 the coming guests they would have found them- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 69 
 
 solves very amusing as when Langham would 
 lean over the balcony in the court and shout 
 back into the kitchen, in what was supposed to 
 be an imitation of his sister s manner, " Bring 
 my coffee and rolls and don t take all day 
 about it either, while Clay and MacWilliams 
 stood anxiously below to head off the servants 
 when they carried in a can of hot water instead 
 of bringing the horses round to the door, as 
 they had been told to do. 
 
 " Of course it s a bit rough and all that, " 
 Clay would say, " bat they have only to tell us 
 what they want changed and we can have it 
 ready for them in an hour." 
 
 "Oh, my sisters are all right," Langham 
 would reassure him; "they ll think it s fine. 
 It will be like camping-out to them, or a pic 
 nic. They 11 understand." 
 
 But to make sure, and to "test his girders," 
 as Clay put it, they gave a dinner, and after 
 that a breakfast. The President came to the 
 first, with his wife, the Countess Manuelata, 
 Madame la Prcsidanta, and Captain Stuart, late 
 of the Gordon Highlanders, and now in com 
 mand of the household troops at the Govern 
 ment House and of the body-guard of the 
 President. He was a friend of Clay s and 
 popular with every one present, except for the 
 
70 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 fact that he occupied this position, instead of 
 serving his own Government in his own army. 
 Some people said he had been crossed in love, 
 others, less sentimental, that he had forged a 
 check, or mixed up the mess accounts of his 
 company. But Clay and Mac Williams said it 
 concerned no one why he was there, and then 
 emphasized the remark by picking a quarrel 
 with a man who had given an unpleasant reason 
 for it. Stuart, so far as they were concerned, 
 could do no wrong. 
 
 The dinner went off very well, and the Presi 
 dent consented to dine with them in a week, 
 on the invitation of young Langham to meet 
 his father. 
 
 "Miss Langham is very beautiful, they tell 
 me," Madame Alvarez said to Clay. "I heard 
 of her one winter in Rome ; she was presented 
 there and much admired." 
 
 "Yes, I believe she is considered very beau 
 tiful," Clay said. "I have only just met her, 
 but she has travelled a great deal and knows 
 every one who is of interest, and I think you 
 will like her very much." 
 
 "I mean to like her," said the woman. 
 " There are very few of the native ladies who 
 have seen much of the world beyond a trip to 
 Paris, where they live in their hotels and at 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 71 
 
 the dressmaker s while their husbands enjoy 
 themselves ; and sometimes I am rather heart 
 sick for my home and my own people. I was 
 overjoyed when I heard Miss Langham. was to 
 be with us this winter. But you must not keep 
 her out here to yourselves. It is too far and 
 too selfish. She must spend some time with 
 me at the Government House." 
 
 "Yes," said Clay, "I am afraid of that. I 
 am afraid the young ladies will find it rather 
 lonely out here." 
 
 "Ah, no," exclaimed the woman, quickly. 
 "You have made it beautiful, and it is only a 
 half-hour s ride, except when it rains," she 
 added, laughing, " and then it is almost as easy 
 to row as to ride. " 
 
 "I will have the road repaired," interrupted 
 the President. "It is my wish, Mr. Clay, that 
 you will command me in every way ; I am most 
 desirous to make the visit of Mr. Langham 
 agreeable to him, he is doing so much for us." 
 
 The breakfast was given later in the week, 
 and only men were present. They were the 
 rich planters and bankers of Valencia, generals 
 in the army, and members of the Cabinet, and 
 officers from the tiny war-ship in the harbor. 
 The breeze from the bay touched them through 
 the open doors, the food and wine cheered 
 
72 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 them, and the eager courtesy and hospitality of 
 the three Americans pleased and flattered them. 
 They were of a people who better appreciate the 
 amenities of life than its sacrifices. 
 
 The breakfast lasted far into the afternoon, 
 and, inspired by the success of the banquet, 
 Clay quite unexpectedly found himself on his 
 feet with his hand on his heart, thanking the 
 guests for the good-will and assistance which 
 they had given him in his work, "I have 
 tramped down your coffee-plants, and cut away 
 your forests, and disturbed your sleep with my 
 engines, and you have not complained," he 
 said, in his best Spanish, "and we will show 
 that we are not ungrateful." 
 
 Then Weimer, the Consul, spoke, and told 
 them that in his Annual Consular Report, 
 which he had just forwarded to the State 
 Department, he had related how ready the Gov 
 ernment of Olancho had been to assist the 
 American company. "And I hope," he con 
 cluded, "that you will allow me, gentlemen, to 
 propose the health of President Alvarez and the 
 members of his Cabinet." 
 
 The men rose to their feet, one by one, fill 
 ing their glasses and laughing and saying, 
 " Viva el Gobernador, " until they were all stand 
 ing. Then, as they looked at one another and 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 73 
 
 saw only the faces of friends, some one of them 
 cried, suddenly, "To President Alvarez, Dic 
 tator of Olancho!" 
 
 The cry was drowned in a yell of exultation, 
 and men sprang cheering to their chairs waving 
 their napkins above their heads, and those who 
 wore swords drew them and flashed thesn in 
 the air, and the quiet, lazy good-nature of the 
 breakfast was turned into an uproarious scene 
 of wild excitement. Clay pushed back his 
 chair from the head of the table with an 
 anxious look at the servants gathered about the 
 open door, and Weimer clutched frantically at 
 Langham s elbow and whispered, " What did I 
 say ? For heaven s sake, how did it begin ? " 
 
 The outburst ceased as suddenly as it had 
 started, and old General Rojas, the Vice- 
 President, called out, "What is said is said, 
 but it must not be repeated." 
 
 Stuart waited until after the rest had gone, 
 and Clay led him out to the end of the veranda. 
 " Now will you kindly tell me what that was ? " 
 Clay asked. " It did n t sound like champagne. " 
 
 "No," said the other, "I thought you knew. 
 Alvarez means to proclaim himself Dictator, 
 if he can, before the spring elections." 
 
 "And are you going to help him ? " 
 
 "Of course," said the Englishman, simply. 
 
74 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "Well, that s all right," said Clay, "but 
 there s no use shouting the fact all over the 
 shop like that and they should n t drag me 
 into it. " 
 
 Stuart laughed easily and shook his head. 
 "It won t be long before you 11 be in it your 
 self," he said. 
 
 Clay awoke early Friday morning to hear the 
 shutters beating viciously against the side of 
 the house, and the wind rushing through the 
 palms, and the rain beating in splashes on the 
 zinc roof. It did not come soothingly and in a 
 steady downpour, but brokenly, like the rush 
 of waves sweeping over a rough beach. He 
 turned on the pillow and shut his eyes again 
 with the same impotent and rebellious sense of 
 disappointment that he used to feel when he 
 had wakened as a boy and found it storming on 
 his holiday, and he tried to sleep once more in 
 the hope that when he again awoke the sun 
 would be shining in his eyes; but the storm 
 only slackened and did not cease, and the rain 
 continued to fall with dreary, relentless per 
 sistence. The men climbed the muddy road to 
 the Palms, and viewed in silence the wreck 
 which the night had brought to their plants and 
 garden-paths. Rivulets of muddy water had 
 cut gutters over the lawn and poured out from 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 75 
 
 under the veranda, and plants and palms lay 
 bent and broken, with their broad leaves bedrag 
 gled and coated with mud. The harbor and 
 the encircling mountains, showed dimly through 
 a curtain of warm, sticky rain. To something 
 that Langham said of making the best of it, 
 MacWilliams replied, gloomily, that he would 
 not be at all surprised if the ladies refused to 
 leave the ship and demanded to be taken home 
 immediately. " I am sorry, " Clay said, simply ; 
 " I wanted them to like it. " 
 
 The men walked back to the office in grim 
 silence, and took turns in watching with a 
 glass the arms of the semaphore, three miles 
 below, at the narrow opening of the bay. Clay 
 smiled nervously to himself, with a sudden 
 sinking at the heart, and with a hot blush of 
 pleasure, as he thought of how often he had 
 looked at its great arms outlined like a mast 
 against the sky, and thanked it in advance for 
 telling him that she was near. In the harbor 
 below, the vessels lay with bare yards and 
 empty decks, the wharves were deserted, and 
 only an occasional small boat moved across the 
 beaten surface of the bay. 
 
 But at twelve o clock MacWilliams lowered 
 the glass quickly, with a little gasp of excite 
 ment, rubbed its moist lens on the inside of his 
 
76 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 coat and turned it again toward a limp strip of 
 bunting that was crawling slowly up the hal 
 yards of the semaphore. A second dripping 
 rag answered it from the semaphore in front of 
 the Custom-House, and Mac Williams laughed 
 nervously and shut the glass. 
 
 " It s red," he said ; " they vc come." 
 They had planned to wear white duck suits, 
 and go out in a launch with a flag flying, and 
 they had made MacWilliams purchase a red 
 cummerbund and a pith helmet; but they 
 tumbled into the launch now, wet and bedrag 
 gled as they were, and raced Weimer in his 
 boat, with the American flag clinging to the 
 pole, to the side of the big steamer as she drew 
 slowly into the bay. Other row-boats and 
 launches and lighters began to push out from 
 the wharves, men appeared under the sagging 
 awnings of the bare houses along the river 
 front, and the custom and health officers in 
 shining oil-skins and puffing damp cigars 
 clambered over the side. 
 
 "I sec them," cried Langham, jumping up 
 and rocking the boat in his excitement. " There 
 they are in the bow. That s Hope waving. 
 Hope! hullo, Hope!" he shouted, "hullo!" 
 Clay recognized her standing between the 
 younger sister and her father, with the rain 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 77 
 
 beating on all of them, and waving her hand to 
 Langham. The men took off their hats, and as 
 they pulled up alongside she bowed to Clay and 
 nodded brightly. They sent Langham up the 
 gangway first, and waited until he had made 
 his greetings to his family alone. 
 
 "We have had a terrible trip, Mr. Clay," 
 Miss Langham said to him, beginning, as 
 people will, with the last few days, as though 
 they were of the greatest importance ; " and we 
 could see nothing of you at the mines at all as 
 we passed only a wet flag, and a lot of very 
 friendly workmen, who cheered and fired off 
 pans of dynamite." 
 
 "They did, did they?" said Clay, with a 
 satisfied nod. " That s all right, then. That 
 was a royal salute in your honor. Kirkland 
 had that to do. He s the foreman of A open 
 ing. I am awfully sorry about this rain it 
 spoils everything." 
 
 " I hope it has n t spoiled our breakfast," said 
 Mr. Langham. " We have n t eaten anything 
 this, morning, because we wanted a change of 
 diet, and the captain told us we should be on 
 shore before now." 
 
 "We have some carriages for you at the 
 wharf, and we will drive you right out to the 
 Palms," said young Langham, "It s shorter 
 
78 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 by water, but there s a hill that the girls 
 could n t climb to-day. That s the house we 
 built for you, Governor, with the flag-pole, up 
 there on the hill ; and there s your ugly old 
 pier; and that s where we live, in the little 
 shack above it, with the tin roof; and that 
 opening to the right is the terminus of 
 the railroad MacWilliams built. Where s 
 MacWilliams ? Here, Mac, I want you to 
 know my father. This is MacWilliams, sir, 
 of whom I wrote you." 
 
 There was some delay about the baggage, 
 and in getting the party together in the boats 
 that Langham and the Consul had brought; 
 and after they had stood for some time on the 
 wet dock, hungry and damp, it was rather 
 aggravating to find that the carriages which 
 Langham had ordered to be at one pier had 
 gone to another. So the new arrivals sat 
 rather silently under the shed of the levee 
 on a row of cotton-bales, while Clay and 
 MacWilliams raced off after the carriages. 
 
 " I wish we did n t have to keep the hood 
 down," young Langham said, anxiously, as 
 they at last proceeded heavily up the muddy 
 streets; "it makes it so hot, and you can t see 
 anything. Not that it s worth seeing in all 
 this mud and muck, but it s great when 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 79 
 
 the sun shines. We had planned it all so 
 differently." 
 
 He was alone with his family now in one 
 carriage, and the other men and the servants 
 were before them in two others. It seemed an. 
 interminable ride to them all to the strangers, 
 and to the men who were anxious that they 
 should be pleased. They left the city at last, 
 and toiled along the limestone road to the 
 Palms, rocking from side to side and sinking 
 in ruts filled with rushing water. When they 
 opened the flap of the hood the rain beat in on 
 them, and when they closed it they stewed in a 
 damp, warm atmosphere of wet leather and 
 horse-hair. 
 
 "This is worse than a Turkish bath," said 
 Hope, faintly. "Don t you live anywhere, 
 Ted ? " 
 
 "Oh, it s not far now," said the younger 
 brother, dismally; but even as he spoke the 
 carriage lurched forward and plunged to one 
 side and came to a halt, and they could hear 
 the streams rushing past the wheels like the 
 water at the bow of a boat. A wet, black face 
 appeared at the opening of the hood, and a 
 man spoke despondently in Spanish. 
 
 " He says we re stuck in the mud, " explained 
 Langham. He looked at them so beseechingly 
 
80 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and so pitifully, with the perspiration stream 
 ing down his face, and his clothes damp and be 
 draggled, that Hope leaned back and laughed, 
 and his father patted him on the knee. "It 
 can t be any worse," he said, cheerfully; "it 
 must mend now. It is not your fault, Ted, 
 that we re starving and lost in the mud." 
 
 Langham looked out to find Clay and 
 MacWilliams knee-deep in the running water, 
 with their shoulders against the muddy wheels, 
 and the driver lashing at the horses and drag 
 ging at their bridles. He sprang out to their 
 assistance, and Hope, shaking off her sister s 
 detaining hands, jumped out after him, laugh 
 ing. She splashed up the hill to the horses 
 heads, motioning to the driver to release his 
 hold on their bridles. 
 
 "That is not the way to treat a horse," she 
 said. " Let me have them. Are you men all 
 ready down there ? " she called. Each of the 
 three men glued a shoulder to a wheel, and 
 clenched his teeth and nodded. "All right, 
 then," Hope called back. She took hold of the 
 huge Mexican bits close to the mouth, where the 
 pressure was not so cruel, and then coaxing and 
 tugging by turns, and slipping as often as the 
 horses themselves, she drew them out of the mud, 
 and with the help of the men back of the car- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 81 
 
 riage pulled it clear until it stood free again 
 at the top of the hill. Then she released her 
 hold on the bridles and looked down, in dismay 
 at her frock and hands, and then up at the 
 three men. They appeared so utterly miserable 
 and forlorn in their muddy garments, and with 
 their faces washed with the rain and perspira 
 tion, that the girl gave way suddenly to an un 
 controllable shriek of delight. The men stared 
 blankly at her for a moment, and then inquir 
 ingly at one another, and as the humor of the 
 situation struck them they burst into an echo 
 ing shout of laughter, which rose above the 
 noise of the wind and rain, and before which 
 the disappointments and trials of the morning 
 were swept away. Before they reached the 
 Palms the sun was out and shining with fierce 
 brilliancy, reflecting its rays on every damp leaf, 
 and drinking up each glistening pool of water. 
 
 Mac Williams and Clay left the Langhams 
 alone together, and returned to the office, where 
 they assured each other again and again that 
 there was no doubt, from what each had heard 
 different members of the family say, that they 
 were greatly pleased with all that had been pre 
 pared for them. 
 
 " They think it s fine ! " said young Langham, 
 who had run down the hill to tell them about it. 
 6 
 
82 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " I tell you, they are pleased. I took them all 
 over the house, and they just exclaimed every 
 minute. Of course," he said, dispassionately, 
 " 1 thought they d like it, hut I had no idea it 
 would please them as much as it has. My Gov 
 ernor is so delighted with the place that he s 
 sitting out there on the veranda now, rocking 
 himself up and down and taking long breaths 
 of sea-air, just as though he owned the whole 
 coast-line." 
 
 Langliam dined with his people that night, 
 Clay and Mac Williams having promised to fol 
 low him up the hill later. It was a night of 
 much moment to them all, and the two men ate 
 their dinner in silence, each considering what 
 the coming of the strangers might mean to him. 
 
 As he was leaving the room MacWilliams 
 stopped and hovered uncertainly in the doorway. 
 
 " Are you going to get yourself into a dress- 
 suit to-night?" he asked. Clay said that he 
 thought he would ; he wanted to feel quite clean 
 once more. 
 
 " Well, all right, then," the other returned, 
 reluctantly. " I 11 do it for this once, if you 
 mean to, but you need n t think I in going to 
 make a practice of it, for I m not. I have n t 
 worn a dress-suit," he continued, as though ex 
 plaining his principles in the matter, " since 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 83 
 
 your spread when we opened the railroad- 
 that s six months ago; and the time before 
 that I wore one at MacGolderick s funeral. 
 MacGolderick blew himself up at Puerto Tru- 
 xillo, shooting rocks for the breakwater. We 
 never found all of him, but we gave what we 
 could get together as fine a funeral as those 
 natives ever saw. The boys, they wanted to 
 make him look respectable, so they asked me to 
 lend them my dress-suit, but I told them I 
 meant to wear it myself. That s how I came to 
 wear a dress-suit at a funeral. It was either me 
 or MacCrolderick." 
 
 u Mac Williams," said Clay, as he stuck the 
 toe of one boot into the heel of the other, " if I 
 had your imagination I d give up railroading 
 and take to writing war clouds for the news 
 papers." 
 
 " Do you mean you don t believe that story ? " 
 Mac Williams demanded, sternly. 
 
 * I do," said Clay, " I mean I don t." 
 
 "Well, let it go," returned MacWilliams, 
 gloomily ; " but there s been funerals for less 
 than that, let me tell you." 
 
 A half-hour later MacWilliams appeared in 
 the door and stood gazing attentively at Clay 
 arranging his tie before a hand-glass, and then 
 at himself in his unusual apparel. 
 
84 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " No wonder you voted to dress up," he ex 
 claimed finally, in a tone of personal injury. 
 " That s not a dress-suit you ve got on anyway. 
 It has n t any tails. And I hope for your sake, 
 Mr. Clay," he continued, his voice rising in 
 plaintive indignation, " that you are not going 
 to play that scarf on us for a vest. And you 
 haven t got a high collar on, either. That s 
 only a rough blue print of a dress-suit. Why, 
 you look just as comfortable as though you were 
 going to enjoy yourself and you look cool, too." 
 
 " Well, why not ?" laughed Clay. 
 
 " Well, but look at me," cried the other. Do 
 I look cool ? Do I look happy or comfortable ? 
 No, I don t. I look just about the way I feel, 
 like a fool undertaker. I m going to take this 
 thing right off. You and Ted Langham can 
 wear your silk scarfs and bobtail coats, if you 
 like, but if they don t want me in white duck 
 they don t get me." 
 
 When they reached the Palms, Clay asked 
 Miss Langham if she did not want to see his 
 view. " And perhaps, if you appreciate it prop 
 erly, I will make you a present of it," he said, 
 as he walked before her down the length of the 
 veranda. 
 
 " It would be very selfish to keep it all to my 
 self," she said. " Could n t we share it V They 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 85 
 
 had left the others seated facing the bay, with 
 Mac Williams and young Langham on the broad 
 steps of the veranda, and the younger sister and 
 her father sitting in long bamboo steamer-chairs 
 above them. 
 
 Clay and Miss Langham were quite alone. 
 From the high cliff on which the Palms stood 
 they could look down the narrow inlet that 
 joined the ocean and see the moonlight turning 
 the water into a rippling ladder of light and 
 gilding the dark green leaves of the palms near 
 them with a border of silver. Directly below 
 them lay the waters of the bay, reflecting the 
 red and green lights of the ships at anchor, and 
 beyond them again were the yellow lights of the 
 town, rising one above the other as the city 
 crept up the hill. And back of all were the 
 mountains, grim and mysterious, with white 
 clouds sleeping in their huge valleys, like 
 masses of fog. 
 
 Except for the ceaseless murmur of the insect 
 life about them the night was absolutely still 
 so still that the striking of the ships bells in 
 the harbor came to them sharply across the sur 
 face of the water, and they could hear from 
 time to time the splash of some great fish and 
 the steady creaking of an oar in a rowlock that 
 grew fainter and fainter as it grew further away, 
 
86 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 until it was drowned in the distance. Miss 
 Langham was for a long time silent. She stood 
 with her hands clasped behind her, gazing from 
 side to side into the moonlight, and had appar 
 ently forgotten that Clay was present. 
 
 " Well," he said at last, " I think yon appreci 
 ate it properly. I was afraid you would exclaim 
 about it, and say it was fine, or charming, or 
 something." 
 
 Miss Langham turned to him and smiled 
 slightly. " And you told me once that you 
 knew me so very well," she said. 
 
 Clay chose to forget much that he had said 
 on that night when he had first met her. He 
 knew that he had been bold then, and had dared 
 to be so because he did not think he would see 
 her again ; but, now that he was to meet her 
 every day through several months, it seemed 
 better to him that they should grow to know 
 each other as they really were, simply and sin 
 cerely, and without forcing the situation in any 
 way. 
 
 So he replied, " I don t know you so well now. 
 You must remember I have n t seen you for a 
 year." 
 
 " Yes, but you had n t seen me for twenty- 
 two years then," she answered. "I don t think 
 you have changed much," she went on. " 1 ex- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 87 
 
 pected to find you gray with cares. Ted wrote 
 us about the way you work all day at the mines 
 and sit up all night over calculations and plans 
 and reports. But you don t show it. When 
 are you going to take us over the mines ? To 
 morrow ? I am very anxious to see them, but I 
 suppose father will want to inspect them first. 
 Hope knows all about them, I believe; she 
 knows their names, and how much you have 
 taken out, and how much you have put in, too, 
 and what MacWilliams s railroad cost, and who 
 got the contract for the ore pier. Ted told us 
 in his letters, and she used to work it out on the 
 map in father s study. She is a most energetic 
 child ; I think sometimes she should have been a 
 boy. I wish I could be the help to any one that 
 she is to my father and to me. Whenever I am 
 blue or down she makes fun of me, and 
 
 " Why should you ever be blue ?" asked Clay, 
 abruptly. 
 
 " There is no real reason, I suppose," the girl 
 answered, smiling, " except that life is so very 
 easy for me that I have to invent some woes. 
 I should be better for a few reverses." And 
 then she went on in a lower voice, and turning 
 her head away, " In our family there is no wo 
 man older than I am to whom I can go with 
 questions that trouble me. Hope is like a boy. 
 
88 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 as I said, and plays with Ted, and my father is 
 very busy with his affairs, and since my mother 
 died I have been very much alone. A man can 
 not understand. And I cannot understand why 
 I should be speaking to you about myself and 
 my troubles, except " she added, a little wist 
 fully, " that you once said you were interested 
 in me, even if it was as long as a year ago. 
 And because I want you to be very kind to me, 
 as you have been to Ted, and I hope that we 
 are going to be very good friends." 
 
 She was so beautiful, standing in the shadow 
 with the moonlight about her and with her hand 
 held out to him, that Clay felt as though the 
 scene were hardly real. He took her hand in 
 his and held it for a moment. His pleasure in 
 the sweet friendliness of her manner and in her 
 beauty was so great that it kept him silent. 
 
 " Friends ! " he laughed under his breath. " I 
 don t think there is much danger of our not 
 being friends. The danger lies," he went on, 
 smiling, " in my not being able to stop there." 
 
 Miss Langham made no sign that she had 
 heard him, but turned and walked out into the 
 moonlight and down the porch to where the 
 others were sitting. 
 
 Young Langham had ordered a native orches 
 tra of guitars and reed instruments from the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 89 
 
 town to serenade his people, and they were 
 standing in front of the house in the moonlight 
 as Miss Langham and Clay came forward. They 
 played the shrill, eerie music of their country 
 with a passion and feeling that filled out the 
 strange tropical scene around them ; but Clay 
 heard them only as an accompaniment to his 
 own thoughts, and as a part of the beautiful 
 night and the tall, beautiful girl who had domi 
 nated it. He watched her from the shadow as 
 she sat leaning easily forward and looking into 
 the night. The moonlight fell full upon her, 
 and though she did not once look at him or 
 turn her head in his direction, he felt as though 
 she must be conscious of his presence, as though 
 there were already an understanding between 
 them which she herself had established. She 
 had asked him to be her friend. That was only 
 a pretty speech, perhaps ; but she had spoken 
 of herself, and had hinted at her perplexities 
 and her loneliness, and he argued that while it 
 was no compliment to be asked to share an 
 other s pleasure, it must mean something when 
 one was allowed to learn a little of another s 
 troubles. 
 
 And while his mind was flattered and aroused 
 by this promise of confidence between them, he 
 was rejoicing in the rare quality of her beauty, 
 
90 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and in the thought that she was to be near him, 
 aiid near him here, of all places. It seemed a 
 very wonderful thing to Clay something that 
 could only have happened in a novel or a play. 
 For while the man and the hour frequently 
 appeared together, he had found that the one 
 wuinan in the world and the place and the man 
 was a much more difficult combination to bring 
 into effect. Xo one, he assured himself thank 
 fully, could have designed a more lovely setting 
 for his love-story, if it was to be a love-story, 
 and he hoped it was, than this into which she 
 had come of her own free will. It was a land 
 of romance and adventure, of guitars and lat 
 ticed windows, of warm brilliant days and gor 
 geous silent nights, under purple heavens and 
 white stars. And he was to have her all to 
 himself, with no one near to interrupt, no other 
 friends, even, and no possible rival. She was 
 not guarded now by a complex social system, 
 with its responsibilities. He was the most 
 lucky of men. Others had only seen her in 
 her drawing-room or in an opera-box, but he 
 was free to ford mountain-streams at her side, 
 or ride with her under arches of the great 
 palms, or to play a guitar boldly beneath her 
 window. He was free to come and go at any 
 hour ; not only free to do so, but the very na- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 91 
 
 ture of his duties made it necessary that they 
 should be thrown constantly together. 
 
 The music of the violins moved him and 
 touched him deeply, and stirred depths at which 
 he had not guessed. It made him humble and 
 deeply grateful, and he felt how mean and un 
 worthy he was of such great happiness. He 
 had never loved any woman as he felt that he 
 could love this woman, as he hoped that he was 
 to love her. For he was not so far blinded by her 
 beauty and by what he guessed her character 
 to be, as to imagine that he really knew her. 
 He only knew what he hoped she was, what he 
 believed the soul must be that looked out of 
 those kind, beautiful eyes, and that found utter 
 ance in that wonderful voice which could con 
 trol him and move him by a word. 
 
 He felt, as he looked at the group before him, 
 how lonely his own life had been, how hard he 
 had worked for so little for what other men 
 found ready at hand when they were born into 
 the world. He felt almost a touch of self-pity 
 at his own imperfectness ; and the power of his 
 will and his confidence in himself, of which he 
 was so proud, seemed misplaced and little. 
 And then he wondered if he had not neglected 
 chances ; but in answer to this his injured self- 
 love rose to rebut the idea that he had wasted 
 
92 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 any portion of his time, and he assured himself 
 that he had done the work that he had cut out 
 for himself to do as best he could ; no one but 
 himself knew with what courage and spirit. 
 And so he sat combating with himself, hoping 
 one moment that she would prove what he be 
 lieved her to be, and the next, scandalized at 
 his temerity in daring to think of her at all. 
 
 The spell lifted as the music ceased, and Clay 
 brought himself back to the moment and looked 
 about him as though he were waking from a 
 dream and had expected to see the scene dis 
 appear and the figures near him fade into the 
 moonlight. 
 
 Young Langham had taken a guitar from one 
 of the musicians and pressed it upon MacWil- 
 liams, with imperative directions to sing such 
 and such songs, of which, in their isolation, they 
 had grown to think most highly, and Mac Wil 
 liams was protesting in much embarrassment. 
 
 MacWilliams had a tenor voice which he 
 maltreated in the most villanous manner by 
 singing directly through his nose. He had a 
 taste for sentimental songs, in which " kiss " 
 rhymed with " bliss," and in which " the people 
 cry " was always sure to be followed with " as 
 she goes by, that s pretty Katie Moody," or 
 " Rosie Mclntyre." He had gathered his songs 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 93 
 
 at the side of camp-fires, and in canteens at the 
 first section-house of a new railroad, and his 
 original collection of ballads had had but few 
 additions in several years. MacWilliams at first 
 was shy, which was quite a new development, 
 until he made them promise to laugh if they 
 wanted to laugh, explaining that he would not 
 mind that so much as he would the idea that 
 he thought he was serious. 
 
 The song of which he was especially fond was 
 one called " He never cares to wander from 
 his own Fireside," which was especially appro 
 priate in coming from a man who had visited 
 almost every spot in the three Americas, ex 
 cept his home, in ten years. MacWilliams al 
 ways ended the evening s entertainment with 
 this chorus, no matter how many times it had 
 been sung previously, and seemed to regard it 
 with much the same veneration that the true 
 Briton feels for his national anthem. 
 
 The words of the chorus were : 
 
 " He never cares to wander from his own fireside, 
 He never cares to wander or to roam. 
 With his babies on his knee, 
 He s as happy as can be, 
 For there s no place like Home, Sweet Home. * 
 
 MacWilliams loved accidentals, and what he 
 called " barber-shop chords." He used a beau- 
 
94 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 tiful accidental at the word " be," of which he 
 was very fond, and he used to hang on that 
 note for a long time, so that those in the ex 
 treme rear of the hall, as he was wont to ex 
 plain, should get the full benefit of it. And it 
 was his custom to emphasize " for " in the last 
 line by speaking instead of singing it, and then 
 coming to a full stop before dashing on again 
 with the excellent truth that "there is NO place 
 like Home, Sweet Home." 
 
 The men at the mines used to laugh at him 
 and his song at first, but they saw that it was 
 not to be so laughed away, and that he regarded 
 it with some peculiar sentiment. So they suf 
 fered him to sing it in peace. 
 
 MacWilliams went through his repertoire to 
 the unconcealed amusement of young Langham 
 and Hope. When he had finished he asked 
 Hope if she knew a comic song of which he had 
 only heard by reputation. One of the men at 
 the mines had gained a certain celebrity by 
 claiming to have heard it in the States, but as 
 he gave a completely new set of words to the 
 tune of the " Wearing of the Green" as the 
 true version, his veracity was doubted. Hope 
 said she knew it, of course, and they all went 
 into the drawing-room, where the men grouped 
 themselves about the piano. It was a night 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 95 
 
 they remembered long afterward. Hope sat at 
 the piano protesting and laughing, but singing 
 the songs of which the new-comers had be 
 come so weary, but which the three men heard 
 open-eyed, and hailed with shouts of pleasure. 
 The others enjoyed them and their delight, as 
 though they were people in a play expressing 
 themselves in this extravagant manner for their 
 entertainment, until they understood how pov 
 erty-stricken their lives had been and that they 
 were not only enjoying the music for itself, but 
 because it was characteristic of all that they 
 had left behind them. It was pathetic to hear 
 them boast of having read of a certain song in 
 such a paper, and of the fact that they knew 
 the plot of a late comic opera and the names 
 of those who had played in it, and that it had 
 or had not been acceptable to the New York 
 public. 
 
 "Dear me," Hope would cry, looking over 
 her shoulder with a despairing glance at her 
 sister and father, " they don t even know Tom 
 my Atkins ! " 
 
 It was a very happy evening for them all, 
 foreshadowing, as it did, a continuation of just 
 such evenings. Young Langham was radiant 
 with pleasure at the good account which Clay 
 had given of him to his father, and Mr. Lang- 
 
96 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 ham was gratified, and proud of the manner in 
 which his son and heir had conducted himself; 
 and Mac Williams, who had never before been 
 taken so simply and sincerely by people of a 
 class that he had always held in humorous awe, 
 felt a sudden accession of dignity, and an un 
 happy fear that when they laughed at what he 
 said, it was because its sense was so utterly 
 different from their point of view, and not be 
 cause they saw the humor of it. He did not 
 know what the word " snob " signified, and in 
 his roughened, easy-going nature there was no 
 touch of false pride ; but he could not help 
 thinking how surprised his people would be if 
 they could see him, whom they regarded as a 
 wanderer and renegade on the face of the earth 
 and the prodigal of the family, and for that 
 reason the best loved, leaning over a grand 
 piano, while one daughter of his much-revered 
 president played comic songs for his delecta 
 tion, and the other, who according to the news 
 papers refused princes daily, and who was the 
 most wonderful creature he had ever seen, 
 poured out his coffee and brought it to him 
 with her own hands. 
 
 The evening came to an end at last, and the 
 new arrivals accompanied their visitors to the 
 veranda as they started to their cabin for 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 97 
 
 the night. Clay was asking Mr. Langham when 
 he wished to visit the mines, and the others were 
 laughing over farewell speeches, when young 
 Langham startled them all by hurrying down 
 the length of the veranda and calling on them 
 to follow. 
 
 " Look ! " he cried, pointing down the inlet. 
 " Here conies a man-of-war, or a yacht. Is n t 
 she smart-looking ? What can she want here at 
 this hour of the night? They won t let them 
 land. Can you make her out, Mac Williams ?" 
 
 A long, white ship was steaming slowly up 
 the inlet, and passed within a few hundred feet 
 of the cliff on which they were standing. 
 
 " Why, it s the < Vesta ! " exclaimed Hope, 
 wonderingly. " I thought she was n t coming 
 for a week ? " 
 
 " It can t be the c Vesta ! " said the elder sis 
 ter ; " she was not to have sailed from Havana 
 until to-day." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked Langham. " Is 
 it King s boat ? Do you expect him here ? Oh, 
 what fun ! I say, Clay, here s the c Vesta, Reggie 
 King s yacht, and he s no end of a sport. We can 
 go all over the place now, and he can land us 
 right at the door of the mines if we want to." 
 
 " Is it the King I met at dinner that night ?" 
 asked Clay, turning to Miss Langham. 
 7 
 
98 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "Yes," she said. "He wanted us to come 
 down on the yacht, but we thought the steamer 
 would be faster; so he sailed without us and 
 was to have touched at Havana, but he has 
 apparently changed his course. Does n t she 
 look like a phantom ship in the moonlight ? " 
 
 Young Langham thought he could distinguish 
 King among the white figures on the bridge, and 
 tossed his hat and shouted, and a man in the 
 stern of the yacht replied with a wave of his hand. 
 
 " That must be Mr. King," said Hope. " He 
 did n t bring any one with him, and he seems to 
 be the only man aft." 
 
 They stood watching the yacht as she stopped 
 with a rattle of anchor-chains and a confusion 
 of orders that came sharply across the water, 
 and then the party separated and the three men 
 walked down the hill, Langham eagerly assur 
 ing the other two that King was a very good sort, 
 and telling them what a treasure-house his 
 yacht was, and how he would have probably 
 brought the latest papers, and that he would 
 certainly give a dance on board in their honor. 
 
 The men stood for some short time together, 
 after they had reached the office, discussing the 
 great events of the day, and then with cheerful 
 good-nights disappeared into their separate 
 rooms. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 99 
 
 An hour later Clay stood without his coat, 
 and with a pen in his hand, at MacWilliams s 
 bedside and shook him by the shoulder. 
 
 u I m not asleep," said Mac Williams, sitting 
 up ; " what is it ? What have you been doing?" 
 he demanded. " Not working ? " 
 
 " There were some reports came in after we 
 left," said Clay, " and I find I will have to see 
 Kirkland to-morrow morning. Send them word 
 to run me down on an engine at five-thirty, will 
 you ? I am sorry to have to wake you, but I 
 could n t remember in which shack that engi 
 neer lives." 
 
 Mac Williams jumped from his bed and began 
 kicking about the floor for his boots. " Oh, 
 that s all right," he said. "I wasn t asleep, I 
 was just " he lowered his voice that Langham 
 might not hear him through the canvas parti 
 tions "I was just lying awake playing duets 
 with the President, and racing for the Interna 
 tional Cup in my new centre-board yacht, that s 
 all ! " 
 
 Mac Williams buttoned a waterproof coat over 
 his pajamas and stamped his bare feet into his 
 boots. " Oh, I tell you, Clay," he said with a 
 grim chuckle, " we re mixing right in with the 
 four hundred, we are ! I m substitute and under 
 study when anybody gets ill. We re right in 
 
100 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 our own class at last ! Pure amateurs with no 
 professional record against us. Me and Presi 
 dent Langham, I guess ! " He struck a match 
 and lit the smoky wick in a tin lantern. 
 
 " But now," he said, cheerfully, " my time 
 being too valuable for me to sleep, I will go 
 wake up that nigger engine-driver and set his 
 alarm clock at five-thirty. Five-thirty, I believe 
 you said. All right ; good-night." And whist 
 ling cheerfully to himself MacWilliams disap 
 peared up the hill, his body hidden in the 
 darkness and his legs showing fantastically in 
 the light of the swinging lantern. 
 
 Clay walked out upon the veranda and stood 
 with his back to one of the pillars. MacWil 
 liams and his pleasantries disturbed and 
 troubled him. Perhaps, after all, the boy was 
 right. It seemed absurd, but it was true. They 
 were only employees of Langham two of the 
 thousands of young men who were working all 
 over the United States to please him, to make 
 him richer, to whom he was only a name and a 
 power, which meant an increase of salary or the 
 loss of place. 
 
 Clay laughed and shrugged his shoulders. 
 He knew that he was not in that class ; if he 
 did good work it was because his self-respect 
 demanded it of him ; he did not work for Lang- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE lM 
 
 ham or the Olancho Mining Company (Limited). 
 And yet he turned with almost a feeling of 
 resentment toward the white yacht lying calmly 
 in magnificent repose a hundred yards from his 
 porch. 
 
 He could see her as clearly in her circle of 
 electric lights as though she were a picture and 
 held in the light of a stereopticon on a screen. 
 He could see her white decks, and the rails of 
 polished brass, and the comfortable wicker 
 chairs and gay cushions and flat coils of rope, 
 and the tapering masts and intricate rigging. 
 How easy it was made for some men ! This one 
 had come like the prince in the fairy tale on his 
 magic carpet. If Alice Langham were to leave 
 Valencia that next day, Clay could not follow 
 her. He had his duties and responsibilities ; he 
 was at another man s bidding. 
 
 But this Prince Fortunatus had but to raise 
 anchor and start in pursuit, knowing that he 
 would be welcome wherever he found her. That 
 was the worst of it to Clay, for he knew that 
 men did not follow women from continent to 
 continent without some assurance of a friendly 
 greeting. Clay s mind went back to the days 
 when he was a boy, when his father was absent 
 fighting for a lost cause ; when his mother 
 taught in a little schoolhouse under the shadow 
 
1*02 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 of Pike s Peak, and when Kit Carson was his 
 hero. He thought of the poverty of those days 
 poverty so mean and hopeless that it was 
 almost something to feel shame for ; of the days 
 that followed when, an orphan and without a 
 home, he had sailed away from New Orleans to 
 the Cape. How the mind of the mathematician, 
 which he had inherited from the Boston school 
 mistress, had been swayed by the spirit of the 
 soldier, which he had inherited from his father, 
 and which led him from the mines of South 
 Africa to little wars in Madagascar, Egypt, and 
 Algiers. It had been a life as restless as the 
 seaweed on a rock. But as he looked back to 
 its poor beginnings and admitted to himself its 
 later successes, he gave a sigh of content, and 
 shaking off the mood stood up and paced the 
 length of the veranda. 
 
 He looked up the hill to the low-roofed bun 
 galow with the palm-leaves about it, outlined 
 against the sky, and as motionless as patterns 
 cut in tin. He had built that house. He 
 had built it for her. That was her room 
 where the light was shining out from the 
 black bulk of the house about it like a star. 
 And beyond the house he saw his five great 
 mountains, the knuckles of the giant hand, with 
 its gauntlet of iron that lay shut and clenched 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 103 
 
 in the face of the sea that swept up whimpering 
 before it. Clay felt a boyish, foolish pride rise 
 in his breast as he looked toward the great 
 mines he had discovered and opened, at the iron 
 mountains that were crumbling away before his 
 touch. 
 
 He turned his eyes again to the blazing yacht, 
 and this time there was no trace of envy in 
 them. He laughed instead, partly with pleasure 
 at the thought of the struggle he scented in the 
 air, and partly at his own braggadocio. 
 
 " I m not afraid," he said, smiling, and shak 
 ing his head at the white ship that loomed up 
 like a man-of-war in the black waters. "I m 
 not afraid to fight you for anything worth fight 
 ing for." 
 
 He bowed his bared head in good-night toward 
 the light on the hill, as he turned and walked 
 back into his bedroom. " And I think," he mur 
 mured grimly, as he put out the light, " that 
 she is worth fighting for." 
 
IV 
 
 THE work which had called Clay to the mines 
 kept him there for some time, and it was not 
 until the third day after the arrival of the Lang- 
 hams that he returned again to the Palms. On 
 the afternoon when he climbed the hill to the 
 bungalow he found the Langhams as he had 
 left them, with the difference that King now 
 occupied a place in the family circle. Clay was 
 made so welcome, and especially so by King, 
 that he felt rather ashamed of his sentiments 
 toward him, and considered his three days of 
 absence to be well repaid by the heartiness of 
 their greeting. 
 
 " For myself," said Mr. Langham, " I don t 
 believe you had anything to do at the mines at 
 all. I think you went away just to show us 
 how necessary you are. But if you want me to 
 make a good report of our resident director on 
 my return, you had better devote yourself less 
 to the mines while you are here and more to 
 us." Clay said he was glad to find that his 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 105 
 
 duties were to be of so pleasant a nature, and 
 asked them what they had seen and what they 
 had done. 
 
 They told him they had been nowhere, but 
 had waited for his return in order that he might 
 act as their guide. 
 
 " Then you should see the city at once," said 
 Clay, " and I will have the volante brought to the 
 door, and we can all go in this afternoon. There 
 is room for the four of you inside, and I can sit 
 on the box-seat with the driver." 
 
 " No," said King, " let Hope or me sit on the 
 box-seat. Then we can practise our Spanish on 
 the driver." 
 
 " Not very well," Clay replied, " for the driver 
 sits on the first horse, like a postilion. It s a 
 sort of tandem without reins. Have n t you seen 
 it yet? We consider the volante our proudest 
 exhibit." So Clay ordered the volante to be 
 brought out, and placed them facing each other 
 in the open carriage, while he climbed to the 
 box-seat, from which position of vantage he 
 pointed out and explained the objects of interest 
 they passed, after the manner of a professional 
 guide. It was a warm, beautiful afternoon, and 
 the clear mists of the atmosphere intensified the 
 rich blue of the sky, and the brilliant colors of 
 the houses, and the different shades of green of 
 
106 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 the trees and bushes that lined the highroad to 
 the capital. 
 
 "To the right, as we descend," said Clay, 
 speaking over his shoulder, " you see a tin 
 house. It is the home of the resident director 
 of the Olancho Mining Company (Limited), and 
 of his able lieutenants, Mr. Theodore Langham 
 and Mr. Mac Williams. The building on the 
 extreme left is the round-house, in which Mr. 
 MacWilliams stores his three locomotive en 
 gines, and in the far middle-distance is Mr. 
 MacWilliams himself in the act of repairing a 
 water-tank. He is the one in a suit of blue 
 overalls, and as his language at such times is 
 free, we will drive rapidly on and not embarrass 
 him. Besides," added the engineer, with the 
 happy laugh of a boy who had been treated to a 
 holiday, " I am sure that I am not setting him 
 the example of fixity to duty which he should 
 expect from his chief." 
 
 They passed between high hedges of Spanish 
 bayonet, and came to mud cabins thatched with 
 palm-leaves, and alive with naked, little brown- 
 bodied children, who laughed and cheered to 
 them as they passed. 
 
 " It s a very beautiful country for the pueblo" 
 was Clay s comment. " Different parts of the 
 same tree furnish them with food, shelter, and 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 107 
 
 clothing, and the sun gives them fuel, and the 
 Government changes so often that they can 
 always dodge the tax-collector." 
 
 From the mud cabins they came to more 
 substantial one-story houses of adobe, with the 
 walls painted in two distinct colors, blue, pink, 
 or yellow, with red-tiled roofs, and the names 
 with which they had been christened in bold 
 black letters above the entrances. Then the 
 carriage rattled over paved streets, and they 
 drove between houses of two stories painted 
 more decorously in pink and light blue, with 
 wide-open windows, guarded by heavy bars of 
 finely wrought iron and ornamented with scroll 
 work in stucco. The principal streets were 
 given up to stores and cafes, all wide open to 
 the pavement and protected from the sun by 
 brilliantly striped awnings, and gay with the 
 national colors of Olancho in flags and streamers. 
 Tn front of them sat officers in uniform, and the 
 dark-skinned dandies of Valencia, in white duck 
 suits and Panama hats, toying with tortoise- 
 shell canes, whicli could be converted, if the 
 occasion demanded, into blades of Toledo steel. 
 In the streets were priests and bare-legged 
 mule-drivers, and ragged ranchmen with red- 
 caped cloaks hanging to their sandals, and ne 
 gro women, with bare shoulders and long trains, 
 
108 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 vending lottery tickets and rolling huge cigars 
 between their lips. It was an old story to Clay 
 and King, but none of the others had seen a 
 Spanish-American city before ; they were famil 
 iar with the Far East and the Mediterranean, 
 but not with the fierce, hot tropics of their sis 
 ter continent, and so their eyes were wide open, 
 and they kept calling continually to one another 
 to notice some new place or figure. 
 
 They in their turn did not escape from notice 
 or comment. The two sisters would have been 
 conspicuous anywhere in a queen s drawing- 
 room or on an Indian reservation. Theirs was 
 a type that the caballeros and senoritas did not 
 know. With them dark hair was always asso 
 ciated with dark complexions, the rich duskiness 
 of which was always vulgarized by a coat of 
 powder, and this fair blending of pink and white 
 skin under masses of black hair was strangely 
 new, so that each of the few women who were 
 to be met on the street turned to look after 
 the carriage, while the American women ad 
 mired their mantillas, and felt that the straw 
 sailor-hats they wore had become heavy and 
 unfeminine. 
 
 Clay was very happy in picking out what was 
 most characteristic and picturesque, and every 
 street into which he directed the driver to take 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 109 
 
 them seemed to possess some building or monu 
 ment that was of peculiar interest. They did 
 not know that he had mapped out this ride 
 many times before, and was taking them over 
 a route which he had already travelled with them 
 in imagination. King knew what the capital 
 would be like before he entered it, from his 
 experience of other South American cities, but 
 he acted as though it were all new to him, and 
 allowed Clay to explain, and to give the reason 
 for those features of the place that were unusual 
 and characteristic. Clay noticed this and ap 
 pealed to him from time to time, when he was 
 in doubt; but the other only smiled back and 
 shook his head, as much as to say, " This is 
 your city ; they would rather hear about it from 
 you." 
 
 Clay took them to the principal shops, where 
 the two girls held whispered consultations over 
 lace mantillas, which they had at once deter 
 mined to adopt, and bought the gorgeous paper 
 fans, covered with brilliant pictures of bull 
 fighters in suits of silver tinsel ; and from these 
 open stores he led them to a dingy little shop, 
 where there was old silver and precious hand- 
 painted fans of mother-of-pearl that had been 
 pawned by families who had risked and lost all 
 in some revolution ; and then to another shop, 
 
110 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 where two old maiden ladies made a particu 
 larly good guava; and to tobacconists, where 
 the men bought a few of the native cigars, 
 which, as they were a monopoly of the Gov 
 ernment, were as bad as Government monopo 
 lies always are. 
 
 Clay felt a sudden fondness for the city, so 
 grateful was he to it for entertaining her as it 
 did, and for putting its best front forward for 
 her delectation. He wanted to thank some one 
 for building the quaint old convent, with its 
 yellow walls washed to an orange tint, and 
 black in spots with dampness ; and for the 
 fountain covered with green moss that stood 
 before its gate, and around which were gath 
 ered the girls and women of the neighborhood 
 with red water-jars on their shoulders, arid little 
 donkeys buried under stacks of yellow sugar 
 cane, and the negro drivers of the city s green 
 water-carts, and the blue wagons that carried 
 the manufactured ice. Toward live o clock they 
 decided to spend the rest of the day in the city, 
 and to telephone for the two boys to join them 
 at La Venus, the great restaurant on the plaza, 
 where Clay had invited them to dine. 
 
 He suggested that they should fill out the 
 time meanwhile by a call on the President, and 
 after a search for cards in various pocketbooks, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 111 
 
 they drove to the Government palace, which stood 
 in an open square in the heart of the city. 
 
 As they arrived the President and his wife 
 were leaving for their afternoon drive on the 
 Alameda, the fashionable parade-ground of the 
 city, and the state carriage and a squad of 
 cavalry appeared from the side of the palace 
 as the visitors drove up to the entrance. 
 But at the sight of Clay, General Alvarez and 
 his wife retreated to the house again and made 
 them welcome. The President led the men into 
 his reception-room and entertained them with 
 champagne and cigarettes, not manufactured by 
 his Government ; and his wife, after first con 
 ducting the girls through the state drawing- 
 room, where the late sunlight shone gloomily 
 on strange old portraits of assassinated presi 
 dents and victorious generals, and garish yellow 
 silk furniture, brought them to her own apart 
 ments, and gave them tea after a civilized fash 
 ion, and showed them how glad she was to see 
 some one of her own world again. 
 
 During their short visit Madame Alvarez 
 talked a. greater part of the time herself, ad 
 dressing what she said to Miss Langham, but 
 looking at Hope. It was unusual for Hope to 
 be singled out in this way when her sister was 
 present, and both the sisters noticed it and 
 
112 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 spoke of it afterwards. They thought Madame 
 Alvarez very beautiful and distinguished-look 
 ing, and she impressed them, even after that 
 short knowledge of her, as a woman of great 
 force of character. 
 
 " She was very well dressed for a Spanish 
 woman," was Miss Langham s comment, later 
 in the afternoon. u But everything she had on 
 was just a year behind the fashions, or twelve 
 steamer days behind, as Mr. MacWilliams puts 
 it." 
 
 u She reminded me," said Hope, u of a black 
 panther I saw once in a circus." 
 
 " Dear me ! " exclaimed the sister, " I don t 
 see that at all. Why?" 
 
 Hope said she did not know why ; she was 
 not given to analyzing her impressions or offer 
 ing reasons for them. " Because the panther 
 looked so unhappy," she explained, doubtfully, 
 " and restless ; and he kept pacing up and down 
 all the time, and hitting his head against the 
 bars as he walked as though he liked the pain. 
 Madame Alvarez seemed to me to be just like 
 that as though she were shut up somewhere 
 and wanted to be free." 
 
 When Madame Alvarez and the two sisters 
 had joined the men, they all walked together to 
 the terrace, and the visitors waited until the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 113 
 
 President and his wife should take their depar 
 ture. Hope noticed, in advance of the escort of 
 native cavalry, an auburn-haired, fair-skinned 
 young man who was sitting an English saddle. 
 The officer s eyes were blue and frank and at 
 tractive-looking, even as they then were fixed 
 ahead of him with a military lack of expres 
 sion ; but he came to life very suddenly when 
 the President called to him, and prodded his 
 horse up to the steps and dismounted. He was 
 introduced by Alvarez as " Captain Stuart of my 
 household troops, late of the Gordon High 
 landers. Captain Stuart," said the President, 
 laying his hand affectionately on the younger 
 man s epaulette, " takes care of my life and the 
 safety of my home and family. He could have 
 the command of the army if he wished ; but no, 
 he is fond of us, and he tells me we are in more 
 need of protection from our friends at home 
 than from our enemies on the frontier. Perhaps 
 he knows best. I trust him, Mr. Langham," 
 added the President, solemnly, " as I trust no 
 other man in all this country." 
 
 u I am very glad to meet Captain Stuart, I am 
 sure," said Mr. Langham, smiling, and appreci 
 ating how the shyness of the Englishman must 
 be suffering under the praises of the Spaniard. 
 And Stuart was indeed so embarrassed that he 
 8 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 flushed under his tan, and assured Clay, while 
 shaking hands with them all, that he was 
 delighted to make his acquaintance ; at which 
 the others laughed, and Stuart came to himself 
 sufficiently to laugh with them, and to accept 
 Clay s invitation to dine with them later. 
 
 They found the two boys waiting in the cafe* 
 of the restaurant where they had arranged to 
 meet, and they ascended the steps together to 
 the tahle on the balcony that Clay had reserved 
 for them. 
 
 The young engineer appeared at his best as 
 host. The responsibility of seeing that a half- 
 dozen others were amused and content sat well 
 upon him ; and as course followed course, and 
 the wines changed, and the candles left the 
 rest of the room in darkness and showed only 
 the table and the faces around it, they all be 
 came rapidly more merry and the conversation 
 intimately familiar. 
 
 Clay knew the kind of table-talk to which the 
 Langhams were accustomed, and used the mate 
 rial around his table in such a way that the talk 
 there was vastly different. From King he drew 
 forth tales of the buried cities he had first 
 explored, and then robbed of their ugliest idols. 
 He urged MacWilliams to tell carefully edited 
 stories of life along the Chagres before the Scan- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 115 
 
 dal came, and of the fastnesses of the Andes ; 
 and even Stuart grew braver and remembered 
 u something of the same sort " he had seen at 
 Fort Nilt, in Upper Burma. 
 
 " Of course," was Clay s comment at the con 
 clusion of one of these narratives, "being an 
 Englishman, Stuart left out the point of the 
 story, which was that he blew in the gates of 
 the fort with a charge of dynamite. He got a 
 D. S. 0. for doing it." 
 
 " Being an Englishman," said Hope, smiling 
 encouragingly on the conscious Stuart, " he nat 
 urally would leave that out." 
 
 Mr. Langham and his daughters formed an 
 eager audience. They had never before met at 
 one table three men who had known such expe 
 riences, and who spoke of them as though they 
 must be as familiar in the lives of the others as 
 in their own men who spoiled in the telling 
 stories that would have furnished incidents for 
 melodramas, and who impressed their hearers 
 more with what they left unsaid, and what was 
 only suggested, than what in their view was the 
 most important point. 
 
 The dinner came to an end at last, and Mr. 
 Langham proposed that they should go down 
 and walk with the people in the plaza ; but his 
 two daughters preferred to remain as spectators 
 
116 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 on the balcony, and Clay and Stuart stayed 
 with them. 
 
 " At last ! " sighed Clay, under his breath, 
 seating himself at Miss Langhani s side as she 
 sat leaning forward with her arms upon the rail 
 ing and looking down into the plaza below. 
 She made no sign at first that she had heard 
 him, but as the voices of Stuart and Hope rose 
 from the other end of the balcony she turned 
 her head and asked, " Why at last ? " 
 
 " Oh, you could n t understand," laughed Clay. 
 " You have not been looking forward to just one 
 thing and then had it come true. It is the only 
 thing that ever did come true to me, and I 
 thought it never would." 
 
 " You don t try to make me understand," said 
 the girl, smiling, but without turning her 
 eyes from the moving spectacle below her. 
 Clay considered her challenge silently. He did 
 not know just how much it might mean from 
 her, and the smile robbed it of all serious in 
 tent; so he, too, turned and looked down into 
 the great square below them, content, now that 
 she was alone with him, to take his time. 
 
 At one end of the plaza the President s band 
 was playing native waltzes that came throbbing 
 through the trees and beating softly above the 
 rustling skirts and clinking spurs of the sen- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 117 
 
 oritas and officers, sweeping by in two opposite 
 circles around the edges of the tessellated pave 
 ments. Above the palms around the square 
 arose the dim, white facade of the cathedral, 
 with the bronze statue of Anduella, the liberator 
 of Olancho, who answered with his upraised 
 arm and cocked hat the cheers of an imaginary 
 populace. Clay s had been an unobtrusive part 
 in the evening s entertainment, but he saw that 
 the others had been pleased, and felt a certain 
 satisfaction in thinking that King himself could 
 not have planned and carried out a dinner more 
 admirable in every way. He was gratified that 
 they should know him to be not altogether a 
 barbarian. But Avhat he best liked to remember 
 was that whenever he had spoken she had lis 
 tened, even when her eyes were turned away and 
 she was pretending to listen to someone else. 
 He tormented himself by wondering whether 
 this was because he interested her only as a 
 new and strange character, or whether she felt 
 in some way how eagerly he was seeking her 
 approbation. For the first time in his life he 
 found himself considering what he was about to 
 say, and he suited for her possible liking. It 
 was at least some satisfaction that she had, if 
 only for the time being, singled him out as of 
 especial interest, and he assured himself that the 
 
118 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 fault would be his if her interest failed. He no 
 longer looked on himself as an outsider. 
 
 Stuart s voice arose from the farther end of 
 the balcony, where the white figure of Hope 
 showed dimly in the darkness. 
 
 " They are talking about you over there," said 
 Miss Langham, turning toward him. 
 
 "Well, I don t mind," answered Clay, u as 
 long as they talk about me over there." 
 
 Miss Langham shook her head. " You are 
 very frank and audacious," she replied, doubt 
 fully, " but it is rather pleasant as a change." 
 
 " I don t call that audacious, to say I don t 
 want to be interrupted when I am talking to you. 
 Are n t the men you meet generally audacious ? " 
 he asked. "I can see why not though," he 
 continued, " you awe them." 
 
 " I can t think that s a nice way to affect 
 people," protested Miss Langham, after a pause. 
 " I don t awe you, do I ? " 
 
 " Oh, you affect me in many different ways," 
 returned Clay, cheerfully. " Sometimes I am 
 very much afraid of you, and then again my feel 
 ings are only those of unlimited admiration." 
 
 "There, again, what did I tell you?" said 
 Miss Langham. 
 
 " Well, I can t help doing that," said Clay. 
 " That is one of the few privileges that is left 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 119 
 
 to a man in my position it docs n t matter 
 what I say. That is the advantage of being of 
 no account and hopelessly detrimental. The 
 eligible men of the world, you see, have to be 
 so very careful. A Prime Minister, for instance, 
 can t talk as he wishes, and call names if he 
 wants to, or write letters, even. Whatever he 
 says is so important, because he says it, that 
 he must be very discreet. I am so unimpor 
 tant that no one minds what I say, and so I say 
 it. It s the only comfort I have." 
 
 "Are you in the habit of going around the 
 world saying whatever you choose to every wo 
 man you happen to to- Miss Langham 
 hesitated. 
 
 "To admire very much," suggested Clay. 
 
 " To meet," corrected Miss Langham. " Be 
 cause, if you are, it is a very dangerous and 
 selfish practice, and I think your theory of non- 
 responsibility is a very wicked one." 
 
 " Well, I would n t say it to a child," mused 
 Clay, " but to one who must have heard it be 
 fore " 
 
 " And who, you think, would like to hear it 
 again, perhaps," interrupted Miss Langham. 
 
 " No, not at all," said Clay. " I don t say it 
 to give her pleasure, but because it gives me 
 pleasure to say what I think." 
 
120 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "If we are to continue good friends, Mr. 
 Clay/ said Miss Langham, in decisive tones, 
 " we must keep our relationship on more of a 
 social and less of a personal basis. It was all 
 very well that first night I met you," she went 
 on. in a kindly tone. " You rushed in then and 
 by a sort of tour deforce made me think a great 
 deal about myself and also about you. Your 
 stories of cherished photographs and distant 
 devotion and all that were very interesting; 
 but now we are to be together a great deal, and 
 if we are to talk about ourselves all the time, I 
 for one shall grow very tired of it. As a matter 
 of fact you don t know what your feelings are 
 concerning me, and until you do we will talk 
 less about them and more about the things you 
 are certain of. When are you going to take us 
 to the mines, for instance, and who was Andu- 
 ella, the Liberator of Olancho, on that ped 
 estal over there ? Now, is n t that much more 
 instructive ? " 
 
 Clay smiled grimly and made no answer, but 
 sat with knitted brows looking out across the 
 trees of the plaza. His face was so serious and 
 he was apparently giving such earnest consider 
 ation to what she had said that Miss Langham 
 felt an uneasy sense of remorse. And, more 
 over, the young man s profile, as he sat looking 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 121 
 
 away from her, was very fine, and the head on 
 his broad shoulders was as well-modelled as the 
 head of an Athenian statue. Miss Langham 
 was not insensible to beauty of any sort, and 
 she regarded the profile with perplexity and 
 with a softening spirit. 
 
 " You understand," she said, gently, being 
 quite certain that she did not understand this 
 new order of young man herself. " You are 
 not offended with me ? " she asked. 
 
 Clay turned and frowned, and then smiled in 
 a puzzled way and stretched out his hand toward 
 the equestrian statue in the plaza. " Aridulla 
 or Anduella, the Treaty-Maker, as they call him, 
 was born in 1700," he said; "he was a most 
 picturesque sort of a chap, and freed this coun 
 try from the yoke of Spain. One of the stories 
 they tell of him gives you a good idea of his 
 character." And so, without any change of 
 expression or reference to what had just passed 
 between them, Clay continued through the re 
 mainder of their stay on the balcony to dis 
 course in humorous, graphic phrases on the 
 history of Olancho, its heroes, and its revolu 
 tions, the buccaneers and pirates of the old 
 days, and the concession-hunters and filibusters 
 of the present. It was some time before Miss 
 Langham was able to give him her full atten- 
 
122 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 tion, for she was considering whether he could 
 be so foolish as to have taken offence at what 
 she said, and whether he would speak of it 
 again, and in wondering whether a personal 
 basis for conversation was not, after all, more 
 entertaining than anecdotes of the victories and 
 heroism of dead and buried Spaniards. 
 
 " That Captain Stuart," said Hope to her sis 
 ter, as they drove home together through the 
 moonlight, " I like him very much. He seems 
 to have such a simple idea of what is right and 
 good. It is like a child talking. Why, I am 
 really much older than he is in everything but 
 years why is that ? " 
 
 " I suppose it s because we always talk before 
 you as though you were a grown-up person," 
 said her sister. " But I agree with you about 
 Captain Stuart ; only, why is he down here ? 
 If he is a gentleman, why is he not in his own 
 army ? Was he forced to leave it ? " 
 
 " Oh, he seems to have a very good position 
 here," said Mr. Langham. " In England, at 
 his age, he would be only a second-lieutenant. 
 Don t you remember what the President said, 
 that he would trust him with the command of 
 his army? That s certainly a responsible posi 
 tion, and it shows great confidence in him." 
 
 " Not so great, it seems to me," said King, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 123 
 
 carelessly, "as he is showing him in making 
 him the guardian of his hearth and home. Did 
 you hear what he said to-day ? 6 He guards my 
 home and my family. I don t think a man s 
 home and family are among the things he can 
 afford to leave to the protection of stray Eng 
 lish subalterns. From all I hear, it would be 
 better if President Alvarez did less plotting and 
 protected his own house himself." 
 
 " The young man did not strike me as the 
 sort of person," said Mr. Langham, warmly, 
 " who would be likely to break his word to the 
 man who is feeding him and sheltering him, 
 and whose uniform he wears. I don t think 
 the President s home is in any danger from 
 within. Madame Alvarez " 
 
 Clay turned suddenly in his place on the box- 
 seat of the carriage, where he had been sitting., 
 a silent, misty statue in the moonlight, and 
 peered down on those in the carriage below him. 
 
 " Madame Alvarez needs no protection, as you 
 were about to say, Mr. Langham," he inter 
 rupted, quickly. " Those who know her could 
 say nothing against her, and those who do not 
 know her would not so far forget themselves as 
 to dare to do it. Have you noticed the effect 
 of the moonlight on the walls of the convent ? " 
 he continued, gently. " It makes them quite 
 white." 
 
124 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " No," exclaimed Mr. Langham and King, 
 hurriedly, as they both turned and gazed with 
 absorbing interest at the convent on the hills 
 above them. 
 
 Before the sisters went to sleep that night 
 Hope came to the door of her sister s room and 
 watched Alice admiringly as she sat before the 
 mirror brushing out her hair. 
 
 " I think it s going to be fine down here ; 
 don t you, Alice?" she asked. "Everything 
 is so different from what it is at home, and so 
 beautiful, and I like the men we ve met. Is n t 
 that Mr. Mac Williams funny and he is so 
 tough. And Captain Stuart it is a pity he s 
 shy. The only thing he seems to be able to talk 
 about is Mr. Clay. He worships Mr. Clay ! " 
 
 " Yes," assented her sister, " I noticed on the 
 balcony that you seemed to have found some 
 way to make him speak." 
 
 " Well, that was it. He likes to talk about Mr. 
 Clay, and I wanted to listen. Oh ! he is a fine 
 man. He has done more exciting things " 
 
 " Who ? Captain Stuart ? " 
 
 " No Mr. Clay. He s been in three real 
 wars and about a dozen little ones, and he s 
 built thousands of miles of railroads, I don t 
 know how many thousands, but Captain Stuart 
 knows ; and he built the highest bridge in Peru. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 125 
 
 It swings in the air across a chasm, and it 
 rocks when the wind blows. And the German 
 Emperor made him a Baron." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "I don t know. I couldn t understand. It 
 was something about plans for fortifications. 
 He, Mr. Clay, put up a fort in the harbor of Rio 
 Janeiro during a revolution, and the officers on a 
 German man-of-war saw it and copied the plans, 
 and the Germans built one just like it, only 
 larger, on the Baltic, and when the Emperor 
 found out whose design it was, he sent Mr. Clay 
 the order of something-or-other, and made him 
 a Baron." 
 
 "Really," exclaimed the elder sister, " is n t 
 he afraid that some one will marry him for his 
 title?" 
 
 "Oh, well, you can laugh, but I think it s 
 pretty fine, and so does Ted," added Hope, with 
 the air of one who propounds a final argument. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon," laughed Alice. 
 " If Ted approves we must all go down and 
 worship." 
 
 "And father, too," continued Hope. "He 
 said he thought Mr. Clay was one of the most 
 remarkable men for his years that he had ever 
 met." 
 
 Miss Langham s eyes were hidden by the 
 
126 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 masses of her black hair that she had shaken 
 over her face, and she said nothing. 
 
 " And I liked the way he shut Reggie King 
 up too," continued Hope, stoutly, " when he and 
 father were talking that way about Madame 
 Alvarez." 
 
 " Yes, upon my word," exclaimed her sister, 
 impatiently tossing her hair back over her 
 shoulders. " I really cannot see that Madame 
 Alvarez is in need of any champion. I thought 
 Mr. Clay made it very much worse by rushing in 
 the way he did. Why should he take it upon 
 himself to correct a man as old as my father ? " 
 
 " I suppose because Madame Alvarez is a 
 friend of his," Hope answered. 
 
 " My dear child, a beautiful woman can always 
 find some man to take her part," said Miss 
 Langham. " But I ve no doubt," she added, 
 rising and kissing her sister good-night, "that 
 he is all that your Captain Stuart thinks him ; 
 but he is not going to keep us awake any longer, 
 is he, even if he does show such gallant interest 
 in old ladies?" 
 
 " Old ladies!" exclaimed Hope in amazement. 
 " Why, Alice ! " 
 
 But her sister only laughed and waved her 
 out of the room, and Hope walked away frown 
 ing in much perplexity. 
 
THE visit to the city was imitated on the three 
 succeeding evenings by similar excursions. On 
 one night they returned to the plaza, and the 
 other two were spent in drifting down the har 
 bor and along the coast on King s yacht. The 
 President and Madame Alvarez were King s 
 guests on one of these moonlight excursions, 
 and were saluted by the proper number of guns, 
 and their native band played on the forward 
 deck. Clay felt that King held the centre of 
 the stage for the time being, and obliterated 
 himself completely. He thought of his own 
 paddle-wheel tug-boat that he had had painted 
 and gilded in her honor, and smiled grimly. 
 
 MacWilliams approached him as he sat lean 
 ing back on the rail and looking up, with the 
 eye of a man who had served before the mast, at 
 the lace-work of spars and rigging above him. 
 MacWilliams came toward him on tiptoe and 
 dropped carefully into a wicker chair. There 
 don t seem to be any door-mats on this boat," 
 
128 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 he said. " In every other respect she seems 
 fitted out quite complete; all the latest maga 
 zines and enamelled bath-tubs, and Chinese 
 waiter-boys with cock-tails up their sleeves. But 
 there ought to be a mat at the top of each of 
 those stairways that hang over the side, other 
 wise some one is sure to soil the deck. Have 
 you been down in the engine-room yet?" he 
 asked. " Well, don t go, then," he advised, sol 
 emnly. " It will only make you feel badly. I 
 have asked the Admiral if I can send those half- 
 breed engine drivers over to-morrow to show 
 them what a clean engine-room looks like. I ve 
 just been talking to the chief. His name s Mac- 
 Kenzie, and I told him I was Scotch myself, and 
 he said it was a greet pleesure to find a gentle 
 man so well acquainted with the movements of 
 machinery. He thought I was one of King s 
 friends, I guess, so I did n t tell him I pulled a 
 lever for a living myself. I gave him a cigar 
 though, and he said Thankee, sir, and touched 
 his cap to me." 
 
 Mac Williams chuckled at the recollection, and 
 crossed his legs comfortably. " One of King s 
 cigars, too," he said. " Real Havana ; he leaves 
 them lying around loose in the cabin. Have 
 you had one ? Ted Langham and I took about a 
 box between us." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 129 
 
 Clay made no answer, and Mac Williams set 
 tled himself contentedly in the great wicker 
 chair and puffed grandly on a huge cigar. 
 
 " It s demoralizing, is n t it ? " he said at last. 
 
 " What ? " asked Clay, absently. 
 
 "Oh, this associating with white people agai4, 
 as we re doing now. It spoils you for tortillas 
 and rice, does n t it ? It s going to be great fun 
 while it lasts, but when they ve all gone, and 
 Ted s gone, too, and the yacht s vanished, and 
 we fall back to tramping around the plaza twice 
 a week, it won t be gay, will it ? No ; it won t be 
 gay. We re having the spree of our lives now, 
 I guess, but there s going to be a difference in 
 the morning." 
 
 " Oh, it s worth a headache, I think," said 
 Clay, as he shrugged his shoulders and walked 
 away to find Miss Langham. 
 
 The day set for the visit to the mines rose 
 bright and clear. Mac Williams had rigged out 
 his single passenger-car with rugs and cushions, 
 and flags flew from its canvas top that flapped 
 and billowed in the wind of the slow-moving 
 train. Their observation-car, as Mac Williams 
 termed it, was placed in front of the locomotive, 
 and they were pushed gently along the narrow 
 rails between forests of Manaca palms, and 
 through swamps and jungles, and at times over 
 9 
 
130 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 the limestone formation along the coast, where 
 the waves dashed as high as the smoke-stack 
 of the locomotive, covering the excursionists 
 with a sprinkling of white spray. Thousands 
 of land-crabs, painted red and black and yellow, 
 scrambled with a rattle like dead men s hones 
 across the rails to be crushed by the hundreds 
 under the wheels of the Juggernaut ; great liz 
 ards ran from sunny rocks at the sound of their 
 approach, and a deer bounded across the tracks 
 fifty feet in front of the cow-catcher. MacWil- 
 liams escorted Hope out into the cab of the 
 locomotive, and taught her how to increase and 
 slacken the speed of the engine, until she 
 showed an unruly desire to throw the lever open 
 altogether and shoot them off the rails into the 
 ocean beyond. 
 
 Clay sat at the back of the car with Miss 
 Langham, and told her and her father of the 
 difficulties with which young MacWilliams had 
 had to contend. Miss Langham found her chief 
 pleasure in noting the attention which her father 
 gave to all that Clay had to tell him. Knowing 
 her father as she did, and being familiar with 
 his manner toward other men, she knew that he 
 was treating Clay with unusual consideration. 
 And this pleased her greatly, for it justified her 
 own interest in him. She regarded Clay as a 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 131 
 
 discovery of her own, but she was glad to have 
 her opinion of him shared by others. 
 
 Their coming was a great event in the his 
 tory of the mines. Kirkland, the foreman, and 
 Chapman, who handled the dynamite, Weimct , 
 the Consul, and the native doctor, who cared 
 for the fever-stricken and the casualties, were all 
 at the station to meet them in the whitest of white 
 duck and with a bunch of ponies to carry them 
 on their tour of inspection, and the village of 
 mud-cabins and zinc-huts that stood clear of the 
 bare sun-baked earth on whitewashed wooden 
 piles was as clean as Clay s hundred policemen 
 could sweep it. Mr. Langharn rode in advance 
 of the cavalcade, and the head of each of the 
 different departments took his turn in riding at 
 his side, and explained what had been done, and 
 showed him the proud result. The village was 
 empty, except for the families of the native 
 workmen and the ownerless dogs, the scaven 
 gers of the colony, that snarled and barked and 
 ran leaping in front of the ponies heads. 
 
 Rising abruptly above the zinc village, lay the 
 first of the five great hills, with its open front 
 cut into great terraces, on which the men clung 
 like flies on the side of a wall, some of them in 
 groups around an opening, or in couples pound 
 ing a steel bar that a fellow-workman turned in 
 
132 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 his bare hands, while others gathered about the 
 panting steam-drills that shook the solid rock 
 with fierce, short blows, and hid the men about 
 them in a throbbing curtain of steam. Self- 
 important little dummy-engines, dragging long 
 trains of ore-cars, rolled and rocked on the un 
 even surface of the ground, and swung around 
 corners with warning screeches of their whistles. 
 They could see, on peaks outlined against the 
 sky, the signal-men waving their red flags, and 
 then plunging down the mountain side out of 
 danger, as the earth rumbled and shook and 
 vomited out a shower of stones and rubbish into 
 the calm hot air. It was a spectacle of desper 
 ate activity and puzzling to the uninitiated, for 
 it seemed to be scattered over an unlimited ex 
 tent, with no head nor direction, and with each 
 man, or each group of men, working alone, like 
 rag-pickers on a heap of ashes. 
 
 After the first half-hour of curious interest 
 Miss Langham admitted to herself that she was 
 disappointed. She confessed she had hoped that 
 Clay would explain the meaning of the mines to 
 her, and act as her escort over the mountains 
 which he was blowing into pieces. 
 
 But it was King, somewhat bored by the 
 ceaseless noise and heat, and her brother, inco 
 herently enthusiastic, who rode at her side, while 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 133 
 
 Clay moved on in advance and seemed to have 
 forgotten her existence. She watched him 
 pointing up at the openings in the mountains 
 and down at the ore-road, or stooping to pick 
 up a piece of ore from the ground in cow 
 boy fashion, without leaving his saddle, and 
 pounding it on the pommel before he passed it 
 to the others. And, again, he would stand for 
 minutes at a time up to his boot-tops in the 
 sliding waste, with his bridle rein over his arm 
 and his thumbs in his belt, listening to what his 
 lieutenants were saying, and glancing quickly 
 from them to Mr. Langham to see if he were 
 following the technicalities of their speech. All 
 of the men who had welcomed the appearance 
 of the women on their arrival with such obvi 
 ous delight and with so much embarrassment 
 seemed now as oblivious of their presence as 
 Clay himself. 
 
 Miss Langham pushed her horse up into the 
 group beside Hope, who had kept her pony close 
 at Clay s side from the beginning ; but she could 
 not make out what it was they were saying, and 
 no one seemed to think it necessary to explain. 
 She caught Clay s eye at last and smiled brightly 
 at him ; but, after staring at her for fully a min 
 ute, until Kirkland had finished speaking, she 
 heard him say, " Yes, that s it exactly ; in open- 
 
134 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 face workings there is no other way/ and so 
 showed her that he had not been even conscious 
 of her presence. But a few minutes later she 
 saw him look up at Hope, folding his arms 
 across his chest tightly and shaking his head. 
 " You see it was the only thing to do," she 
 heard him say, as though he were defending 
 some course of action, and -as though Hope 
 were one of those who must be convinced. " If 
 we had cut the opening on the first level, there 
 was the danger of the whole thing sinking 
 in, so we had to begin to clear away a,t the top 
 and work down. That s why I ordered the 
 bucket-trolley. As it turned out, we saved 
 money by it." 
 
 Hope nodded her head slightly. " That s 
 what I told father when Ted wrote us about it," 
 she said ; " but you have n t done it at Mount 
 Washington." 
 
 "Oh, but it s like this, Miss " Kirkland 
 replied, eagerly. " It s because Washington is 
 a solider foundation. We can cut openings all 
 over it and they won t cave, but this hill is 
 most all rubbish ; it s the poorest stuff in the 
 mines." 
 
 Hope nodded her head again and crowded her 
 pony on after the moving group, but her sister 
 and King did not follow. King looked at her 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 135 
 
 and smiled. " Hope is very enthusiastic," he 
 said. " Where did she pick it up?" 
 
 " Oh, she and father used to go over it in his 
 study last winter after Ted came down here," 
 Miss Langham answered, with a touch of im 
 patience in her tone. " Is n t there some place 
 where we can go to get out of this heat ? " 
 
 Weimer, the Consul heard her and led her 
 back to Kirkland s bungalow, that hung like an 
 eagle s nest from a projecting cliff. From its 
 porch they could look down the valley over the 
 greater part of the mines, and beyond to where 
 the Caribbean Sea lay flashing in the heat. 
 
 " I saw very few Americans down there, 
 Weimer," said King. " I thought Clay had 
 imported a lot of them." 
 
 " About three hundred altogether, wild Irish 
 men and negroes," said the Consul ; " but we 
 use the native soldiers chiefly. They can stand 
 the climate better, and, besides," he added, 
 " they act as a reserve in case of trouble. They 
 are Mendoza s men, and Clay is trying to win 
 them away from him." 
 
 " I don t understand," said King. 
 
 Weimer looked around him and waited until 
 Kirkland s servant had deposited a tray full of 
 bottles and glasses on a table near them, and 
 had departed. "The talk is," he said, " that 
 
136 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Alvarez means to proclaim a dictatorship in his 
 own favor before the spring elections. You ve 
 heard of that, have n t you ? " King shook his 
 head. 
 
 " Oh, tell us about it," said Miss Langham ; " I 
 should so like to be in plots and conspiracies." 
 
 " Well, they re rather common down here," 
 continued the Consul, " but this one ought to 
 interest you especially, Miss Langham, because 
 it is a woman who is at the head of it. Madame 
 Alvarez, you know, was the Couirtcss Manueleta 
 Hernandez before her marriage. She belongs 
 to one of the oldest families in Spain. Alvarez 
 married her in Madrid, when he was Minister 
 there, and when he returned to run for Presi 
 dent, she came with him. She s a tremen 
 dously ambitious woman, and they do say she 
 wants to convert the republic into a monarchy, 
 and make her husband King, or, more properly 
 speaking, make herself Queen. Of course that s 
 absurd, but she is supposed to be plotting to 
 turn Olancho into a sort of dependency of Spain, 
 as it was long ago, and that s why she is so 
 unpopular." 
 
 "Indeed?" interrupted Miss Langham, "I 
 did not know that she was unpopular." 
 
 "Oh, rather. Why, her party is called the 
 Royalist Party already, and only a week before 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 137 
 
 you came the Liberals plastered the city with 
 denunciatory placards against her, calling on 
 the people to drive her out of the country." 
 
 " What cowards to fight a woman ! " ex 
 claimed Miss Langham. 
 
 " Well, she began it first, you see," said the 
 Consul. 
 
 " Who is the leader of the fight against her ? " 
 asked King. 
 
 " General Mendoza ; he is commander-in- 
 chief and has the greater part of the army with 
 him, but the other candidate, old General Rojas, 
 is the popular choice and the best of the three. 
 He is Yice-President now, and if the people 
 were ever given a fair chance to vote for the 
 man they want, he would unquestionably be the 
 next President The mass of the people are sick 
 of revolutions. They ve had enough of them, 
 but they will have to go through another before 
 long, and if it turns against Dr. Alvarez, I m 
 afraid Mr. Langham will have hard work to hold 
 these mines. You see, Mendoza has already 
 threatened to seize the whole plant and turn it 
 into a Government monopoly." 
 
 " And if the other one, General Rojas, gets 
 into power, will he seize the mines, too ? " 
 
 " No, he is honest, strange to relate," laughed 
 Weimer, " but he won t get in. Alvarez will 
 
138 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 make himself dictator, or Mcndoza will make 
 himself President. That s why Clay treats the 
 soldiers here so well. He thinks he may need 
 them against Meiidoza. You may be turning 
 your saluting-gun on the city yet, Commodore," 
 he added, smiling, " or, what is more likely, 
 you 11 need the yacht to take Miss Langham and 
 the rest of the family out of the country." 
 
 King smiled and Miss Langham regarded 
 Wei me r with flattering interest. "Pve got a 
 quick-firing gun below decks," said King, " that 
 I used in the Malaysian Peninsula on a junkful 
 of Black Flags, and I think I ll have it brought 
 up. And there are about thirty of my men on 
 the yacht who would n t ask for their wages in 
 a year if I d let them go on shore and mix up 
 in a fight. When do you suppose this " 
 
 A heavy step and the jingle of spurs on the 
 bare floor of the bungalow startled the conspira 
 tors, and they turned and gazed guiltily out at 
 the mountain-tops above them as Clay came 
 hurrying out upon the porch. 
 
 " They told me you were here," he said, 
 speaking to Miss Langham. "I m so sorry it 
 tired you. I should have remembered it is a 
 rough trip when you re not used to it," he 
 added, remorsefully. " But I m glad Weimer 
 was here to take care of you." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 139 
 
 " It was just a trifle hot and noisy," said Miss 
 Langham, smiling sweetly. She put her hand 
 to her forehead with an expression of patient 
 suffering. " It made my head ache a little, but 
 it was most interesting." She added, " You are 
 certainly to be congratulated on your work." 
 
 Clay glanced at her doubtfully with a troub 
 led look, and turned away his eyes to the busy 
 scene below him. He was greatly hurt that she 
 should have cared so little, and indignant at 
 himself for being so unjust. Why should he 
 expect a woman to find interest in that hive of 
 noise and sweating energy ? But even as he 
 stood arguing with himself his eyes fell on a 
 slight figure sitting erect and graceful on her 
 pony s back, her white habit soiled and stained 
 red with the ore of the mines, and green where 
 it had crushed against the leaves. She was coin 
 ing slowly up the trail with a body-guard of half 
 a dozen men crowding closely around her, telling 
 her the difficulties of the work, and explaining 
 their successes, and eager for a share of her 
 quick sympathy. 
 
 Clay s eyes fixed themselves on the picture, 
 and he smiled at its significance. Miss Lang- 
 ham noticed the look, and glanced below to see 
 what it was that had so interested him, and 
 then back at him again. He was still watching 
 
140 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 the approaching cavalcade intently, and smiling 
 to himself. Miss Langham drew in her breath 
 and raised her head and shoulders quickly, like 
 a deer that hears a footstep in the forest, and 
 when Hope presently stepped out upon the porch, 
 she turned quickly toward her, and regarded her 
 steadily, as though she were a stranger to her, 
 and as though she were trying to see her with the 
 eyes of one who looked at her for the first time. 
 
 " Hope ! " she said, " do look at your dress ! " 
 
 Hope s face was glowing with the unusual 
 exercise, and her eyes were brilliant. Her hair 
 had slipped down beneath the visor of her 
 helmet. 
 
 " I am so tired and so hungry." She was 
 laughing and looking directly at Clay. " It has 
 been a wonderful thing to have seen," she said, 
 tugging at her heavy gauntlet, " and to have 
 done," she added. She pulled off her glove and 
 held out her hand to Clay, moist and scarred 
 with the pressure of the reins. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, simply. 
 
 The master of the mines took it with a quick 
 rush of gratitude, and looking into the girl s 
 eyes, saw something there that startled him, so 
 that he glanced quickly past her at the circle of 
 booted men grouped in the door behind her. 
 They were each smiling in appreciation of the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 141 
 
 tableaux ; her father and Ted, Mac Williams and 
 Kirkland, and all the others who had helped 
 him. They seemed to envy, but not to grudge, 
 the whole credit which the girl had given to 
 him. 
 
 Clay thought, " Why could it not have been 
 the other ? But he said aloud, " Thank you. 
 You have given me my reward." 
 
 Miss Langham looked down impatiently into 
 the valley below, and found that it seemed more 
 hot and noisy, and more grimy than before. 
 
VI 
 
 CLAY believed that Alice Langham s visit to 
 the mines had opened his eyes fully to vast dif 
 ferences between them. He laughed and railed 
 at himself for having dared to imagine that he 
 was in a position to care for her. Confident as 
 he was at times, and sure as he was of his 
 ability in certain directions, he was uneasy and 
 fearful when he matched himself against a man 
 of gentle birth and gentle breeding, and one 
 who, like King, was part of a world of which he 
 knew little, and to which, in his ignorance con 
 cerning it, he attributed many advantages that 
 it did not possess. He believed that he would 
 always lack the mysterious something which 
 these others held by right of inheritance. He 
 was still young and full of the illusions of 
 youth, and so gave false values to his own qual 
 ities, and values equally false to the qualities he 
 lacked. For the next week he avoided Miss 
 Langham, unless there were other people pres- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 143 
 
 ent, and whenever she showed him special favor, 
 he hastily recalled to his mind her failure to 
 sympathize in his work, and assured himself 
 that if she could not interest herself in the en 
 gineer, he did not care to have her interested in 
 the man. Other women had found him attract 
 ive in himself ; they had cared for his strength 
 of will and mind, and because he was good to 
 look at. But he determined that this one must 
 sympathize with his work in the world, no mat 
 ter how unpicturesque it might seem to her. 
 His work was the best of him, he assured him 
 self, and he would stand or fall with it. 
 
 It was a week after the visit to the mines that 
 President Alvarez gave a great ball in honor of 
 the Langhams, to which all of the important 
 people of Olancho, and the Foreign Ministers 
 were invited. Miss Langham met Clay on the 
 afternoon of the day set for the ball, as she was 
 going down the hill to join Hope and her father 
 at dinner on the yacht. 
 
 " Are you not coming, too ? " she asked. 
 
 " I wish I could," Clay answered. " King 
 asked me, but a steamer-load of new ma 
 chinery arrived to-day, and I have to see it 
 through the Custom-house." 
 
 Miss Langham gave an impatient little laugh, 
 and shook her head. " You might wait until 
 
144 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 we were gone before you bother with your ma 
 chinery," she said. 
 
 " When you are gone I won t be in a state of 
 mind to attend to machinery or anything else," 
 Clay answered. 
 
 Miss Langham seemed so far encouraged by 
 this speech that she seated herself in the boat- 
 house at the end of the wharf. She pushed her 
 mantilla back from her face and looked up at 
 him, smiling brightly. 
 
 " The time has come, the walrus said/ " she 
 quoted, " to talk of many things. " 
 
 Clay laughed and dropped down beside her. 
 " Well ? " he said. 
 
 " You have been rather unkind to me this last 
 week," the girl began, with her eyes fixed stead 
 ily on his. " And that day at the mines when 
 I counted on you so, you acted abominably." 
 
 Clay s face showed so plainly his surprise at 
 this charge, which he thought he only had the 
 right to make, that Miss Langham stopped. 
 
 " I don t understand," said Clay, quietly. 
 " How did I treat you abominably ? " 
 
 He had taken her so seriously that Miss 
 Langham dropped her lighter tone and spoke in 
 one more kindly : 
 
 " I went out there to see your work at its 
 best. I was only interested in going because 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 145 
 
 it was your work, and because it was you 
 who had done it all, and I expected that 
 you would try to explain it to me and help me 
 to understand, but you did n t. You treated 
 me as though I had no interest in the matter at 
 all, as though I was not capable of understand 
 ing it. You did not seem to care whether I was 
 interested or not. In fact, you forgot me alto 
 gether." 
 
 Clay exhibited no evidence of a reproving 
 conscience. "I am sorry you had a stupid 
 time," he said, gravely. 
 
 " I did not mean that, and you know I did n t 
 mean that," the girl answered. "I wanted to 
 hear about it from you, because you did it. I 
 wasn t interested so much in what had been 
 done, as I was in the man who had accom 
 plished it." 
 
 Clay shrugged his shoulders impatiently, and 
 looked across at Miss Larighain with a troubled 
 smile. 
 
 " But that s just what I don t want," he said. 
 " Can t you see ? These mines and other mines 
 like them are all I have in the world. They are 
 my only excuse for having lived in it so long. 
 I want to feel that I ve done something outside 
 of myself, and when you say that you like me 
 personally, it s as little satisfaction to me as it 
 10 
 
16 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 must be to a woman to be congratulated on her 
 beauty, or on her line voice. That is nothing she 
 has done herself. T should like you to value 
 what I have done, not what I happen to be." 
 
 Miss Langliam turned her eyes to the harbor, 
 and it was some short time before she answered. 
 
 "You are a very difficult person to please," 
 she said, " and most exacting. Asa rule men 
 are satisfied to be liked for any reason. I con 
 fess frankly, since you insist upon it, that I do 
 not rise to the point of appreciating your work 
 as the others do. I suppose it is a fault," she 
 continued, with an air that plainly said that she 
 considered it, on the contrary, something of a 
 virtue. " And if I knew more about it techni 
 cally, I might see more in it to admire. But I 
 am looking farther on for better things from 
 you. The friends who help us the most are not 
 always those who consider us perfect, are 
 they ? " she asked, with a kindly smile. She 
 raised her eyes to the great ore-pier that 
 stretched out across the water, the one ugly blot 
 in the scene of natural beauty about them. " I 
 tb ink that is all very well," she said ; " but 
 I certainly expect you to do more than that. 
 I have met many remarkable men in all parts of 
 the world, and I know what a strong man is, 
 and you have one of the strongest personalities 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 147 
 
 I have known. But you can t mean that you 
 are content to stop with this. You should be 
 something bigger and more wide-reaching and 
 more lasting. Indeed, it hurts me to see you 
 wasting your time here over my father s inter 
 ests. You should exert that same energy on a 
 broader map. You could make yourself any 
 thing you chose. At home you would be your 
 party s leader in politics, or you could be a 
 great general, or a great financier. I say this 
 because I know there are better things in you, 
 and because I want you to make the most of 
 your talents. I am anxious to see you put your 
 powers to something worth while." 
 
 Miss Langham s voice carried with it such a 
 tone of sincerity that she almost succeeded in 
 deceiving herself. And yet she would have 
 hardly cared to explain just why she had 
 reproached the man before her after this fash 
 ion. For she knew that when she spoke as she 
 had done, she was beating about to find some 
 reason that would justify her in not caring for 
 him, as she knew she could care as she would 
 not allow herself to care. The man at her side 
 had won her interest from the first, and later 
 had occupied her thoughts so entirely, that it 
 troubled her peace of mind. Yet she would not 
 let her feeling for him wax and grow stronger, 
 
148 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 but kept it down. And she was trying now to 
 persuade herself that she did this because there 
 was something lacking in him and not in her. 
 
 She was almost angry with him for being so 
 much to her and for not being more acceptable 
 in little things, like the other men she knew. 
 So she found this fault with him in order that 
 she might justify her own lack of feeling. 
 
 But Clay, who only heard the words and 
 could not go back of them to find the motive, 
 could not know this. He sat perfectly still when 
 she had finished and looked steadily out across 
 the harbor. His eyes fell on the ugly ore-pier, 
 and he winced and uttered a short grim laugh. 
 
 " That s true, what you say," he began, " I 
 haven t done much. You are quite right. 
 Only " he looked up at her curiously and 
 smiled " only you should not have been the 
 one to tell me of it." 
 
 Miss Langham had been so far carried away 
 by her own point of view that she had not con 
 sidered Clay, and now that she saw what mis 
 chief she had done, she gave a quick gasp of 
 regret, and leaned forward as though to add 
 some explanation to what she had said. But 
 Clay stopped her. " I mean by that," he said, 
 " that the great part of the inspiration I have 
 had to do what little I have done came from 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 149 
 
 you. You were a sort of promise of something 
 better to me. You were more of a type than 
 an individual woman, but your picture, the one 
 I carry in my watch, meant all that part of life 
 that I have never known, the sweetness and the 
 nobleness and grace of civilization, something 
 I hoped I would some day have time to enjoy. 
 So you see," he added, with an uncertain laugh, 
 " it s less pleasant to hear that I have failed to 
 make the most of myself from you than from 
 almost any one else." 
 
 " But, Mr. Clay," protested the girl, anxiously, 
 " I think you have done wonderfully well. I 
 only said that I wanted you to do more. You 
 are so young and you have - 
 
 Clay did not hear her. He was leaning for 
 ward looking moodily out across the water, with 
 his folded arms clasped across his knees. 
 
 " I have not made the most of myself," he 
 repeated ; " that is what you said." He spoke 
 the words as though she had delivered a sen 
 tence. " You don t think well of what I have 
 done, of what I am." 
 
 He drew in his breath and shook his head 
 with a hopeless laugh, and leaned back against 
 the railing of the boat-house with the weariness 
 in his attitude of a man who has given up after 
 a long struggle. 
 
150 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " No," he said with a bitter flippancy in his 
 voice, " I don t amount to much. But, my God ! " 
 he laughed, and turning his head away, " when 
 you think what I was ! This does n t seem much 
 to you, and it does n t seem much to me now 
 that I have your point of view on it, but when 
 I remember ! " Clay stopped again and pressed 
 his lips together and shook his head. His- half- 
 closed eyes, that seemed to be looking back into 
 his past, lighted as they fell on King s white 
 yacht, and he raised his arm and pointed to it 
 with a wave of the hand. u When I was six 
 teen I was a sailor before the mast/ he said, 
 " the sort of sailor that King s crew out there 
 would n t recognize in the same profession. I 
 was of so little account that I ve been knocked 
 the length of the main deck at the end of the 
 mate s fist, and left to lie bleeding in the scup 
 pers for dead. I had n t a thing to my name 
 then but the clothes I wore, and I ve had to go 
 aloft in a hurricane and cling to a swinging 
 rope with my bare toes and pull at a wet sheet 
 until my finger-nails broke and started in their 
 sockets ; and I ve been a cow-boy, with no 
 companions for six months of the year but ei ( o;ht 
 thousand head of cattle and men as dumb and 
 untamed as the steers themselves. I ve sat in 
 my saddle night after night, with nothing over- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 151 
 
 head but the stars, and no sound but the noise of 
 the steers breathing in their sleep. The women 
 I knew were Indian squaws, and the girls of 
 the sailor s dance-houses and the gambling-hells 
 of Sioux City and Abilene, and Callao and Port 
 Sa id. That was what I was and those were my 
 companions. Why!" he laughed, rising and 
 striding across the boat-house with his hands 
 locked behind him, "I ve fought on the mud 
 floor of a Mexican shack, with a naked knife in 
 my hand, for my last dollar. I was as low and 
 as desperate as that. And now " Clay lifted 
 his head and smiled. "Now," he said, in a 
 lower voice and addressing Miss Langham with 
 a return of his usual grave politeness, " I am 
 able to sit beside you and talk to you. I have 
 risen to that. I am quite content." 
 
 He paused and looked at Miss Langham un 
 certainly for a few moments as though in doubt 
 as to whether she would understand him if he 
 continued. 
 
 "And though it means nothing to you," he 
 said, " and though as you say I am here as your 
 father s employee, there are other places, per 
 haps, where I am better known. In Edinburgh 
 or Berlin or Paris, if you were to ask the people 
 of my own profession, they could tell you some 
 thing of me. If I wished it, I could drop this 
 
152 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 active work to-morrow and continue as an ad 
 viser, as an expert, but I like the active part 
 better. I like doing things myself. I don t say, 
 4 1 am a salaried servant of Mr. Langham s; I 
 put it differently. I say, 4 There are five moun 
 tains of iron. You are to take them up and 
 transport them from South America to North 
 America, where they will be turned into rail 
 roads and ironclads. That s my way of look 
 ing at it. It s better to bind a laurel to the 
 plough than to call yourself hard names. It 
 makes your work easier almost noble. Can 
 not you see it that way, too ? " 
 
 Before Miss Langham could answer, a depre 
 catory cough from one side of the open boat- 
 house startled them, and turning they saw 
 Mac Williams coming toward them. They had 
 been so intent upon what Clay was saying that 
 he had approached them over the soft sand 
 of the beach without their knowing it. Miss 
 Langham welcomed his arrival with evident 
 pleasure. 
 
 "The launch is waiting for you at the end of 
 the pier," MacWilliams said. Miss Langham 
 rose and the three walked together down the 
 length of the wharf, MacWilliams moving briskly 
 in advance in order to enable them to continue 
 the conversation he had interrupted, but they 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 153 
 
 followed close behind him, as though neither of 
 them were desirous of such an opportunity. 
 
 Hope and King had both come for Miss Lang- 
 ham, and while the latter was helping her to a 
 place on the cushions, and repeating his regrets 
 that the men were not coming also, Hope started 
 the launch, with a brisk ringing of bells and a 
 whirl of the wheel and a smile over her shoulder 
 at the figures on the wharf. 
 
 " Why did n t you go ? " said Clay ; " you have 
 no business at the Custom-house." 
 
 " Neither have you," said Mac Williams. " But 
 I guess we both understand. There s no good 
 pushing your luck too far." 
 
 " What do you mean by that this time ? " 
 
 " Why, what have we to do with all of this ? " 
 cried Mac Williams. " It s what I keep telling 
 you every day. We re not in that class, and 
 you re only making it harder for yourself when 
 they ve gone. I call it cruelty to animals my 
 self, having women like that around. Up North, 
 where everybody s white, you don t notice it so 
 much, but down here Lord ! " 
 
 "That s absurd," Clay answered. "Why 
 should you turn your back on civilization when 
 it comes to you, just because you re not going 
 back to civilization by the next steamer ? Every 
 person you meet either helps you or hurts you. 
 
154 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Those girls help us, even if they do make the 
 life here seem bare and mean. 
 
 "Bare and mean!" repeated Mae Williams in 
 credulously. " I think that s just what they 
 don t do. I like it all the better because they re 
 mixed up in it. I never took so much interest 
 in your mines until she took to riding over them, 
 and I did n t think great shakes of my old ore- 
 road, either, but now that she s got to acting 
 as engineer, it s sort of nickel-plated the whole 
 outfit. I m going to name the new engine after 
 her when it gets here if her old man will 
 let me." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Miss Langham has n t 
 been to the mines but once, has she ?" 
 
 " Miss Langham ! " exclaimed Mac Williams. 
 " No, I mean the other, Miss Hope. She comes 
 out with Ted nearly every day now, and she s 
 learning how to run a locomotive. Just for 
 fun, you know," he added, reassuringly. 
 
 " I did n t suppose she had any intention of 
 joining the Brotherhood," said Clay. " So she s 
 been out every day, has she? I like that," he 
 commented, enthusiastically. " She s a fine, 
 sweet girl." 
 
 " Fine, sweet girl ! " growled Mac Williams. 
 " I should hope so. She s the best. They don t 
 make them any better than that, and just think, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 155 
 
 if she s like that now, what will she be when 
 she s grown up, when she s learned a few 
 things? Now her sister. You can see just 
 what her sister will be at thirty, and at fifty, 
 and at eighty. She s thoroughbred and she s 
 the most beautiful woman to look at I ever saw 
 but, my son she is too careful. She has n t 
 any illusions, and no sense of humor. And a 
 woman with no illusions and no sense of humor 
 is going to be monotonous. You can t teach 
 her anything. You can t imagine yourself tell 
 ing her anything she does n t know. The things 
 we think important don t reach her at all. 
 They re not in her line, and in everything else 
 she knows more than we could ever guess at. 
 But that Miss Hope ! It s a privilege to show 
 her about. She wants to see everything, and 
 learn everything, and she goes poking her head 
 into openings and down shafts like a little fox 
 terrier. And she 11 sit still and listen with her 
 eyes wide open and tears in them, too, and she 
 does n t know it until you can t talk yourself 
 for just looking at her." 
 
 Clay rose and moved on to the house in 
 silence. He was glad that MacWilliams had 
 interrupted him when he did. He wondered 
 whether he understood Alice Langham after all. 
 He had seen many fine ladies before during his 
 
156 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 brief visits to London, and Berlin, and Vienna, 
 and they had shown him favor. He had known 
 other women not so fine. Spanish-American 
 senoritas through Central and South America, 
 the wives and daughters of English merchants 
 exiled along the Pacific coast, whose fair skin 
 and yellow hair whitened and bleached under 
 the hot tropical suns. He had known many 
 women, and he could have quoted 
 
 " Trials and troubles amany, 
 
 Have proved me ; 
 
 One or two women, God bless them 1 
 Have loved me." 
 
 But the woman he was to marry must have 
 all the things he lacked. She must fill out 
 and complete him where he was wanting. 
 This woman possessed all of these things. She 
 appealed to every ambition and to every taste 
 he cherished, and yet he knew that he had hes 
 itated and mistrusted her, when he should have 
 declared himself eagerly and vehemently, and 
 forced her to listen with all the strength of his 
 will. 
 
 Miss Langham dropped among the soft cush 
 ions of the launch with a sense of having been 
 rescued from herself and of delight in finding 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 157 
 
 refuge again in her own environment. The 
 sight of King standing in the bow beside Hope 
 with his cigarette hanging from his lips, and 
 peering with half-closed eyes into the fading 
 light, gave her a sense of restfulness and con 
 tent. She did not know what she wished from 
 that other strange young man. He was so bold, 
 so handsome, and he looked at life and spoke of 
 it in such a fresh, unhackneyed spirit. He 
 might make himself anything he pleased. But 
 here was a man who already had everything, or 
 who could get it as easily as he could increase 
 the speed of the launch, by pulling some wire 
 with his finger. 
 
 She recalled one day when they were all 
 on board of this same launch, and the ma 
 chinery had broken down, and Mac Williams had 
 gone forward to look at it. He had called Clay 
 to help him, and she remembered how they had 
 both gone down on their knees and asked the 
 engineer and fireman to pass them wrenches 
 and oil-cans, while King protested mildly, and 
 the rest sat helplessly in the hot glare of the 
 sea, as the boat rose and fell on the waves. 
 She resented Clay s interest in the accident, 
 and his pleasure when he had made the ma 
 chinery right once more, and his appearance as 
 he came back to them with oilv hands and with 
 
158 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 his face glowing from the heat of the furnace, 
 wiping his grimy fingers on a piece of packing. 
 She had resented the equality with which he 
 treated the engineer in asking his advice, and it 
 rather surprised her that the crew saluted him 
 when he stepped into the launch again that 
 night as though he were the owner. She had 
 expected that they would patronize him, and she 
 imagined after this incident that she detected a 
 shade of difference in the manner of the sailors 
 toward Clay, as though he had cheapened him 
 self to them as he had to her. 
 
VII 
 
 AT ten o clock that same evening Clay began 
 to prepare himself for the ball at the Gov 
 ernment Palace, and MacWilliams, who was 
 not invited, watched him dress with critical 
 approval that showed no sign of envy. 
 
 The better to do honor to the President, Clay 
 had brought out several foreign orders, and 
 MacWilliams helped him to tie around his neck 
 the collar of the Red Eagle which the German 
 Emperor had given him, and to fasten the rib 
 bon and cross of the Star of Olancho across his 
 breast, and a Spanish Order and the Legion of 
 Honor to the lapel of his coat. MacWilliams 
 surveyed the effect of the tiny enamelled crosses 
 with his head on one side, and with the same air 
 of affectionate pride and concern that a mother 
 shows over her daughter s first ball-dress. 
 
 "Got any more?" he asked, anxiously. 
 
 " I have some war medals," Clay answered, 
 smiling doubtfully. " But I m not in uniform." 
 
160 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Oh, that s all right," declared Mac Williams. 
 " Put em on, put em all on. Give the girls a 
 treat. Everybody will think they were given 
 for feats of swimming, anyway; but they will 
 show up well from the front. Now, then, 
 you look like a drum-major or a conjuring 
 chap." 
 
 " I do not," said Clay. " I look like a French 
 Ambassador, and I hardly understand how you 
 find courage to speak to me at all." 
 
 He went up the hill in high spirits, and found 
 the carriage at the door and King, Mr. Lang 
 ham, and Miss Langham sitting waiting foi 
 him. They were ready to depart, and Misu 
 Langham had but just seated herself in the 
 carriage when they heard hurrying across the 
 tiled floor a quick, light step and the rustle of 
 silk, and turning they saw Hope standing in the 
 doorway, radiant and smiling. She wore a 
 white frock that reached to the ground, and 
 that left her arms and shoulders bare. Her 
 hair was dressed high upon her head, and she 
 was pulling vigorously at a pair of long, tan- 
 colored gloves. The transformation was so 
 complete, and the girl looked so much older and 
 so stately and beautiful, that the two young 
 men stared at her in silent admiration and as 
 tonishment. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 161 
 
 " Why, Hope ! " exclaimed her sister. " What 
 does this mean ? " 
 
 Hope stopped in some alarm, and clasped her 
 hair with both hands. "What is it?" she 
 asked ; u Is anything wrong ? " 
 
 "Why, my dear child," said her sister, 
 "you re not thinking of going with us, are 
 you?" 
 
 " Not going ? " echoed the younger sister, 
 in dismay. " Why, Alice, why not ? I was 
 asked." 
 
 " But, Hope Father," said the elder sis 
 ter, stepping out of the carnage and turning to 
 Mr. Langham, "you didn t intend that Hope 
 should go, did you ? She s not out yet." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense," said Hope, defiantly. But 
 she drew in her breath quickly and blushed, as 
 she saw the two young men moving away out of 
 hearing of this family crisis. She felt that she 
 was being made to look like a spoiled child. 
 " It does n t count down here," she said, " and I 
 want to go. I thought you knew I was going 
 all the time. Marie made this frock for me on 
 purpose." 
 
 " I don t think Hope is old enough," the elder 
 sister said, addressing her father, " and if she 
 goes to dances here, there s no reason why she 
 should not go to those at home." 
 11 
 
162 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " But I don t want to go to dances at home," 
 interrupted Hope. 
 
 Mr. Langham looked exceedingly uncomfort 
 able, and turned appealingly to his elder 
 daughter. "What do you think, Alice?" he 
 said, doubtfully. 
 
 " I m sorry," Miss Langham replied, " but I 
 know it would not be at all proper. I hate to 
 seem horrid about it, Hope, but indeed you are 
 too young, and the men here are not the men a 
 young girl ought to meet." 
 
 "You meet them, Alice," said Hope, but 
 pulling off her gloves in token of defeat. 
 
 " But, my dear child, I m fifty years older 
 than you are." 
 
 " Perhaps Alice knows best, Hope," Mr. Lang- 
 ham said. * I m sorry if you are disappointed." 
 
 Hope held her head a little higher, and turned 
 toward the door. 
 
 "I don t mind if you don t wish it, father," 
 she said. " Good-night." She moved away, but 
 apparently thought better of it, and came back 
 and stood smiling and nodding to them as they 
 seated themselves in the carriage. Mr. Langham 
 leaned forward and said, in a troubled voice, 
 "We will tell you all about it in the morning. 
 I m very sorry. You won t be lonely, will you ? 
 I 11 stay with you if you wish." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 163 
 
 " Nonsense ! " laughed Hope. u Why, it s 
 given to you, father; don t bother about me. 
 I 11 read something or other and go to bed." 
 
 " Good-night, Cinderella," King called out to 
 her. 
 
 " Good-night, Prince Charming," Hope an 
 swered. 
 
 Both Clay and King felt that the girl would 
 not mind missing the ball so much as she would 
 the fact of having been treated like a child in 
 their presence, so they refrained from any ex 
 pression of sympathy or regret, but raised their 
 hats and bowed a little more impressively than 
 usual as the carriage drove away. 
 
 The picture Hope made, as she stood deserted 
 and forlorn on the steps of the empty house in 
 her new finery, struck Clay as unnecessarily 
 pathetic. He felt a strong sense of resentment 
 against her sister and her father, and thanked 
 heaven devoutly that he was out of their class, 
 and when Miss Langham continued to express 
 her sorrow that she had been forced to act as 
 she had done, he remained silent. It seemed to 
 Clay such a simple thing to give children pleas 
 ure, and to remember that their woes were 
 always out of all proportion to the cause. Chil 
 dren, dumb animals, and blind people were 
 always grouped together in his mind as objects 
 
164 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 demanding the most tender and constant con 
 sideration. So the pleasure of the evening was 
 spoiled for him while he remembered the hurt 
 and disappointed look in Hope s face, and when 
 Miss Langham asked him why he was so pre 
 occupied, he told her bluntly that he thought 
 she had been very unkind to Hope, and that her 
 objections were absurd. 
 
 Miss Langham held herself a little more 
 stiffly. " Perhaps you do not quite understand, 
 Mr. Clay," she said. " Some of us have to con 
 form to certain rules that the people with whom 
 we best like to associate have laid down for 
 themselves. If we choose to be conventional, 
 it is probably because we find it makes life 
 easier for the greater number. You cannot 
 think it was a pleasant task for me. But I have 
 given up things of much more importance than 
 a dance for the sake of appearances, and Hope 
 herself will see to-morrow that I acted for the 
 best." 
 
 Clay said he trusted so, but doubted it, and 
 by way of re-establishing himself in Miss Lang- 
 ham s good favor, asked her if she could give 
 him the next dance. But Miss Langham was 
 not to be propitiated. 
 
 "I m sorry," she said, "but I believe I am 
 engaged until supper-time. Come and ask me 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 165 
 
 then, and I ll have one saved for you. But 
 there is something you can do," she added. u I 
 left my fan in the carriage do you think you 
 could manage to get it for me without much 
 trouble?" 
 
 " The carriage did not wait. I believe it was 
 sent back," said Clay, " but I can borrow a 
 horse from one of Stuart s men, and ride back 
 and get it for you, if you like." 
 
 " How absurd ! " laughed Miss Langham, but 
 she looked pleased, notwithstanding. 
 
 " Oh, not at all," Clay answered. He was 
 smiling down at her in some amusement, and 
 was apparently much entertained at his idea. 
 " Will you consider it an act of devotion ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 There was so little of devotion, and so much 
 more of mischief in his eyes, that Miss Langham 
 guessed he was only laughing at her, and shook 
 her head. 
 
 " You won t go," she said, turning away. 
 She followed him with her eyes, however, as 
 he crossed the room, his head and shoulders 
 towering above the native men and women. 
 She had never seen him so resplendent, and she 
 noted, with an eye that considered trifles, the 
 orders, and his well-fitting white gloves, and his 
 manner of bowing in the Continental fashion, 
 
166 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 holding his opera-hat on his thigh, as though his 
 hand rested on a sword. She noticed that the 
 little Olanchoans stopped and looked after him, 
 as he pushed his way among them, and she 
 could see that the men were telling the women 
 who he was. Sir Julian Pindar, the old British 
 Minister, stopped him, and she watched them 
 as they laughed together over the English war 
 medals on the American s breast, which Sir 
 Julian touched with his finger. He called the 
 French Minister and his pretty wife to look, too, 
 and they all laughed and talked together in 
 great spirits, and Miss Langham wondered if 
 Clay was speaking in French to them. 
 
 Miss Langham did not enjoy the ball ; she felt 
 injured and aggrieved, and she assured herself 
 that she had been hardly used. She had only 
 done her duty, and yet all the sympathy had gone 
 to her sister, who had placed her in a trying 
 position. She thought it was most inconsiderate. 
 
 Hope walked slowly across the veranda when 
 the others had gone, and watched the carriage 
 as long as it remained in sight. Then she 
 threw herself into a big arm-chair, and looked 
 down upon her pretty frock and her new danc 
 ing-slippers. She, too, felt badly used. 
 
 The moonlight fell all about her, as it had on 
 the first night of their arrival, a month before, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 167 
 
 but now it seemed cold and cheerless, and gave 
 an added sense of loneliness to the silent house. 
 She did not go inside to read, as she had prom 
 ised to do, but sat for the next hour looking out 
 across the harbor. She could not blame Alice. 
 She considered that Alice always moved by 
 rules and precedents, like a queen in a game of 
 chess, and she wondered why. It made life so 
 tame and uninteresting, and yet people invari 
 ably admired Alice, and some one had spoken 
 of her as the noblest example of the modern 
 gentlewoman. She was sure she could not grow 
 up to bo anything like that. She was quite 
 confident that she was going to disappoint her 
 family. She wondered if people would like her 
 better if she were discreet like Alice, and less 
 like her brother Ted. If Mr. Clay, for instance, 
 would like her better? She wondered if he 
 disapproved of her riding on the engine with 
 Mac Williams, and of her tearing through the 
 mines on her pony, and spearing with a lance 
 of sugar-cane at the mongrel curs that ran to 
 snap at his flanks. She remembered his look 
 of astonished amusement the day he had caught 
 her in this impromptu pig-sticking, and she felt 
 herself growing red at the recollection. She 
 was sure he thought her a tomboy. Probably 
 he never thought of her at all. 
 
168 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Hope leaned back in the chair and looked up 
 at the stars above the mountains and tried to 
 think of any of her heroes and princes in fiction 
 who had gone through such interesting experi 
 ences as had Mr. Clay. Some of them had done 
 so, but they were creatures in a book and this 
 hero was alive, and she knew him, and had prob 
 ably made him despise her as a silly little girl 
 who was scolded and sent off to bed like a dis 
 obedient child. Hope felt a choking in her throat 
 and something like a tear creep to her eyes : 
 but she was surprised to find that the fact did 
 not make her ashamed of herself. She owned 
 that she was wounded and disappointed, and to 
 make it harder she could not help picturing 
 Alice and Clay laughing and talking together 
 in some corner away from the ball-room, while 
 she, who understood him so well, and who could 
 not find the words to tell him how much she 
 valued what he was and what he had done, was 
 forgotten and sitting here alone, like Cinderella, 
 by the empty fireplace. 
 
 The picture was so pathetic as Hope drew it, 
 that for a moment she felt almost a touch of 
 self-pity, but the next she laughed scornfully at 
 her own foolishness, and rising with an impa 
 tient shrug, walked away in the direction of her 
 room. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 169 
 
 But before she had crossed the veranda she was 
 stopped by the sound of a horse s hoofs gallop 
 ing over the hard sun-baked road that led from 
 the city, and before she had stepped forward 
 out of the shadow in which she stood the horse 
 had reached the steps and his rider had pulled 
 him back on his haunches and swung himself 
 off before the forefeet had touched the ground. 
 
 Hope had guessed that it was Clay by his 
 riding, and she feared from his haste that some 
 one of her people were ill. So she ran anxiously 
 forward and asked if anything were wrong. 
 
 Clay started at her sudden appearance, and 
 gave a short boyish laugh of pleasure. 
 
 " I m so glad you re still up," he said. " No, 
 nothing is wrong." He stopped in some embar 
 rassment. He had been moved to return by the 
 fact that the little girl he knew was in trouble, 
 and now that he was suddenly confronted by 
 this older and statelier young person, his action 
 seemed particularly silly, and he was at a loss 
 to explain it in any way that would not give 
 offence. 
 
 "No, nothing is wrong," he repeated. "I 
 came after something." 
 
 Clay had borrowed one of the cloaks the 
 troopers wore at night from the same man who 
 had lent him the horse, and as he stood bare- 
 
170 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 headed before her, with the cloak hanging from 
 his shoulders to the floor and the star and rib 
 bon across his breast, Hope felt very grateful 
 to him for being able to look like a Prince or a 
 hero in a book, and to yet remain her Mr. Clay 
 at the same time. 
 
 " I came to get your sister s fan," Clay ex 
 plained. " She forgot it." 
 
 The young girl looked at him for a moment in 
 surprise and then straightened herself slightly. 
 She did not know whether she was the more 
 indignant with Alice for sending such a man on 
 so foolish an errand, or with Clay for submit 
 ting to such a service. 
 
 " Oh, is that it ? " she said at last. " I will go 
 and find you one." She gave him a dignified 
 little bow and moved away toward the door, 
 with every appearance of disapproval. 
 
 "Oh, I don t know," she heard Clay say, 
 doubtfully ; " I don t have to go just yet, do I ? 
 May I not stay here a little while ? " 
 
 Hope stood and looked at him in some 
 perplexity. 
 
 " Why, yes," she answered, wonderingly. 
 " But don t you want to go back ? You came 
 in a great hurry. And won t Alice want her 
 fan?" 
 
 " Oh, she has it by this time. I told Stuart 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 171 
 
 to find it. She left it in the carriage, and the 
 carriage is waiting at the end of the plaza." 
 
 "Then why did you come?" asked Hope, 
 with rising suspicion. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know," said Clay, helplessly. " I 
 thought I d just like a ride in the moonlight. 
 I hate balls and dances anyway, don t you ? I 
 think you were very wise not to go." 
 
 Hope placed her hands on the back of the 
 big arm-chair and looked steadily at him as he 
 stood where she could see his face in the moon 
 light. "You came back," she said, "because 
 they thought I was crying, and they sent you to 
 see. Is that it ? Did Alice send you ? " she 
 demanded. 
 
 Clay gave a gasp of consternation. 
 
 "You know that no one sent me," he said. 
 " I thought they treated you abominably, and I 
 wanted to come and say so. That s all. And 
 I wanted to tell you that I missed you very 
 much, and that your not coming had spoiled 
 the evening for me, and I came also because 
 I preferred to talk to you than to stay where I 
 was. No one knows that I came to see you. I 
 said I was going to get the fan, and I told Stuart 
 to find it after I d left. I just wanted to see you, 
 that s all. But I will go back again at once." 
 
 While he had been speaking Hope had low- 
 
172 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 ered her eyes from his face and had turned and 
 looked out across the harbor. There was a 
 strange, happy tumult in her breast, and she 
 was breathing so rapidly that she was afraid 
 he would notice it. She also felt an absurd in 
 clination to cry, and that frightened her. So 
 she laughed and turned and looked up into his 
 face again. Clay saw the same look in her eyes 
 that he had seen there the day when she had 
 congratulated him on his work at the mines. 
 He had seen it before in the eyes of other wo 
 men and it troubled him. Hope seated herself 
 in the big chair, and Clay tossed his cloak on 
 the floor at her feet and sat down with his 
 shoulders against one of the pillars. He glanced 
 up at her and found that the look that had 
 troubled him was gone, and that her eyes were 
 now smiling with excitement and pleasure. 
 
 " And did you bring me something from the 
 ball in your pocket to comfort me," she asked, 
 mockingly. 
 
 "Yes, I did," Clay answered, unabashed. "I 
 brought you some bonbons." 
 
 " You did n t, really ! " Hope cried, with a 
 shriek of delight. " How absurd of you ! The 
 sort you pull ? " 
 
 "The sort you pull," Clay repeated, gravely. 
 " And also a dance-card, which is a relic of bar- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 173 
 
 barism still existing in this Southern capital. 
 It has the arms of Olancho on it in gold, and I 
 thought you might like to keep it as a souvenir." 
 He pulled the card from his coat-pocket and 
 said, " May I have this dance ? " 
 
 " You may," Hope answered. " But you 
 would n t mind if we sat it out, would you ? " 
 
 " I should prefer it," Clay said, as he scrawled 
 his name across the card. " It is so crowded 
 inside, and the company is rather mixed." 
 They both laughed lightly at their own foolish 
 ness, and Hope smiled down upon him affec 
 tionately and proudly. " You may smoke, if 
 you choose ; and would you like something cool 
 to drink?" she asked, anxiously. "After your 
 ride, you know," she suggested, with hospitable 
 intent. Clay said that he was very comfortable 
 without a drink, but lighted a cigar and watched 
 her covertly through the smoke, as she sat smil 
 ing happily and quite unconsciously upon the 
 moonlit world around them. She caught Clay s 
 eye fixed on her, and laughed lightly. 
 
 " What is it ? " he said. 
 
 " Oh, I was just thinking," Hope replied, " that 
 it was much better to have a dance come to you, 
 than to go to the dance. " 
 
 " Does one man and a dance-card and three 
 bon-bons constitute your idea of a ball ? " 
 
174 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "Doesn t it? You see, I am uot out yet, I 
 don t know." 
 
 " I should think it might depend a good deal 
 upon the man," Clay suggested. 
 
 "That sounds as though you were hinting," 
 said Hope, doubtfully, " Now what would I say 
 to that if I were out ? " 
 
 "I don t know, but don t say it," Clay an 
 swered. " It would probably be something very 
 unflattering or very forward, and in either case 
 I should take you back to your chaperone and 
 leave you there." 
 
 Hope had not been listening. Her eyes were 
 fixed on a level with his tie, and Clay raised his 
 hand to it in some trepidation. " Mr. Clay," 
 she began abruptly and leaning eagerly forward, 
 " would you think me very rude if I asked you 
 what you did to get all those crosses ? I know 
 they mean something, and I do so want to know 
 what. Please tell me." 
 
 " Oh, those ! " said Clay. " The reason I put 
 them on to-night is because wearing them is 
 supposed to be a sort of compliment to your 
 host. I got in the habit abroad " 
 
 " I did n t ask you that," said Hope, severely. 
 " I asked you what you did to get them. Now 
 begin with the Legion of Honor on the left, and 
 go right on until you come to the end, and please 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 175 
 
 don t skip anything. Leave in all the blood 
 thirsty parts, and please don t be modest." 
 
 " Like Othello," suggested Clay. 
 
 " Yes," said Hope ; " I will be Desdemona." 
 
 " Well, Desdemona, it was like this," said 
 Clay, laughing. " I got that medal and that star 
 for serving in the Nile campaign, under Wolse- 
 ley. After I left Egypt, I went up the coast to 
 Algiers, where I took service under the French 
 in a most disreputable organization known as 
 the Foreign Legion " 
 
 " Don t tell me," exclaimed Hope, in delight, 
 u that you have been a Chasseur d Afrique ! 
 Not like the man in < Under Two Flags ? " 
 
 "No, not at all like that man," said Clay, 
 emphatically. " I was just a plain, common, or 
 garden, sappeur, and I showed the other good- 
 for-nothings how to dig trenches. Well, I con 
 taminated the Foreign Legion for eight months, 
 and then I went to Peru, where I " 
 
 "You re skipping," said Hope. "How did 
 you get the Legion of Honor ? " 
 
 " Oh, that ? " said Clay. " That was a gallery 
 play I made once when we were chasing some 
 Arabs. They took the French flag away from 
 our color-bearer, and I got it back again and 
 waved it frantically around my head until I was 
 quite certain the Colonel had seen me doing it, 
 
176 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and then I stopped as soon as I knew that I was 
 sure of promotion." 
 
 " Oh, how can you ? " cried Hope. " You 
 did n t do anything of the sort. You probably 
 saved the entire regiment." 
 
 " Well, perhaps I did," Clay returned. " Though 
 I don t remember it, and nobody mentioned it 
 at the time." 
 
 " Go on about the others," said Hope. " And 
 do try to be truthful." 
 
 " Well, I got this one from Spain, because I 
 was President of an International Congress of 
 Engineers at Madrid. That was the ostensible 
 reason, but the real reason was because I taught 
 the Spanish Commissioners to play poker in 
 stead of baccarat. The German Emperor gave 
 me this for designing a fort, and the Sultan of 
 Zanzibar gave me this, and no one but the Sultan 
 knows why, and he won t tell. I suppose he s 
 ashamed. He gives them away instead of 
 cigars. He was out of cigars the day I called." 
 
 " What a lot of places you have seen," sighed 
 Hope. " I have been in Cairo and Algiers, too, 
 but I always had to walk about with a gover 
 ness, and she would n t go to the mosques be 
 cause she said they were full of fleas. We 
 always go to Homburg and Paris in the sum 
 mer, and to big hotels in London. I love to 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 177 
 
 travel, but I don t love to travel that way, 
 would you?" 
 
 " I travel because I have no home," said Cky. 
 " I m different from the chap that came home 
 because all the other places were shut. I go to 
 other places because there is no home open." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said Hope, shaking 
 her head. " Why have you no home ? " 
 
 " There was a ranch in Colorado that I used 
 to call home," said Clay, " but they ve cut it 
 up into town lots. I own a plot in the cemetery 
 outside of the town, where my mother is buried, 
 and I visit that whenever I am in the States, 
 and that is the only piece of earth anywhere in 
 the world that I have to go back to." 
 
 Hope leaned forward with her hands clasped 
 in front of her and her eyes wide open. 
 
 " And your father ? " she said, softly ; u is he 
 is he there, too " 
 
 Clay looked at the lighted end of his cigar as 
 he turned it between his fingers. 
 
 " My father, Miss Hope," he said, " was a fili 
 buster, and went out on the Virginius to help 
 free Cuba, and was shot, against a stone wall. 
 We never knew where he was buried." 
 
 " Oh, forgive me ; I beg your pardon," said 
 Hope. There was such distress in her voice 
 that Clay looked at her quickly and saw the 
 12 
 
178 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 tears in her eyes. She reached out her hand 
 timidly, and touched for an instant his own 
 rough, sunburned fist, as it lay clenched on his 
 knee. " I am so sorry," she said, " so sorry." 
 For the first time in many years the tears came 
 to Clay s eyes and blurred the moonlight and 
 the scene before him, and he sat unmanned and 
 silent before the simple touch of a young girl s 
 sympathy. 
 
 An hour later, when his pony struck the 
 gravel from beneath his hoofs on the race back 
 to the city, and Clay turned to wave his hand 
 to Hope in the doorway, she seemed, as she 
 stood with the moonlight falling about her 
 white figure, like a spirit beckoning the way to 
 a new paradise. 
 
VIII 
 
 CLAY reached the President s Palace during 
 the supper-hour, and found Mr. Langham and 
 his daughter at the President s table. Madame 
 Alvarez pointed to a place for him beside Alice 
 Langham, who held up her hand in welcome. 
 " You were very foolish to rush off like that/ 
 she said. 
 
 " It was n t there," said Clay, crowding into 
 the place beside her. 
 
 " No, it was here in the carriage all the time. 
 Captain Stuart found it for me." 
 
 "Oh, he did, did he?" said Clay; "that s 
 why I could n t find it. I am hungry," he 
 laughed, " my ride gave me an appetite." He 
 looked over and grinned at Stuart, but that gen 
 tleman was staring fixedly at the candles on the 
 table before him, his eyes filled with concern. 
 Clay observed that Madame Alvarez was cov 
 ertly watching the young officer, and frowning 
 her disapproval at his preoccupation. So he 
 stretched his leg under the table and kicked 
 
180 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 viciously at Stuart s boots. Old General Rojas, 
 the Vice-President, who sat next to Stuart, 
 moved suddenly and then blinked violently at 
 the ceiling with an expression of patient suffer 
 ing, but the exclamation which had escaped him 
 brought Stuart back to the present, and he 
 talked with the woman next him in a perfunctory 
 manner. 
 
 Miss Langham and her father were waiting 
 for their carriage in the great hall of the Palace 
 as Stuart came up to Clay, and putting his hand 
 affectionately on his shoulder, began pointing to 
 something farther back in the hall. To the 
 night-birds of the streets and the noisy fiacre 
 drivers outside, and to the crowd of guests who 
 stood on the high marble steps waiting for their 
 turn to depart, he might have been relating an 
 amusing anecdote of the ball just over." 
 
 " I m in great trouble, old man," was what he 
 said. u I must see you alone to-night. I d ask 
 you to my rooms, but they watch me all the 
 time, and I don t want them to suspect you are 
 in this until they must. Go on in the carriage, 
 but get out as you pass the Plaza Bolivar and 
 wait for me by the statue there." 
 
 Clay smiled, apparently in great amusement. 
 " That s very good," he said. 
 
 He crossed over to where King stood survey- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 181 
 
 ing the powdered beauties of Olancho and their 
 gowns of a past fashion, with an intensity of 
 admiration which would have been suspicious to 
 those who knew his tastes. " When we get 
 into the carriage," said Clay, in a low voice, 
 "we will both call to Stuart that we will see 
 him to-morrow morning at breakfast." 
 
 " All right," assented King. " What s up ? " 
 Stuart helped Miss Langham into her car 
 riage, and as it moved away King shouted to 
 him in English to remember that he was break 
 fasting with him on the morrow, and Clay called 
 out in Spanish, " Until to-morrow at breakfast, 
 don t forget." And Stuart answered, steadily, 
 " Good-night until to-morrow at one." 
 
 As their carriage jolted through the dark and 
 narrow street, empty now of all noise or move 
 ment, one of Stuart s troopers dashed by it at a 
 gallop, with a lighted lantern swinging at his 
 side. He raised it as he passed each street 
 crossing, and held it high above his head so that 
 its light fell upon the walls of the houses at the 
 four corners. The clatter of his horse s hoofs 
 had not ceased before another trooper galloped 
 toward them riding more slowly, and throwing 
 the light of his lantern over the trunks of the 
 trees that lined the pavements. As the carriage 
 passed him, he brought his horse to its side with 
 
182 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 a jerk of the bridle, and swung his lantern in 
 the faces of its occupants. 
 
 " Who lives ? " he challenged. 
 
 " Olancho," Clay replied. 
 
 4< Who answers ? " 
 
 "Free men," Clay answered again, and 
 pointed at the star on his coat. 
 
 The soldier muttered an apology, and striking 
 his heels into his horse s side, dashed noisily 
 away, his lantern tossing from side to side, high 
 in the air, as he drew rein to scan each tree and 
 passed from one lamp-post to the next. 
 
 " What does that mean ? " said Mr. Lang- 
 ham ; " did he take us for highwaymen?" 
 
 " It is the custom," said Clay. " We are out 
 rather late, you see." 
 
 " If I remember rightly, Clay," said King, 
 " they gave a ball at Brussels on the eve of 
 Waterloo." 
 
 " I believe they did," said Clay, smiling. He 
 spoke to the driver to stop the carriage, and 
 stepped down into the street. 
 
 " I have to leave you here," he said ; " drive 
 on quickly, please ; I can explain better in the 
 morning." 
 
 The Plaza Bolivar stood in what had once 
 been the centre of the fashionable life of Olan 
 cho, but the town had moved farther up the hill, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 183 
 
 and it was now far in the suburbs, its walks 
 neglected and its turf overrun with weeds. The 
 houses about it had fallen into disuse, and the 
 few that were still occupied at the time Clay en 
 tered it showed no sign of life. Clay picked his 
 way over the grass-grown paths to the statue of 
 Bolivar, the hero of the sister republic of Ven 
 ezuela, which still stood on its pedestal in a 
 tangle of underbrush and hanging vines. The 
 iron railing that had once surrounded it was 
 broken down, and the branches of the trees near 
 were black with sleeping buzzards. Two great 
 palms reared themselves in the moonlight at 
 either side, and beat their leaves together in the 
 night wind, whispering and murmuring together 
 like two living conspirators. 
 
 " This ought to be safe enough," Clay mur 
 mured to himself. u It s just the place for plot 
 ting. I hope there are no snakes." He seated 
 himself on the steps of the pedestal, and light 
 ing a cigar, remained smoking and peering into 
 the shadows about him, until a shadow blacker 
 than the darkness rose at his feet, and a voice 
 said, sternly, " Put out that light. I saw it half 
 a mile away." 
 
 Clay rose and crushed his cigar under his 
 foot. "Now then, old man," he demanded 
 briskly, "what s up? It s nearly daylight and 
 we must hurry." 
 
184 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Stuart seated himself heavily on the stone 
 steps, like a man tired in mind and body, and 
 unfolded a printed piece of paper. Its blank 
 side was damp and sticky with paste. 
 
 " It is too dark for you to see this," he began, 
 in a strained voice, " so I will translate it to 
 you. It is an attack on Madame Alvarez and 
 myself. They put them up during the ball, 
 when they knew my men would be at the Pal 
 ace. I have had them scouring the streets for 
 the last two hours tearing them down, but they 
 are all over the place, in the cafe s and clubs. 
 They have done what they were meant to do." 
 
 Clay took another cigar from his pocket and 
 rolled it between his lips. " What does it 
 say?" he asked. 
 
 " It goes over the old ground first. It says 
 Alvarez has given the richest birthright of his 
 country to aliens that means the mines and 
 Langham and has put an alien in command 
 of the army that is meant for me. I ve no 
 more to do with the army than you have I 
 only wish I had! And then it says that the 
 boundary aggressions of Ecuador and Venezuela 
 have not been resented in consequence. It asks 
 what can be expected of a President who is as 
 blind to the dishonor of his country as he is to 
 the dishonor of his own home ? " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 185 
 
 Clay muttered under his breath, "Well, go 
 on. Is it explicit ? More explicit than that ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Stuart, grimly. " I can t repeat 
 it. It is quite clear what they mean." 
 
 "Have you got any of them?" Clay asked. 
 " Can you fix it on some one that you can 
 fight ? " 
 
 " Mendoza did it, of course," Stuart an 
 swered, " but we cannot prove it. And if we 
 could, we are not strong enough to take him. 
 He has the city full of his men now, and the 
 troops are pouring in every hour." 
 
 " Well, Alvarez can stop that, can t he ?" 
 
 "They are coming in for the annual review. 
 He can t show the people that he is afraid of 
 his own army." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " What am I going to do ? " Stuart repeated, 
 dully. " That is what I want you to tell me. 
 There is nothing I can do now. I ve brought 
 trouble and insult on people who have been 
 kinder to me than my own blood have been. 
 Who took me in when I was naked and clothed 
 me, when I had n t a friend or a sixpence to my 
 name. You remember I came here from that 
 row in Columbia with my wound, and I was 
 down with the fever when they found me, and 
 Alvarez gave me the appointment. And this is 
 
186 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 how I reward them. If I stay I do more harm. 
 If I go away I leave them surrounded by ene 
 mies, and not enemies who fight fair, but 
 damned thieves and scoundrels, who stab at 
 women and who fight in the dark. I wouldn t 
 have had it happen, old man, for my right arm ! 
 They they have been so kind to me, and I 
 have been so happy here and now ! " The 
 boy bowed his face in his hands and sat breath 
 ing brokenly while Clay turned his unlit cigar 
 between his teeth and peered at him curiously 
 through the darkness. " Now I have made 
 them both unhappy, and they hate me, and I 
 hate myself, and I have brought nothing but 
 trouble to every one. First I made my own 
 people miserable, and now I make my best 
 friends miserable, and I had better be dead. 
 I wish I were dead. I wish I had never been 
 born." 
 
 Clay laid his hand on the other s bowed 
 shoulder and shook him gently. " Don t talk 
 like that," he said ; " it does no good. Why do 
 you hate yourself ? " 
 
 " What ? " asked Stuart, wearily, without 
 looking up. "What did you say?" 
 
 " You said you had made them hate you, and 
 you added that you hated yourself. Well, I 
 can see why they naturally would be angry for 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 187 
 
 the time, at least. But why do you hate your- 
 self ? Have you reason to ? " 
 
 " I don t understand," said Stuart. 
 
 "Well, I can t make it any plainer," Clay 
 replied. " It is n t a question I will ask. But 
 you say you want my advice. Well, my advice 
 to my friend and to a man who is not my friend, 
 differ. And in this case it depends on whether 
 what that thing " Clay kicked the paper which 
 had fallen on the ground " what that thing 
 says is true." 
 
 The younger man looked at the paper below 
 him and then back at Clay, and sprang to his 
 feet. 
 
 " Why, damn you," he cried, " what do you 
 mean ? " 
 
 He stood above Clay with both arms rigid at 
 his side and his head bent forward. The dawn 
 had just broken, and the two men saw each 
 other in the ghastly gray light of the morning. 
 " If any man," cried Stuart thickly, " dares to 
 say that that blackguardly lie is true I 11 kill 
 him. You or any one else. Is that what you 
 mean, damn you ? If it is, say so, and I 11 
 break every bone of your body." 
 
 "Well, that s much better," growled Clay, 
 sullenly. " The way you went on wishing you 
 were dead and hating yourself made me almost 
 
188 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 lose faith in mankind. Now you go make that 
 speech to the President, and then find the man 
 who put up those placards, and if you can t find 
 the right man, take any man you meet and make 
 him eat it, paste and all, and beat him to death 
 if he does n t. Why, this is no time to whimper 
 because the world is full of liars. Go out 
 and fight them and show them you are not 
 afraid. Confound you, you had me so scared 
 there that I almost thrashed you myself. For 
 give me, won t you ? " he begged earnestly. He 
 rose and held out his hand and the other took 
 it, doubtfully. " It was your own fault, you 
 young idiot," protested Clay. " You told your 
 story the wrong way. Now go home and get 
 some sleep and I ll be back in a few hours to 
 help you. Look ! " he said. He pointed through 
 the trees to the sun that shot up like a red hot 
 disk of heat above the cool green of the moun 
 tains. " See," said Clay, " God has given us an^ 
 other day. Seven battles were fought in seven 
 days once in my country. Let s be thankful, 
 old man, that we re not dead, but alive to fight 
 our own and other people s battles." 
 
 The younger man sighed and pressed Clay s 
 hand again before he dropped it. 
 
 "You are very good to me," he said. " I m 
 not just quite myself this morning. I m a bit 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 189 
 
 nervous, I think. You ll surely come, won t 
 you?" 
 
 "By noon," Clay promised. "And if it does 
 come," he added, " don t forget my fifteen hun 
 dred men at the mines." 
 
 " Good ! I won t," Stuart replied. " I 11 call 
 on you if I need them." He raised his fingers 
 mechanically to his helmet in salute, and catch 
 ing up his sword turned and strode away erect 
 and soldierly through the de bris and weeds of 
 the deserted plaza. 
 
 Clay remained motionless on the steps of the 
 pedestal and followed the younger man with his 
 eyes. He drew a long breath and began a leis 
 urely search through his pockets for his match 
 box, gazing about him as he did so, as though 
 looking for some one to whom he could speak 
 his feelings. He lifted his eyes to the stern, 
 smooth-shaven face of the bronze statue above 
 him that seemed to be watching Stuart s de 
 parting figure. 
 
 44 General Bolivar," Clay said, as he lit his 
 cigar, " observe that young man. He is a sol 
 dier and a gallant gentleman. You, sir, were 
 a great soldier the greatest this God-forsaken 
 country will ever know and you were, sir, an 
 ardent lover. I ask you to salute that young 
 man as I do, and to wish him well." Clay lifted 
 
190 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 his high hat to the back of the young officer as 
 it was hidden in the hanging vines, and once 
 again, with grave respect to the grim features 
 of the great general above him, and then smil 
 ing at his own conceit, he ran lightly down the 
 steps and disappeared among the trees of the 
 plaza. 
 
IX 
 
 CLAY slept for three hours. He had left a 
 note on the floor instructing MacWilliams and 
 young Langham not to go to the mines, but to 
 waken him at ten o clock, and by eleven the 
 three men were galloping off to the city. As 
 they left the Palms they met Hope returning 
 from a morning ride on the Alemeda, and Clay 
 begged her, with much concern, not to ride 
 abroad again. There was a difference in his 
 tone toward her. There was more anxiety in 
 it than the occasion seemed to justify, and he 
 put his request in the form of a favor to him 
 self, while the day previous he would simply 
 have told her that she must not go riding 
 alone. 
 
 "Why?" asked Hope, eagerly. "Is there 
 going to be trouble ? " 
 
 "I hope not," Clay said, "but the soldiers 
 are coming in from the provinces for the 
 review, and the roads are not safe." 
 
192 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "I d be safe with you, though," said Hope, 
 smiling persuasively upon the three men. 
 "Won t you take me with you, please?" 
 
 " Hope, " said young Langham in the tone of 
 the elder brother s brief authority, "you must 
 go home at once. " 
 
 Hope smiled wickedly. "I don t want to," 
 she said. 
 
 " I 11 bet you a box of cigars I can beat you to 
 the veranda by fifty yards," said MacWilliams, 
 turning his horse s head. 
 
 Hope clasped her sailor hat in one hand and 
 swung her whip with the other. " I think not," 
 she cried, and disappeared with a flutter of 
 skirts and a scurry of flying pebbles. 
 
 "At times," said Clay, "MacWilliams shows 
 an unexpected knowledge of human nature." 
 
 "Yes, he did quite right," assented Lang- 
 ham, nodding his head mysteriously. " We ve 
 no time for girls at present, have we ? " 
 
 "No, indeed," said Clay, hiding any sign of 
 a smile. 
 
 Langham breathed deeply at the thought of 
 the part he was to play in this coming struggle, 
 and remained respectfully silent as they trotted 
 toward the city. He did not wish to disturb 
 the plots and counterplots that he was confident 
 were forming in Clay s brain, and his devotion 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 193 
 
 would have been severely tried had he known 
 that his hero s mind was filled with a picture 
 of a young girl in a blue shirt-waist and a 
 whipcord riding-skirt. 
 
 Clay sent for Stuart to join them at the 
 restaurant, and MacWilliame arriving at the 
 same time, the four men seated themselves 
 conspicuously in the centre of the cafe and 
 sipped their chocolate as though unconscious of 
 any imminent danger, and in apparent freedom 
 from all responsibilities and care. While 
 MacWilliams and Langham laughed and dis 
 puted over a game of dominoes, the older men 
 exchanged, under cover of their chatter, the 
 few words which they had met to speak. 
 
 The manifestoes, Stuart said, had failed of 
 their purpose. He had already called upon the 
 President, and had offered to resign his posi 
 tion and leave the country, or to stay and fight 
 his maligners, and take up arms at once against 
 Mendoza s party. Alvarez had treated him 
 like a son, and bade him be patient. He held 
 that Cassar s wife was above suspicion because 
 she was Caesar s wife, and that no canards posted 
 at midnight could affect his faith in his wife or 
 in his friend. He refused to believe that any 
 coup d etat was imminent, save the one which 
 he himself meditated when he was ready to 
 13 
 
194 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 proclaim the country in a state of revolution, 
 and to assume a military dictatorship. 
 
 " What nonsense ! " exclaimed Clay. " What 
 is a military dictatorship without soldiers ? 
 Can t he see that the army is with Mendoza ? " 
 
 "No," Stuart replied. "Rojas and I were 
 with him all the morning. Rojas is an old 
 trump, Clay. He s not bright and he s old- 
 fashioned; but he is honest. And the people 
 know it. If I had Rojas for a chief instead of 
 Alvarez, I d arrest Mendoza with my own 
 hand, and I wouldn t be afraid to take him to 
 the cartel through the streets. The people 
 would n t help him. But the President does n t 
 dare. Not that he hasn t pluck," added the 
 young lieutenant, loyally, "for he takes his 
 life in his hands when he goes to the review 
 to-morrow, and he knows it. Think of it, will 
 you, out there alone with a field of five thou 
 sand men around him! Rojas thinks he can 
 hold half of them, as many as Mendoza can, 
 and 1 have my fifty. But you can t tell what 
 any one of them will do for a drink or a dollar. 
 They re no more soldiers than these waiters. 
 They re bandits in uniform, and they 11 kill 
 for the man that pays best." 
 
 " Then why does n t Alvarez pay them ? " Clay 
 growled. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 195 
 
 Stuart looked away and lowered his eyes to 
 the table. "He has n t the money, I suppose," 
 he said, evasively. " He he has transferred 
 every cent of it into drafts on Rothschild. 
 They are at the house now, representing five 
 millions of dollars in gold and her jewels, 
 too packed ready for flight." 
 
 " Then he does expect trouble ? " said Clay. 
 " You told me " 
 
 "They re all alike; you know them," said 
 Stuart. " They won t believe they re in danger 
 until the explosion comes, but they always 
 have a special train ready, and they keep the 
 funds of the government under their pillows. 
 He engaged apartments on the Avenue Kleber 
 six months ago. " 
 
 "Bah!" said Clay. "It s the old story. 
 Why don t you quit him ? " 
 
 Stuart raised his eyes and dropped them 
 again, and Clay sighed. "I m sorry," he said. 
 
 MacWilliams interrupted them in an indig 
 nant stage-whisper. " Say, how long have we 
 got to keep up this fake game ? " he asked. " I 
 don t know anything about dominoes, and 
 neither does Ted. Tell us what you ve been 
 saying. Is there going to be trouble ? If there 
 is, Ted and I want to be in it. We are look 
 ing for trouble." 
 
196 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Clay had tipped back his chair, and was sur 
 veying the restaurant and the blazing plaza 
 beyond its open front with an expression of 
 cheerful unconcern. Two men were reading 
 the morning papers near the door, and two 
 others were dragging through a game of domi 
 noes in a far corner. The heat of midday had 
 settled on the place, and the waiters dozed, 
 with their chairs tipped back against the walls. 
 Outside, the awning of the restaurant threw a 
 broad shadow across the marble-topped tables 
 on the sidewalk, and half a dozen fiacre drivers 
 slept peacefully in their carriage before the 
 door. 
 
 The town was taking its siesta, and the brisk 
 step of a stranger who crossed the tessellated 
 floor and rapped with his knuckles on the top 
 of the cigar-case was the only sign of life. 
 The new-comer turned with one hand on the 
 glass case and swept the room carelessly with 
 his eyes. They were hard blue eyes under 
 straight eyebrows. Their owner was dressed 
 unobtrusively in a suit of rough tweed, and 
 this and his black hat, and the fact that he 
 was smooth-shaven, distinguished him as a 
 foreigner. 
 
 As he faced them the forelegs of Clay s chair 
 descended slowly to the floor, and he began to 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 197 
 
 smile comprehendingly and to nod his head as 
 though the coming of the stranger had explained 
 something of which he had been in doubt. His 
 companions turned and followed the direction 
 of his eyes, but saw nothing of interest in the 
 new-comer. He looked as though he might be 
 a concession hunter from the States, or a 
 Manchester drummer, prepared to offer six 
 months credit on blankets and hardware. 
 
 Clay rose and strode across the room, cir 
 cling the tables in such a way that he could 
 keep himself between the stranger and the 
 door. At his approach the new-comer turned 
 his back and fumbled with his change on the 
 counter. 
 
 " Captain Burke, I believe ? " said Clay. The 
 stranger bit the cigar he had just purchased, 
 and shook his head. "I am very glad to see 
 you," Clay continued. "Sit down, won t you ? 
 I want to talk with you. " 
 
 " I think you ve made a mistake, " the stranger 
 answered, quietly. "My name is " 
 
 "Colonel, perhaps, then," said Clay. "I 
 might have known it. I congratulate you, 
 Colonel." 
 
 The man looked at Clay for an instant, with 
 the cigar clenched between his teeth and his 
 blue eyes fixed steadily on the other s face. 
 
198 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Clay waved his hand again invitingly toward 
 a table, and the man shrugged his shoulders 
 and laughed, and, pulling a chair toward him, 
 sat down. 
 
 "Come over here, hoys," Clay called. "I 
 want you to meet an old friend of mine, Cap 
 tain Burke." 
 
 The man called Burke stared at the three 
 men as they crossed the room and seated them 
 selves at the table, and nodded to them in 
 silence. 
 
 "We have here," said Clay, gayly, but in a 
 low voice, "the key to the situation. This is 
 the gentleman who supplies Mendoza with the 
 sinews of war. Captain Burke is a brave soldier 
 and a citizen of my own or of any country, 
 indeed, which happens to have the most sym 
 pathetic Consul-General. " 
 
 Burke smiled grimly, with a condescending 
 nod, and putting away the cigar, took out a 
 brier pipe and began to fill it from his tobacco- 
 pouch. " The Captain is a man of few words 
 and extremely modest about himself," Clay 
 continued, lightly ; " so I must tell you who he 
 is myself. He is a promoter of revolutions. 
 That is his business, a professional promoter 
 of revolutions, and that is what makes me so 
 glad to see him again. He knows all about 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 199 
 
 the present crisis here, and he is going to tell 
 us all he knows as soon as he fills his pipe. 1 
 ought to warn you, Burke," he added, "that 
 this is Captain Stuart, in charge of the police 
 and the President s cavalry troop. So, you 
 see, whatever you say, you will have one man 
 who will listen to you." 
 
 Burke crossed one short fat leg over the 
 other, and crowded the tobacco in the bowl of 
 his pipe with his thumb. 
 
 "I thought you were in Chili, Clay," he said. 
 
 "No, you didn t think I was in Chili," Clay 
 replied, kindly. "I left Chili two years ago. 
 The Captain and I met there," he explained to 
 the others, "when Balmaceda was trying to 
 make himself dictator. The Captain was on 
 the side of the Congressionalists, and was fur 
 nishing arms and dynamite. The Captain is 
 always on the winning side, at least he always 
 has been up to the present. He is not a 
 creature of sentiment; are you, Burke? The 
 Captain believes with Napoleon that God is on 
 the side that has the heaviest artillery." 
 
 Burke lighted his pipe and drummed absent- 
 mindedly on the table with his match-box. 
 
 "I can t afford to be sentimental," he said. 
 "Not in my business." 
 
 "Of course not," Clay assented, cheerfully. 
 
200 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 
 
 He looked at Burke and laughed, as though 
 the sight of him recalled pleasant memories. 
 "I wish I could give these boys any idea of how 
 clever you are, Captain," he said. "The Cap 
 tain was the first man, for instance, to think 
 of packing cartridges in tubs of lard, and of 
 sending rifles in piano-cases. He represents 
 the Wei by revolver people in England, and 
 half a dozen firms in the States, and he has his 
 little stores in Tampa and Mobile and Jamaica, 
 ready to ship off at a moment s notice to any 
 revolution in Central America. When I first 
 met the Captain," Clay continued, gleefully, 
 and quite unmindful of the other s continued 
 silence, "he was starting off to rescue Arabi 
 Pasha from the island of Ceylon. You may 
 remember, boys, that when Bufferin saved 
 Arabi from hanging, the British shipped him 
 to Ceylon as a political prisoner. Well, the 
 Captain was sent by Arabi s followers in Egypt 
 to bring him back to lead a second rebellion. 
 Burke had everybody bribed at Ceylon, and a 
 fine schooner fitted out and a lot of ruffians to 
 do the fighting, and then the good, kind British 
 Government pardoned Arabi the day before 
 Burke arrived in port. And you never got a 
 cent for it; did you, Burke?" 
 Burke shook his head and frowned. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 201 
 
 " Six thousand pounds sterling I was to have 
 got for that," he said, with a touch of pardon 
 able pride in his voice, " and they set him free 
 the day before I got there, just as Mr. Clay 
 tells you." 
 
 "And then you headed Granville Prior s 
 expedition for buried treasure off the island of 
 Cocos, did n t you?" said Clay. "Go on, tell 
 them about it. Be sociable. You ought to 
 write a book about your different business 
 ventures, Burke, indeed you ought; but then," 
 Clay added, smiling, "nobody would believe 
 you." Burke rubbed his chin, thoughtfully, 
 with his fingers, and looked modestly at the 
 ceiling, and the two younger boys gazed at 
 him with open-mouthed interest. 
 
 "There ain t anything in buried treasure," 
 he said, after a pause, " except the money that s 
 sunk in the fitting out. It sounds good, but 
 it s all foolishness." 
 
 " All foolishness, eh?" said Clay, encourag 
 ingly. " And what did you do after Balmaceda 
 was beaten ? after I last saw you ? " 
 
 "Crespo," Burke replied, after a pause, 
 during which he pulled gently on his pipe. 
 " * Caroline Brewer cleared from Key West 
 for Curacao, with cargo of sewing-machines and 
 ploughs beached below Maracaibo thirty- 
 
202 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 five thousand rounds and two thousand rifles 
 at twenty bolivers apiece." 
 
 "Of course," said Clay, in a tone of genuine 
 appreciation. " I might have known you d be 
 in that. He says," he explained, "that he 
 assisted General Crespo in Venezuela during his 
 revolution against Guzman Blanco s party, and 
 loaded a tramp steamer called the Caroline 
 Brewer at Key West with arms, which he 
 landed safely at a place for which he had no 
 clearance papers, and he received forty thou 
 sand dollars in our money for the job and 
 very good pay, too, I should think," commented 
 Clay. 
 
 "Well, I don t know," Burke demurred. 
 "You take in the cost of leasing the boat and 
 provisioning her, and the crew s wages, and 
 the cost of the cargo; that cuts into profits. 
 Then I had to stand off shore between Trinidad 
 and Curacao for over three weeks before I got 
 the signal to run in, and after that I was chased 
 by a gun-boat for three days, and the crazy fool 
 put a shot clean through my engine-room. 
 Cost me about twelve hundred dollars in 
 repairs." 
 
 There was a pause, and Clay turned his eyes 
 to the street, and then asked, abruptly, " What 
 are you doing now ? " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 203 
 
 " Trying to get orders for smokeless powder, " 
 Burke answered, promptly. He met Clay s 
 look with eyes as undisturbed as his own. 
 " But they won t touch it down here, " he went 
 on. "It doesn t appeal to em. It s too 
 expensive, and they d rather see the smoke. 
 It makes them think " 
 
 " How long did you expect to stay here ? " 
 Clay interrupted. 
 
 " How long ? " repeated Burke, like a man in 
 a witness-box who is trying to gain time. 
 "Well, I was thinking of leaving by Friday, 
 and taking a mule-train over to Bogota instead 
 of waiting for the steamer to Colon." He blew 
 a mouthful of smoke into the air and watched 
 it drifting toward the door with apparent 
 interest. 
 
 " The c Santiago leaves here Saturday for 
 New York. I guess you had better wait over for 
 her," Clay said. "I ll engage your passage, 
 and, in the meantime, Captain Stuart here will 
 see that they treat you well in the cuartel." 
 
 The men around the table started, and sat 
 motionless looking at Clay, but Burke only 
 took his pipe from his mouth and knocked the 
 ashes out on the heel of his boot. " What am 
 I going to the cuartel for ? " he asked. 
 
 " Well, the public good, I suppose, " laughed 
 
204 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Clay. " I m sorry, but it s your own fault. 
 You shouldn t have shown yourself here at 
 all." 
 
 " What have you got to do with it ? " asked 
 Burke, calmly, as he began to refill his pipe. 
 He had the air of a man who saw nothing 
 before him but an afternoon of pleasant dis 
 course and leisurely inactivity. 
 
 "You know what I ve got to do with it," 
 Clay replied. " I ve got our concession to look 
 after." 
 
 " Well, you re not running the town, too, 
 are you ? " asked Burke. 
 
 "No, but I m going to run you out of it," 
 Clay answered. " Now, what are you going to 
 do, make it unpleasant for us and force our 
 hand, or drive down quietly with our friend 
 Mac Williams here ? He is the best one to take 
 you, because he s not so well known. " 
 
 Burke turned his head and looked over his 
 shoulder at Stuart. 
 
 "You taking orders from Mr. Clay, to-day, 
 Captain Stuart ? " he asked. 
 
 "Yes," Stuart answered, smiling. "I agree 
 with Mr. Clay in whatever he thinks right." 
 
 "Oh, well, in that case," said Burke, rising 
 reluctantly, with a protesting sigh, " I guess 
 I d better call on the American minister." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 205 
 
 " You can t. He s in Ecuador on his annual 
 visit," said Clay. 
 
 "Indeed! That s bad for me," muttered 
 Burke, as though in much concern. "Well, 
 then, I 11 ask you to let me see our consul 
 here." 
 
 "Certainly," Clay assented, with alacrity. 
 " Mr. Langham, this young gentleman s father 
 got him his appointment, so I ve no doubt he 11 
 be only too glad to do anything for a friend of 
 ours." 
 
 Burke raised his eyes and looked inquiringly 
 at Clay, as though to assure himself that this 
 was true, and Clay smiled back at him. 
 
 "Oh, very well," Burke said. "Then, as I 
 happen to be an Irishman by the name of 
 Burke, and a British subject, I 11 try Her 
 Majesty s representative, and we 11 see if he 
 will allow me to be locked up without a reason 
 or a warrant. " 
 
 "That s no good, either," said Clay, shak 
 ing his head. "You fixed your nationality, as 
 far as this continent is concerned, in Rio har 
 bor, when Peixoto handed you over to the 
 British admiral, and you claimed to be an 
 American citizen, and were sent on board the 
 Detroit. If there s any doubt about that 
 we ve only got to cable to Rio Janeiro to 
 
206 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 either legation. But what s the use ? They 
 know me here, and they don t know you, and I 
 do. You 11 have to go to jail and stay there." 
 
 "Oh, well, if you put it that way, I ll go," 
 said Burke. "But," he added, in a lower 
 voice, "it s too late, Clay." 
 
 The expression of amusement on CJay s face, 
 and his ease of manner, fell from him at the 
 words, and he pulled Burke back into the chair 
 again. " What do you mean ? " he asked, 
 anxiously. 
 
 " I mean just that, it s too late, " Burke 
 answered. "I don t mind going to jail. I 
 won t be there long. My work s all done and 
 paid for. I was only staying on to see the fun 
 at the finish, to see you fellows made fools of. " 
 
 " Oh, you re sure of that, are you ? " asked 
 Clay. 
 
 " My dear boy ! " exclaimed the American, 
 with a suggestion in his speech of his Irish 
 origin, as his interest rose. "Did you ever 
 know me to go into anything of this sort for 
 the sentiment of it ? Did you ever know me to 
 back the losing side ? No. Well, I tell you 
 that you fellows have no more show in this 
 than a parcel of Sunday-school children. Of 
 course I can t say when they mean to strike. I 
 don t know, and I would n t tell you if I did. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 207 
 
 But when they do strike there 11 be no striking 
 back. It 11 be all over but the cheering." 
 
 Burke s tone was calm and positive. He 
 held the centre of the stage now, and he looked 
 from one to the other of the serious faces 
 around him with an expression of pitying 
 amusement. 
 
 "Alvarez may get off, and so may Madame 
 Alvarez," he added, lowering his voice and 
 turning his face away from Stuart. " But not 
 if she shows herself in the streets, and not if 
 she tries to take those drafts and jewels with 
 her." 
 
 " Oh, you know that, do you ? " interrupted 
 Clay. 
 
 "I know nothing," Burke replied. "At 
 least, nothing to what the rest of them know. 
 That s only the gossip I pick up at headquar 
 ters. It does n t concern me. I ve delivered 
 my goods and given my receipt for the money, 
 and that s all I care about. But if it will 
 make an old friend feel any more comfortable 
 to have me in jail, why, I 11 go, that s all." 
 
 Clay sat with pursed lips looking at Stuart. 
 The two boys leaned with their elbows on the 
 tables and stared at Burke, who was searching 
 leisurely through his pockets for his match 
 box. From outside came the lazy cry of a 
 
208 SOLDIERS OF FOP-TUNE 
 
 vendor of lottery tickets, and the swift, uneven 
 patter of bare feet, as company after company 
 of dust-covered soldiers passed on their way 
 from the provinces, with their shoes swinging 
 from their bayonets. 
 
 Clay slapped the table with an exclamation 
 of impatience. 
 
 "After all, this is only a matter of business," 
 he said, "with all of us. What do you say, 
 Burke, to taking a ride with me to Stuart s 
 rooms, and having a talk there with the Presi 
 dent and Mr. Langham ? Langham has three 
 millions sunk in these mines, and Alvarez has 
 even better reasons than that for wanting to 
 hold his job. What do you say ? That s better 
 than going to jail. Tell us what they mean to 
 do, and who is to do it, and I 11 let you name 
 your own figure, and I 11 guarantee you that 
 they 11 meet it. As long as you ve no senti 
 ment, you might as well fight on the side that 
 will pay best." 
 
 Burke opened his lips as though to speak, 
 and then shut them again, closely. If the 
 others thought that he was giving Clay s propo 
 sition a second and more serious thought, he 
 was quick to undeceive them. 
 
 " There are men in the business who do that 
 sort of thing," he said. "They sell arms to 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 209 
 
 one man, and sell the fact that he s got them 
 to the deputy-marshals, and sell the story of 
 how smart they ve been to the newspapers. 
 And they never make any more sales after that. 
 I d look pretty, would n t I, bringing stuff into 
 this country, and getting paid for it, and then 
 telling you where it was hid, and everything 
 else I knew ? I ve no sentiment, as you say, 
 but I ve got business instinct, and that s not 
 business. No, I ve told you enough, and if 
 you think I m not safe at large, why I m quite 
 ready to take a ride with your young friend 
 here." 
 
 Mac Williams rose with alacrity, and beam 
 ing with pleasure at the importance of the duty 
 thrust upon him. 
 
 Burke smiled. " The young tm seems to like 
 the job," he said. 
 
 " It s an honor to be associated with Captain 
 Burke in any way," said Mac Williams, as he 
 followed him into a cab, while Stuart galloped 
 off before them in the direction of the cuarte*!. 
 
 "You wouldn t think so if you knew better," 
 said Burke. " My friends have been watching 
 us while we have been talking in there for the 
 last hour. They re watching us now, and if I 
 were to nod my head during this ride, they d 
 throw you out into the street and set me free, 
 U 
 
210 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 if they had to break the cab into kindling-wood 
 while they were doing it." 
 
 MacWilliams changed his seat to the one 
 opposite his prisoner, and peered up and down 
 the street in some anxiety. 
 
 " I suppose you know there s an answer to 
 that, don t you ? " he asked. " Well, the an 
 swer is, that if you nod your head once, you 
 lose the top of it." 
 
 Burke gave an exclamation of disgust, and 
 gazed at his zealous guardian with an expres 
 sion of trepidation and unconcealed disapproval. 
 " You re not armed, are you ? " he asked. 
 
 MacWilliams nodded. "Why not?" he 
 said; "these are rather heavy weather times, 
 just at present, thanks to you and your friends. 
 Why, you seem rather afraid of fire-arms," he 
 added, with the intolerance of youth. 
 
 The Irish-American touched the young man 
 on the knee, and lifted his hat. " My son, " he 
 said, " when your hair is as gray as that, and 
 you have been through six campaigns, you 11 
 be brave enough to own that you re afraid of 
 fire-arms, too." 
 
CLAY and Langham left MacWilliams and 
 Stuart to look after their prisoner, and returned 
 to the Palms, where they dined in state, and 
 made no reference, while the women were 
 present, to the events of the day. 
 
 The moon rose late that night, and as Hope 
 watched it, from where she sat at the dinner- 
 table facing the open windows, she saw the 
 figure of a man standing outlined in silhouette 
 upon the edge of the cliff. He was dressed in 
 the uniform of a sailor, and the moonlight 
 played along the barrel of a rifle upon which 
 he leaned, motionless and menacing, like a 
 sentry on a rampart. 
 
 Hope opened her lips to speak, and then 
 closed them again, and smiled with pleasurable 
 excitement. A moment later King, who sat on 
 her right, called one of the servants to his side 
 and whispered some instructions, pointing mean 
 while at the wine upon the table. And a 
 minute after, Hope saw the white figure of the 
 
212 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 servant cross the garden and approach the sen 
 tinel. She saw the sentry fling his gun sharply 
 to his hip, and then, after a moment s parley, 
 toss it up to his shoulder and disappear from 
 sight among the plants of the garden. 
 
 The men did not leave the table with the 
 ladies, as was their custom, but remained in 
 the dining-room, and drew their chairs closer 
 together. 
 
 Mr. Langham would not believe that the 
 downfall of the Government was as imminent as 
 the others believed it to be. It was only after 
 much argument, and with great reluctance, that 
 he had even allowed King to arm half of his 
 crew, and to place them on guard around the 
 Palms. Clay warned him that in the disorder 
 that followed every successful revolution, the 
 homes of unpopular members of the Cabinet 
 were often burned, and that he feared, should 
 Mendoza succeed, and Alvarez fall, that the 
 mob might possibly vent its victorious wrath 
 on the Palms because it was the home of the 
 alien, who had, as they thought, robbed the 
 country of the iron mines. Mr. Langham said 
 he did not think the people would tramp five 
 miles into the country seeking vengeance. 
 
 There was an American man-of-war lying in 
 the harbor of Truxillo, a seaport of the republic 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 213 
 
 that bounded Olancbo on the south, and Clay 
 was in favor of sending to her captain by 
 Weimer, the Consul, and asking him to anchor 
 off Valencia, to protect American interests. 
 The run would take but a few hours, and the 
 sight of the vessel s white hull in the harbor 
 would, he thought, have a salutary effect upon 
 the revolutionists. But Mr. Langham said, 
 firmly, that he would not ask for help until he 
 needed it. 
 
 "Well, I m sorry," said Clay. "I should 
 very much like to have that man-of-war here. 
 However, if you say no, we will try to get along 
 without her. But, for the present, I think you 
 had better imagine yourself back in New York, 
 and let us have an entirely free hand. We ve 
 gone too far to drop out," he went on, laughing 
 at the sight of Mr. Langham s gloomy counte 
 nance. " We ve got to fight them now. It s 
 against human nature not to do it." 
 
 Mr. Langham looked appealingly at his son 
 and at King. 
 
 They both smiled back at him in unanimous 
 disapproval of his policy of non-interference. 
 
 "Oh, very well," he said, at last. "You 
 gentlemen can go ahead, kill, burn, and destroy 
 if you wish. But, considering the fact that it 
 is my property you are all fighting about, I 
 
214 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 really think I might have something to say in 
 the matter." Mr. Langham gazed about him 
 helplessly, and shook his head. 
 
 " My doctor sends me down here from a quiet, 
 happy home," he protested, with humorous 
 pathos, "that I may rest and get away from 
 excitement, and here I am with armed men 
 patrolling my garden-paths, with a lot of fili 
 busters plotting at my own dinner-table, and a 
 civil war likely to break out, entirely on my 
 account. And Dr. Winter told me this was the 
 only place that would cure my nervous prostra 
 tion!" 
 
 Hope joined Clay as soon as the men left the 
 dining-room, and beckoned him to the farther 
 end of the veranda. " Well, what is it ? " she 
 said. 
 
 " What is what ? " laughed Clay. He seated 
 himself on the rail of the veranda, with his 
 face to the avenue and the driveway leading to 
 the house. They could hear the others from 
 the back of the house, and the voice of young 
 Langham, who was giving an imitation of 
 MacWilliams, and singing with peculiar em 
 phasis, "There is no place like Home, Sweet 
 Home." 
 
 " Why are the men guarding the Palms, and 
 why did you go to the Plaza Bolivar this morn- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 215 
 
 ing at daybreak ? Alice says you left them 
 there. I want to know what it means. I am 
 nearly as old as Ted, and he knows. The men 
 wouldn t tell me." 
 
 " What men ? " 
 
 "King s men from the Vesta. I saw some 
 of them dodging around in the bushes, and I 
 went to find out what they were doing, and I 
 walked into fifteen of them at your office. 
 They have hammocks swung all over the 
 veranda, and a quick-firing gun made fast to 
 the steps, and muskets stacked all about, just 
 like real soldiers, but they wouldn t tell me 
 why." 
 
 "We 11 put you in the carcel," said Clay "if 
 you go spying on our forces. Your father 
 doesn t wish you to know anything about it, 
 but, since you have found it out for yourself, 
 you might as well know what little there is to 
 know. It s the same story. Mendoza is get 
 ting ready to start his revolution, or, rather, 
 he has started it." 
 
 " Why don t you stop him ? " asked Hope. 
 
 " You are very flattering, " said Clay. " Even 
 if I could stop him, it s not my business to do 
 it as yet. I have to wait until he interferes 
 with me, or my mines, or my workmen. 
 Alvarez is the man who should stop him, but 
 
216 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 he is afraid. We cannot do anything until he 
 makes the first move. If I were the President, 
 I d have Mendoza shot to-morrow morning and 
 declare martial law. Then I d arrest every 
 body I did n t like, and levy forced loans on all 
 the merchants, and sail away to Paris and live 
 happy ever after. That s what Mendoza would 
 do if he caught any one plotting against him. 
 And that s what Alvarez should do, too, ac 
 cording to his lights, if he had the courage of 
 his convictions, and of his education. I like 
 to see a man play his part properly, don t you ? 
 If you are an emperor, you ought to conduct 
 yourself like one, as our German friend does. 
 Or if you are a prize-lighter, you ought to bo a 
 human bull-dog. There s no such thing as a 
 gentlemanly pugilist, any more than there can 
 be a virtuous burglar. And if you re a South 
 American Dictator, you can t afford to be 
 squeamish about throwing your enemies into 
 jail or shooting them for treason. The way to 
 dictate is to dictate, not to hide indoors all 
 day while your wife plots for you. " 
 
 "Does she do that?" asked Hope. "And 
 do you think she will be in danger any per 
 sonal danger, if the revolution comes ? " 
 
 "Well, she is very unpopular," Clay an 
 swered, "and unjustly so, I think. But it 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 217 
 
 would be better, perhaps, for her if she went as 
 quietly as possible, when she does go. " 
 
 " Is our Captain Stuart in danger, too ? " the 
 girl continued, anxiously. " Alice says they 
 put up placards about him all over the city last 
 night. She saw his men tearing them down as 
 she was coming home. What has he done ? " 
 
 "Nothing," Clay answered, shortly. "He 
 happens to be in a false position, that ? s all. 
 They think he is here because he is not wanted 
 in his own country; that is not so. That is 
 not the reason he remains here. When he was 
 even younger than he is now, he was wild and 
 foolish, and spent more money than he could 
 afford, and lent more money to his brother- 
 officers, 1 have no doubt, than they ever paid 
 back. He had to leave the regiment because 
 his father would n t pay his debts, and he has 
 been selling his sword for the last three years 
 to one or another king or sultan or party all 
 over the world, in China and Madagascar, and 
 later in Siam. I hope you will be very kind to 
 Stuart and believe well of him, and that you 
 will listen to no evil against him. Somewhere 
 in England Stuart has a sister like you about 
 your age, I mean, that loves him very dearly, 
 and a father whose heart aches for him, and 
 there is a certain royal regiment that still 
 
218 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 drinks his health with pride. He is a lonely 
 little chap, and he has no sense of humor to 
 help him out of his difficulties, but he is a very 
 brave gentleman. And he is here fighting for 
 men who are not worthy to hold his horse s 
 bridle, because of a woman. And I tell you 
 this because you will hear many lies about him 
 and about her. He serves her with the same 
 sort of chivalric devotion that his ancestors felt 
 for the woman whose ribbons they tied to their 
 lances, and for whom they fought in the lists. " 
 
 "I understand," Hope said, softly. "I am 
 glad you told me. 1 shall not forget." She 
 sighed and shook her head. " I wish they d let 
 you manage it for them, " she said. 
 
 Clay laughed. "I fear my executive ability 
 is not of so high an order ; besides, as I have n t 
 been born to it, my conscience might trouble 
 me if I had to shoot my enemies and rob the 
 worthy merchants. I had better stick to dig 
 ging holes in the ground. That is all I seem 
 to be good for. " 
 
 Hope looked up at him, quickly, in surprise. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " she de 
 manded. There was a tone of such sharp 
 reproach in her voice that Clay felt himself put 
 on the defensive. 
 
 "I mean nothing by it," he said. "Your 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 219 
 
 sister and I had a talk the other day about a 
 man s making the best of himself, and it 
 opened my eyes to to many things. It was a 
 very healthy lesson. " 
 
 " It could not have been a very healthy lesson, " 
 Hope replied, severely, " if it makes you speak 
 of your work slightingly, as you did then. 
 That did n t sound at all natural, or like you. 
 It sounded like Alice. Tell me, did Alice say 
 that ? " 
 
 The pleasure of hearing Hope take his part 
 against himself was so comforting to Clay that 
 he hesitated in answering in order to enjoy 
 it the longer. Her enthusiasm touched him 
 deeply, and he wondered if she were enthusi 
 astic because she was young, or because she 
 was sure she was right, and that he was in 
 the wrong. 
 
 " It started this way, " Clay began, carefully. 
 He was anxious to be quite fair to Miss Lang- 
 ham, but he found it difficult to give her point 
 of view correctly, while he was hungering for 
 a word that would re-establish him in his own 
 good opinion. "Your sister said she did not 
 think very much of what I had done, but she 
 explained kindly that she hoped for better 
 things from me. But what troubles me is, that 
 I will never do anything much better or very 
 
220 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 different in kind from the work I have done 
 lately, and so I am a bit discouraged about it 
 inconsequence. You see," said Clay, "when 
 I come to die, and they ask me what I have 
 done with my ten fingers, I suppose I will have 
 to say, Well, I built such and such railroads, 
 and I dug up so many tons of ore, and opened 
 new countries, and helped make other men 
 rich. I can t urge in my behalf that I happen 
 to have been so fortunate as to have gained the 
 good-will of yourself or your sister. That is 
 quite reason enough to me, perhaps, for having 
 lived, but it might not appeal to them. I want 
 to feel that I have accomplished something 
 outside of myself something that will remain 
 after I go. Even if it is only a breakwater or 
 a patent coupling. When I am dead it will not 
 matter to any one what I personally was, 
 whether I was a bore or a most charming com- 
 
 o 
 
 panion, or whether I had red hair or blue. It 
 is the work that will tell. And when your 
 sister, whose judgment is the judgment of the 
 outside world, more or less, says that the work 
 is not worth while, I naturally feel a bit dis 
 couraged. It meant so much to me, and it hurt 
 me to find it meant so little to others." 
 
 Hope remained silent for some time, but the 
 rigidity of her attitude, and the tightness with 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 221 
 
 which she pressed her lips together, showed 
 that her mind was deeply occupied. They both 
 sat silent for some few moments, looking down 
 toward the distant lights of the city. At 
 the farther end of the double row of bushes 
 that lined the avenue they could see one of 
 King s sentries passing to and fro across the 
 roadway, a long black shadow on the moonlit 
 road. 
 
 "You are very unfair to yourself," the girl 
 said at last, " and Alice does not represent the 
 opinion of the world, only of a very small part 
 of it her own little world. She does not 
 know how little it is. And you are wrong as 
 to what they will ask you at the end. What 
 will they care whether you built railroads or 
 painted impressionist pictures ? They will ask 
 you What have you made of yourself ? Have 
 you been fine, and strong, and sincere ? That 
 is what they will ask. And we like you be 
 cause you are all of these things, and because 
 you look at life so cheerfully, and are unafraid. 
 We do not like men because they build rail 
 roads, or because they are prime-ministers. 
 We like them for what they are themselves. 
 And as to your work ! " Hope added, and then 
 paused in eloquent silence. "I think it is a 
 grand work, and a noble work, full of hardships 
 
222 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and self-sacrifices. I do not know of any man 
 who has done more with his life than you have 
 done with yours. " She stopped and controlled 
 her voice before she spoke again. " You should 
 be very proud," she said. 
 
 Clay lowered his eyes and sat silent, looking 
 down the roadway. The thought that the girl 
 felt what she said so deeply, and that the fact 
 that she had said it meant more to him than 
 anything else in the world could mean, left him 
 thrilled and trembling. He wanted to reach 
 out his hand and seize both of hers, and tell 
 her how much she was to him, but it seemed 
 like taking advantage of the truths of a confes 
 sional, or of a child s innocent confidences. 
 
 "No, Miss Hope," he answered, with an 
 effort to speak lightly, " I wish I could believe 
 you, but I know myself better than any one 
 else can, and I know that while my bridges 
 may stand examination / can t. " 
 
 Hope turned and looked at him with eyes 
 full of such sweet meaning that he was forced 
 to turn his own away. 
 
 "I could trust both, I think," the girl said. 
 
 Clay drew a quick, deep breath, and started 
 to his feet, as though he had thrown off the 
 restraint under which he had held himself. 
 
 It was not a girl, but a woman who had 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 223 
 
 spoken then, but, though he turned eagerly 
 toward her, he stood with his head bowed, and 
 did not dare to read the verdict in her eyes. 
 
 The clatter of horses hoofs coming toward 
 them at a gallop broke in rudely upon the tense 
 stillness of the moment, but neither noticed it. 
 "How far," Clay began, in a strained voice, 
 "how far," he asked, more steadily, "could 
 you trust me ? " 
 
 Hope s eyes had closed for an instant, and 
 opened again, and she smiled upon him with a 
 look of perfect confidence and content. The 
 beat of the horses hoofs came now from the 
 end of the driveway, and they could hear the 
 men at the rear of the house pushing back their 
 chairs and hurrying toward them. Hope raised 
 her head, and Clay moved toward her eagerly. 
 The horses were within a hundred yards. 
 Before Hope could speak, the sentry s voice 
 rang out in a hoarse, sharp challenge, like an 
 alarm of fire on the silent night. "Halt!" 
 they heard him cry. And as the horses tore 
 past him, and their riders did not turn to look, 
 he shouted again, " Halt, damn you ! " and 
 fired. The flash showed a splash of red and 
 yellow in the moonlight, and the report started 
 into life hundreds of echoes which carried it 
 far out over the waters of the harbor, and tossed 
 
224 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 it into sharp angles, and distant corners, and 
 in an instant a myriad of sounds answered it; 
 the frightened cry of night-birds, the barking 
 of dogs in the village below, and the footsteps 
 of men running. 
 
 Clay glanced angrily down the avenue, and 
 turned beseechingly to Hope. 
 
 "Go," she said. "See what is wrong," and 
 moved away as though she already felt that he 
 could act more freely when she was not near 
 him. 
 
 The two horses fell back on their haunches 
 before the steps, and MacWilliams and Stuart 
 tumbled out of their saddles, and started, run 
 ning back on foot in the direction from which 
 the shot had come, tugging at their revolvers. 
 
 " Come back, " Clay shouted to them. " That s 
 all right. He was only obeying orders. That s 
 one of King s sentries." 
 
 "Oh, is that it?" said Stuart, in matter-of- 
 fact tones, as he turned again to the house. 
 " Good idea. Tell him to fire lower next time. 
 And, I say, " he went on, as he bowed curtly to 
 the assembled company on the veranda, "since 
 you have got a picket out, you had better double 
 it. And, Clay, see that no one leaves here with 
 out permission no one. That s more impor 
 tant, even, than keeping them out. " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 225 
 
 " King, will you " Clay began. 
 
 "All right, General," laughed King, and 
 walked away to meet his sailors, who came 
 running up the hill in great anxiety. 
 
 MacWilliams had not opened his lips, but he 
 was bristling with importance, and his effort 
 to appear calm and soldierly, like Stuart, told 
 more plainly than speech that he was the bearer 
 of some invaluable secret. The sight filled 
 young Langham with a disquieting fear that he 
 had missed something. 
 
 Stuart looked about him, and pulled briskly 
 at his gauntlets. King and his sailors were 
 grouped together on the grass before the house. 
 Mr. Langham and his daughters, and Clay, 
 were standing on the steps, and the servants 
 were peering around the corners of the house. 
 
 Stuart saluted Mr. Langham, as though to 
 attract his especial attention, and then ad 
 dressed himself in a low tone to Clay. 
 
 "It s come," he said. "We ve been in it 
 since dinner-time, and we ? ve got a whole 
 night s work cut out for you." He was laugh 
 ing with excitement, and paused for a moment 
 to gain breath. " I 11 tell you the worst of it 
 first. Mendoza has sent word to Alvarez that 
 he wants the men at the mines to be present at 
 the review to-morrow. He says they must take 
 15 
 
226 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 part. He wrote a most insolent letter. Alvarez 
 got out of it by saying that the men were under 
 contract to you, and that you must give your 
 permission first. Mendoza sent me word that 
 if you would not let the men come, he would 
 go out and fetch them in himself." 
 
 "Indeed!" growled Clay. "Kirkland needs 
 those men to-morrow to load ore-cars for Thurs 
 day s steamer. He can t spare them. That is 
 our answer, and it happens to be a true one, 
 but if it were n t true, if to-morrow was All 
 Saints Day, and the men had nothing to do 
 but to lie in the sun and sleep, Mendoza 
 could n t get them. And if he comes to take 
 them to-morrow, he 11 have to bring his army 
 with him to do it. And he could n t do it then, 
 Mr. Langham," Clay cried, turning to that 
 gentleman, " if I had better weapons. The five 
 thousand dollars I wanted you to spend on 
 rifles, sir, two months ago, might have saved 
 you several millions to-morrow." 
 
 Clay s words seemed to bear some special 
 significance to Stuart and Mac Williams, for 
 they both laughed, and Stuart pushed Clay up 
 the steps before him. 
 
 "Come inside," he said. "That is why we 
 are here. MacWilliams has found out where 
 Burke hid his shipment of arms. We are going 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 227 
 
 to try and get them to-night." He hurried 
 into the dining-room, and the others grouped 
 themselves about the table. " Tell them about 
 it, MacWilliams," Stuart commanded. "I 
 will see that no one overhears you." 
 
 MacWilliams was pushed into Mr. Langham s 
 place at the head of the long table, and the 
 others dragged their chairs up close around 
 him. King put the candles at the opposite 
 end of the table, and set some decanters and 
 glasses in the centre. "To look as though we 
 were just enjoying ourselves," he explained, 
 pleasantly. 
 
 Mr. Langham, with his fine, delicate fingers 
 beating nervously on the table, observed the 
 scene as an on-looker, rather than as the person 
 chiefly interested. He smiled as he appreciated 
 the incongruity of the tableau, and the contrast 
 which the actors presented to the situation. 
 He imagined how much it would amuse his 
 contemporaries of the Union Club, at home, if 
 they could see him then, with the still, tropical 
 night outside, the candles reflected on the 
 polished table and on the angles of the de 
 canters, and showing the intent faces of the 
 young girls and the men leaning eagerly for 
 ward around MacWilliams, who sat conscious 
 and embarrassed, his hair dishevelled, and his 
 
228 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 face covered with dust, while Stuart paced up 
 and down in the shadow, his sabre clanking as 
 he walked. 
 
 "Well, it happened like this," MacWilliams 
 began, nervously, and addressing himself to 
 Clay. " Stuart and I put Burke safely in a cell 
 by himself. It was one of the old ones that 
 face the street. There was a narrow window in 
 it, about eight feet above the floor, and no 
 means of his reaching it, even if he stood on a 
 chair. We stationed two troopers before the 
 door, and sent out to a caf across the street 
 for our dinners. I finished mine about nine 
 o clock, and said Good-night to Stuart, and 
 started to come out here. I went across the 
 street first, however, to give the restaurant 
 man some orders about Burke s breakfast. It 
 is a narrow street, you know, with a long 
 garden-wall and a row of little shops on one 
 side, and with the jail-wall taking up all of the 
 other side. The street was empty when I left 
 the jail, except for the sentry on guard in front 
 of it, but just as I was leaving the restaurant I 
 saw one of Stuart s police come out and peer 
 up and down the street and over at the shops. 
 He looked frightened and anxious, and as I 
 wasn t taking chances on anything, I stepped 
 back into the restaurant and watched him 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 229 
 
 through the window. He waited until the 
 sentry had turned his back, and started away 
 from him on his post, and then I saw him drop 
 his sabre so that it rang on the sidewalk. He 
 was standing, 1 noticed then, directly under 
 the third window from the door of the jail. 
 That was the window of Burke s cell. When I 
 grasped that fact I got out my gun and walked 
 to the door of the restaurant. Just as I reached 
 it a piece of paper shot out through the bars of 
 Burke s cell and fell at the policeman s feet, 
 and he stamped his boot down on it and looked 
 all around again to see if any one had noticed 
 him. I thought that was my cue, and I ran 
 across the street with my gun pointed, and 
 shouted to him to give me the paper. He 
 jumped about a foot when he first saw me, but 
 he was game, for he grabbed up the paper and 
 stuck it in his mouth and began to chew on it. 
 I was right up on him then, and I hit him on 
 the chin with my left fist and knocked him 
 down against the wall, and dropped on him 
 with both knees and choked him till I made 
 him spit out the paper and two teeth," 
 MacWilliams added, with a conscientious re 
 gard for details. "The sentry turned just 
 then and came at me with his bayonet, but I 
 put my finger to my lips, and that surprised 
 
230 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 him, so that he did n t know just what to do, 
 and hesitated. You see, I did n t want Burke 
 to hear the row outside, so I grabbed my police 
 man by the collar and pointed to the jail-door, 
 and the sentry ran back and brought out Stuart 
 and the guard. Stuart was pretty mad when 
 lie saw his policeman all bloody. He thought 
 it would prejudice his other men against us, 
 but I explained out loud that the man had been 
 insolent, and I asked Stuart to take us both to 
 his private room for a hearing, and, of course, 
 when I told him what had happened, he wanted 
 to punch the chap, too. We put him ourselves 
 into a cell where he could not communicate 
 with any one, and then we read the paper. 
 Stuart has it," said MacWilliams, pushing 
 back his chair, "and he ll tell you the rest." 
 There was a pause, in which every one seemed 
 to take time to breathe, and then a chorus of 
 questions and explanations. King lifted his 
 glass to MacWilliams, and nodded. 
 
 "Well done, Condor," he quoted, smiling. 
 
 "Yes," said Clay, tapping the younger man 
 on the shoulder as he passed him. " That s 
 good work. Now show us the paper, Stuart. " 
 
 Stuart pulled the candles toward him, and 
 spread a slip of paper on the table. 
 
 "Burke did this up in one of those paper 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 231 
 
 boxes for wax matches," he explained, "and 
 weighted it with a twenty-dollar gold piece. 
 MacWilliams kept the gold piece, I believe." 
 
 "Going to use it for a scarf-pin," explained 
 MacWilliams, in parenthesis. " Sort of war- 
 medal, like the Chief s," he added, smiling. 
 
 "This is in Spanish," Stuart explained. "I 
 will translate it. It is not addressed to any 
 one, and it is not signed, but it was evidently 
 written to Mendoza, and we know it is in 
 Burke s handwriting, for we compared it with 
 some notes of his that we took from him before 
 he was locked up. He says, I cannot keep 
 the appointment, as I have been arrested. 
 The line that follows here," Stuart explained, 
 raising his head, "has been scratched out, but 
 we spent some time over it, and we made out 
 that it read: It was Mr. Clay who recognized 
 me, and ordered my arrest. He is the best 
 man the others have. Watch him. We think 
 he rubbed that out through good feeling toward 
 Clay. There seems to be no other reason. 
 He s a very good sort, this old Burke, I think. " 
 
 " Well, never mind him ; it was very decent 
 of him, anyway, " said Clay. " Go on. Get to 
 Hecuba." 
 
 " I cannot keep the appointment, as I have 
 been arrested, " repeated Stuart. " I landed 
 
232 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 the goods last night in safety. I could not 
 come in when first signalled, as the wind and 
 tide were both off shore. But we got all the 
 stuff stored away by morning. Your agent 
 paid me in full and got my receipt. Please 
 consider this as the same thing as the equiva 
 lent it is difficult to translate it exactly," 
 commented Stuart " as the equivalent of the 
 receipt I was to have given when I made my 
 report to-night. I sent three of your guards 
 away on my own responsibility, for I think 
 more than that number might attract attention 
 to the spot, and they might be seen from the 
 ore-trains. That is the point of the note for 
 us, of course." Stuart interrupted himself to 
 say. "Burke adds," he went on, " c that they 
 are to make no effort to rescue him, as he is 
 quite comfortable, and is willing to remain in 
 the carcel until they are established in power. 
 
 " Within sight of the ore-trains ! " exclaimed 
 Clay. "There are no ore-trains but ours. It 
 must be along the line of the road." 
 
 "MacWilliams says he knows every foot of 
 land along the railroad," said Stuart, "and he 
 is sure the place Burke means is the old for 
 tress on the Platta inlet, because - 
 
 "It is the only place," interrupted MacWil 
 liams, "where there is no surf. They could 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 233 
 
 run small boats up the inlet and unload in 
 smooth water within twenty feet of the ram 
 parts; and another thing, that is the only point 
 on the line with a wagon road running direct 
 from it to the Capital. It s an old road, and 
 has n t been travelled over for years, but it 
 could be used. No," he added, as though an 
 swering the doubt in Clay s mind, "there is no 
 other place. If I had a map here I could show 
 you in a minute ; where the beach is level there 
 is a jungle between it and the road, and where- 
 ever there is open country, there is the lime 
 stone formation and rocks between it and the 
 sea, where no boat could touch." 
 
 "But the fortress is so conspicuous," Clay 
 demurred; "the nearest rampart is within 
 twenty feet of the road. Don t you remember 
 we measured it when we thought of laying the 
 double track ? " 
 
 "That is just what Burke says," urged 
 Stuart. " That is the reason he gives for leav 
 ing only three men on guard I think more 
 than that number might attract attention to the 
 spot, as they might be seen from the ore- 
 trains. " 
 
 " Have you told any one of this ? " Clay 
 asked. " What have you done so far ? " 
 
 "We ve done nothing," said Stuart. "We 
 
234 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 * 
 
 lost our nerve when we found out how much we 
 knew, and we decided we d better leave it to 
 you. " 
 
 "Whatever we do must be done at once," 
 said Clay. "They will come for the arms to 
 night, most likely, and we must be there first. 
 I agree with you entirely about the place. It 
 is only a question now of our being on time. 
 There are two things to do. The first thing is, 
 to keep them from getting the arms, and the 
 second is, if we are lucky, to secure them for 
 ourselves. If we can pull it off properly, we 
 ought to have those rifles in the mines before 
 midnight. If we are hurried or surprised, we 
 must dump them off the fort into the sea." 
 Clay laughed and looked about him at the men. 
 "We are only following out General Bolivar s 
 saying When you want arms take them from 
 the enemy. Now, there are three places we 
 must cover. This house, first of all," he went 
 on, inclining his head quickly toward the two 
 sisters, " then the city, and the mines. Stuart s 
 place, of course, is at the Palace. King must 
 take care of this house and those in it, and 
 MacWilliams and Langham and I must look 
 after the arms. We must organize two parties, 
 and they had better approach the fort from here 
 and from the mines at the same time. I will 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 235 
 
 need you to do some telegraphing for me, Mac ; 
 and, King, I must ask you for some more men 
 from the yacht. How many have you ? " 
 
 King answered that there were fifteen men 
 still on board, ten of whom would be of service. 
 He added that they were all well equipped for 
 fighting. 
 
 " I believe King s a pirate in business hours," 
 Clay said, smiling. " All right, that s good. 
 Now go tell ten of them to meet me at the 
 round-house in half an hour. I will get 
 MacWilliams to telegraph Kirkland to run an 
 engine and flat cars to within a half mile of the 
 fort on the north, and we will come up on it 
 with the sailors and Ted, here, from the south. 
 You must run the engine yourself, MacWilliams, 
 and perhaps it would be better, King, if your 
 men joined us at the foot of the grounds here 
 and not at the round-house. None of the work 
 men must see our party start. Do you agree 
 with me ? " he asked, turning to those in the 
 group about him. " Has anybody any criticism 
 to make ? " 
 
 Stuart and King looked at one another rue 
 fully and laughed. "I don t see what good I 
 am doing in town," protested Stuart. "Yes, 
 and I don t see where I come in, either," 
 growled King, in aggrieved tones. "These 
 
236 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 youngsters can t do it all: besides I ought to 
 have charge of my own men. " 
 
 "Mutiny," said Clay, in some perplexity, 
 " rank mutiny. Why, it s only a picnic. 
 There are but three men there. We don t 
 need sixteen white men to frighten off three 
 Olanchians." 
 
 "I 11 tell you what to do," cried Hope, with 
 the air of having discovered a plan which would 
 be acceptable to every one, " let s all go. " 
 
 "Well, I certainly mean to go," said Mr. 
 Langham, decidedly. " So some one else must 
 stay here. Ted, you will have to look after 
 your sisters." 
 
 The son and heir smiled upon his parent 
 with a look of affectionate wonder, and shook 
 his head at him in fond and pitying dis 
 approval. 
 
 "I 11 stay," said King. "I have never seen 
 such ungallant conduct. Ladies," he said, "I 
 will protect your lives and property, and we 11 
 invent something exciting to do ourselves, even 
 if we have to bombard the Capital." 
 
 The men bade the women good-night, and 
 left them with King and Mr. Langham, who 
 had been persuaded to remain overnight, while 
 Stuart rode off to acquaint Alvarez and General 
 Rojas with what was going on. 
 
XI 
 
 THERE was no chance for Clay to speak to 
 Hope again, though he felt the cruelty of hav 
 ing to leave her with everything between them 
 in this interrupted state. But their friends 
 stood about her, interested and excited over 
 this expedition of smuggled arms, unconscious 
 of the great miracle that had come into his 
 life and of his need to speak to and to touch 
 the woman who had wrought it. Clay felt how 
 much more binding than the laws of life are 
 the little social conventions that must be ob 
 served at times, even though the heart is leap 
 ing with joy or racked with sorrow. He stood 
 within a few feet of the woman he loved, want 
 ing to cry out at her and to tell her all the 
 wonderful things which he had learned were 
 true for the first time that night, but he was 
 forced instead to keep his eyes away from her 
 face and to laugh and answer questions, and at 
 the last to go away content with having held 
 
238 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 her hand for an instant, and to have heard her 
 say "good-luck." 
 
 MacWilliams called Kirkland to the office at 
 the other end of the Company s wire, and 
 explained the situation to him. He was in 
 structed to run an engine and freight-cars to a 
 point a quarter of a mile north of the fort, and 
 to wait there until he heard a locomotive 
 whistle or pistol shots, when he was to run on 
 to the fort as quickly and as noiselessly as 
 possible. He was also directed to bring with 
 him as many of the American workmen as he 
 could trust to keep silent concerning the events 
 of the evening. At ten o clock MacWilliams 
 had the steam up in a locomotive, and with his 
 only passenger-car in the rear, ran it out of the 
 yard and stopped the train at the point nearest 
 the cars where ten of the Testa s crew were 
 Avaiting. The sailors had no idea as to where 
 they were going, or what they were to do, but 
 the fact that they had all been given arms filled 
 them with satisfaction, and they huddled to 
 gether at the bottom of the car smoking and 
 whispering, and radiant with excitement and 
 satisfaction. 
 
 The train progressed cautiously until it was 
 within a half mile below the fort, when Clay 
 stopped it, and, leaving two men on guard, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 239 
 
 stepped off the remaining distance on the ties, 
 his little band following noiselessly behind 
 him like a procession of ghosts in the moon 
 light. They halted and listened from time to 
 time as they drew near the ruins, but there was 
 no sound except the beating of the waves on the 
 rocks and the rustling of the sea-breeze through 
 the vines and creepers about them. 
 
 Clay motioned to the men to sit down, and, 
 beckoning to MacWilliams, directed him to go 
 on ahead and reconnoitre. 
 
 "If you fire we will come up," he said. 
 " Get back here as soon as you can." 
 
 "Aren t you going to make sure first that 
 Kirkland is on the other side of the fort ? " 
 MacWilliams whispered. 
 
 Clay replied that he was certain Kirkland 
 had already arrived. "He had a shorter run 
 than ours, and he wired you he was ready to 
 start when we were, did n t he ? " MacWilliams 
 nodded. 
 
 "Well, then, he is there. I can count on 
 Kirk." 
 
 MacWilliams pulled at his heavy boots and 
 hid them in the bushes, with his helmet over 
 them to mark the spot. " I feel as though I was 
 going to rob a bank," he chuckled, as he waved 
 his hand and crept off into the underbrush. 
 
240 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 For the first few moments the men who were 
 left behind sat silent, but as the minutes wore 
 on, and Mac Williams made no sign, they grew 
 restless, and shifted their positions, and began 
 to whisper together, until Clay shook his head 
 at them, and there was silence again until one 
 of them, in trying not to cough, almost 
 strangled, and the others tittered and those 
 nearest pummelled him on the back. 
 
 Clay pulled out his revolver, and after spin 
 ning the cylinder under his finger-nail, put it 
 back in its holder again, and the men, taking 
 this as an encouraging promise of immediate 
 action, began to examine their weapons again 
 for the twentieth time, and there was a chorus 
 of short, muffled clicks as triggers were drawn 
 back and cautiously lowered and levers shot 
 into place and caught again. 
 
 One of the men farthest down the track 
 raised his arm, and all turned and half rose as 
 they saw MacWilliams coming toward them on 
 a run, leaping noiselessly in his stocking feet 
 from tie to tie. He dropped on his knees 
 between Clay and Langham. 
 
 "The guns are there all right," he whispered, 
 panting, " and there are only three men guard 
 ing them. They are all sitting on the beach 
 smoking. I hustled around the fort and came 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 241 
 
 across the whole outfit in the second gallery. 
 It looks like a row of coffins, ten coffins and 
 about twenty little boxes and kegs. I m sure 
 that means they are coming for them to-night. 
 They ? ve not tried to hide them nor to cover 
 them up. All we ve got to do is to walk down 
 on the guards and tell them to throw up their 
 hands. It s too easy." 
 
 Clay jumped to his feet. "Come on," he 
 said. 
 
 " Wait till I get my boots on first, " begged 
 MacWilliams. "I wouldn t go over those 
 cinders again in my bare feet for all the buried 
 treasure in the Spanish Main. You can make 
 all the noise you want; the waves will drown 
 it." 
 
 With MacWilliams to show them the way, 
 the men scrambled up the outer wall of the fort 
 and crossed the moss-covered ramparts at the 
 run. Below them, on the sandy beach, were 
 three men sitting around a driftwood fire that 
 had sunk to a few hot ashes. Clay nodded to 
 MacWilliams. " You and Ted can have them," 
 he said. " Go with him, Langham. " 
 
 The sailors levelled their rifles at the three 
 
 lonely figures on the beach as the two boys 
 
 slipped down the wall and fell on their hands 
 
 and feet in the sand below, and then crawled up 
 
 16 
 
242 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 to within a few feet of where the men were 
 sitting. 
 
 As MacWilliams raised his revolver one of 
 the three, who was cooking something over the 
 fire, raised his head and with a yell of warning 
 flung himself toward his rifle. 
 
 " Up with your hands ! " MacWilliams shouted 
 in Spanish, and Langham, running in, seized the 
 nearest sentry by the neck and shoved his face 
 down between his knees into the sand. 
 
 There was a great rattle of falling stones and 
 of breaking vines as the sailors tumbled down 
 the side of the fort, and in a half minute s time 
 the three sentries were looking with angry, 
 frightened eyes at the circle of armed men 
 around them. 
 
 "Now gag them," said Clay. "Does any 
 body here know how to gag a man ? " he asked. 
 " I don t." 
 
 " Better make him tell what he knows first," 
 suggested Langham. 
 
 But the Spaniards were too terrified at what 
 they had done, or at what they had failed to do, 
 to further commit themselves. 
 
 "Tie us and gag us," one of them begged. 
 " Let them find us so. It is the kindest thing 
 you can do for us." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," said Clay. That is what 
 
LANGHAM SHOVED HIS FACE DOWN BETWEEN HIS KNEES 
 INTO THE SAND. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 243 
 
 I wanted to know. They are coming to-night, 
 then. We must hurry." 
 
 The three sentries were bound and hidden at 
 the base of the wall, with a sailor to watch them. 
 He was a young man with a high sense of the 
 importance of his duties, and he enlivened the 
 prisoners by poking them in the ribs whenever 
 they moved. 
 
 Clay deemed it impossible to signal Kirkland 
 as they had arranged to do, as they could not 
 know now how near those who were coming for 
 the arms might be. So Mac Williams was sent 
 back for his engine, and a few minutes later 
 they heard it rumble heavily past the fort on 
 its way to bring up Kirkland and the flat cars. 
 Clay explored the lower chambers of the fort 
 and found the boxes as MacWilliams had de 
 scribed them. Ten men, with some effort, could 
 lift and carry the larger coffin-shaped boxes, and 
 Clay guessed that, granting their contents to be 
 rifles, there must be a hundred pieces in each 
 box, and that there were a thousand rifles in all. 
 
 They had moved half of the boxes to the side 
 of the track when the train of flat cars and the 
 two engines came crawling and twisting toward 
 them, between the walls of the jungle, like a 
 great serpent, with no light about it but the glow 
 from the hot ashes as they fell between the rails. 
 
244 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Thirty men, equally divided between Irish and 
 negroes, fell off the flat cars before the wheels 
 had ceased to revolve, and, without a word of 
 direction, began loading the heavy boxes on the 
 train and passing the kegs of cartridges from 
 hand to hand and shoulder to shoulder. The 
 sailors spread out up the road that led to the 
 Capital to give warning in case the enemy ap 
 proached, but they were recalled before they 
 had reason to give an alarm, and in a half 
 hour Burke s entire shipment of arms was on 
 the ore-cars, the men who were to have guarded 
 them were prisoners in the cab of the engine, 
 and both trains were rushing at full speed 
 toward the mines. On arriving there Kirkland s 
 train was switched to the siding that led to the 
 magazine in which was stored the rackarock and 
 dynamite used in the blasting. By midnight all 
 of the boxes were safely under lock in the zinc 
 building, and the number of the men who always 
 guarded the place for fear of fire or accident 
 was doubled, while a reserve, composed of Kirk- 
 land s thirty picked men, were hidden in the 
 surrounding houses and engine-sheds. 
 
 Before Clay left he had one of the boxes 
 broken open, and found that it held a hundred 
 Mannlicher rifles. 
 
 "Good!" he said. "I d give a thousand 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 245 
 
 dollars in gold if I could bring Mendoza out here 
 and show him his own men armed with his own 
 Mannlichers and dying for a shot at him. How 
 old Burke will enjoy this when he hears of it ! " 
 
 The party from the Palms returned to their 
 engine after many promises of reward to the 
 men for their work " over-time," and were soon 
 flying back with their hearts as light as the 
 smoke above them. 
 
 Mac Williams slackened speed as they neared 
 the fort, and moved up cautiously on the scene 
 of their recent victory, but a warning cry from 
 Clay made him bring his engine to a sharp stop. 
 Many lights were flashing over the ruins and 
 they could see in their reflection the figures of 
 men running over the same walls on which the 
 lizards had basked in undisturbed peace for 
 years. 
 
 " They look like a swarm of hornets after 
 some one has chucked a stone through their 
 nest," laughed MacWilliams. " What shall we 
 do now ? Go back, or wait here, or run the 
 blockade?" 
 
 " Oh, ride them out," said Langham ; " the 
 family s anxious, and I want to tell them 
 what s happened. Go ahead." 
 
 Clay turned to the sailors in the car behind 
 them. " Lie down, men," he said. " And don t 
 
246 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 any of you fire unless I tell you to. Let them 
 do all the shooting. This is n t our fight yet, 
 and, besides, they can t hit a locomotive stand 
 ing still, certainly not when it s going at full 
 speed." 
 
 " Suppose they ve torn the track up ? " said 
 MacWilliams, grinning. " We d look sort of 
 silly flying through the air." 
 
 " Oh, they ve not sense enough to think of 
 that," said Clay. " Besides, they don t know it 
 was we who took their arms away, yet." 
 
 MacWilliams opened the throttle gently, and 
 the train moved slowly forward, gaining speed 
 at each revolution of the wheels. 
 
 As the noise of its approach beat louder and 
 louder on the air, a yell of disappointed rage 
 and execration rose into the night from the fort, 
 and a mass of soldiers swarmed upon the track, 
 leaping up and down and shaking the rifles in 
 their hands. 
 
 " That sounds a little as though they thought 
 we had something to do with it," said MacWil 
 liams, grimly. " If they don t look out some 
 one will get hurt." 
 
 There was a flash of fire from where the mass 
 of men stood, followed by a dozen more flashes, 
 and the bullets rattled on the smokestack and 
 upon the boiler of the engine. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 247 
 
 "Low bridge," cried Mac Williams, with a 
 fierce chuckle. " Now, watch her ! " 
 
 He threw open the throttle as far as it would 
 go, and the engine answered to his touch like a 
 race-horse to the whip. It seemed to spring 
 from the track into the air. It quivered and 
 shook like a live tiling, and as it shot in be 
 tween the soldiers they fell back on either side, 
 and MacWilliams leaned far out of his cab-win 
 dow shaking his fist at them. 
 
 "You got left, didn t you?" he shouted. 
 " Thank you for the Mannlichers." 
 
 As the locomotive rushed out of the jungle, 
 and passed the point on the road nearest to the 
 Palms, MacWilliams loosened three long tri 
 umphant shrieks from his whistle and the sail 
 ors stood up and cheered. 
 
 " Let them shout," cried Clay. " Everybody 
 will have to know now. It s begun at last," he 
 said, with a laugh of relief. 
 
 "And we took the first trick," said MacWil 
 liams, as he ran his engine slowly into the rail 
 road yard. 
 
 The whistles of the engine and the shouts of 
 the sailors had carried far through the silence 
 of the night, and as the men came hurrying 
 across the lawn to the Palms, they saw all of 
 those who had been left behind grouped on 
 the veranda awaitino; them. 
 
248 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Do the conquering heroes come ? " shouted 
 King. 
 
 " They do," young Langham cried, joyously. 
 " We Ve got all their arms, and they shot at us. 
 We Ve been under fire ! " 
 
 " Are any of you hurt ? " asked Miss Lang- 
 ham, anxiously, as she and the others hurried 
 down the steps to welcome them, while those of 
 the Vesta s crew who had been left behind 
 looked at their comrades with envy. 
 
 " We have been so frightened and anxious 
 about you," said Miss Langham. 
 
 Hope held out her hand to Clay and greeted 
 him with a quiet, happy smile, that was in con 
 trast to the excitement and confusion that 
 reigned about them. 
 
 " I knew you would come back safely," she 
 said. And the pressure of her hand seemed to 
 add " to me." 
 
XII 
 
 THE day of the review rose clear and warm, 
 tempered by a light breeze from the sea. As it 
 was a fete day, the harbor wore an air of 
 unwonted inactivity ; no lighters passed heavily 
 from the levees to the merchantmen at anchor, 
 and the warehouses along the wharves were 
 closed and deserted. A thin line of smoke 
 from the funnels of the Vesta showed that her 
 fires were burning, and the fact that she rode 
 on a single anchor chain seemed to promise 
 that at any moment she might slip away to sea. 
 
 As Clay was finishing his coffee two notes 
 were brought to him from messengers who had 
 ridden out that morning, and who sat in their 
 saddles looking at the armed force around the 
 office with amused intelligence. 
 
 One note was from Mendoza, and said he had 
 decided not to call out the regiment at the 
 mines, as he feared their long absence from 
 drill would make them compare unfavorably 
 with their comrades, and do him more harm 
 than credit. " He is afraid of them since last 
 
250 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 night," was Clay s comment, as he passed the 
 note on to MacWilliams. " He s quite right, 
 they might do him harm." 
 
 The second note was from Stuart. He said 
 the city was already wide awake and restless, 
 but whether this was due to the fact that it was 
 a fete day, or to some other cause which would 
 disclose itself later, he could not tell. Madame 
 Alvarez, the afternoon before, while riding in 
 the Alameda, had been insulted by a group of 
 men around a cafe , who had risen and shouted 
 after her, one of them throwing a wine-glass 
 into her lap as she rode past. His troopers 
 had charged the sidewalk and carried off six of 
 the men to the carcel. He and Rojas had urged 
 the President to make every preparation for 
 immediate flight, to have the horses put to his 
 travelling carriage, and had warned him when 
 at the review to take up his position at the 
 point nearest to his own body-guard, and as far 
 as possible from the troops led by Mendoza. 
 Stuart added that he had absolute confidence 
 in the former. The policeman who had at 
 tempted to carry Burke s note to Mendoza had 
 confessed that he was the only traitor in the 
 camp, and that he had tried to work on his 
 comrades without success. Stuart begged Clay 
 to join him as quickly as possible. Clay went 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 251 
 
 up the hill to the Palms, and after consulting 
 with Mr. Langham, dictated an order to Kirk- 
 land, instructing him to call the men together 
 and to point out to them how much better their 
 condition had been since they had entered the 
 mines, and to promise them an increase of 
 wages if they remained faithful to Mr. Lang- 
 ham s interests, and a small pension to any 
 one who might be injured "from any cause 
 whatsoever" while serving him. 
 
 "Tell them, if they are loyal, they can live 
 in their shacks rent free hereafter," wrote 
 Clay. "They are always asking for that. It s 
 a cheap generosity," he added aloud to Mr. 
 Langham, "because we ve never been able to 
 collect rent from any of them yet." 
 
 At noon young Langham ordered the best 
 three horses in the stables to be brought to the 
 door of the Palms for Clay, MacWilliams, and 
 himself. Clay s last words to King were to 
 have the yacht in readiness to put to sea when 
 he telephoned him to do so, and he advised the 
 women to have their dresses and more valu 
 able possessions packed ready to be taken on 
 board. 
 
 "Don t you think I might see the review if 
 I went on horseback ? " Hope asked. " I could 
 get away then, if there should be any trouble." 
 
252 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Clay answered with a look of such alarm 
 and surprise that Hope laughed. 
 
 "See the review! I should say not," he 
 exclaimed. "I don t even want Ted to be 
 there." 
 
 "Oh, that s always the way," said Hope, "I 
 miss everything. I think I 11 come, however, 
 anyhow. The servants are all going, and I 11 
 go with them disguised in a turban. " 
 
 As the men neared Valencia, Clay turned 
 in his saddle, and asked Langham if he 
 thought his sister would really venture into 
 the town. 
 
 " She d better not let me catch her, if she 
 does," the fond brother replied. 
 
 The reviewing party left the Government 
 Palace for the Alameda at three o clock, Presi 
 dent Alvarez riding on horseback in advance, 
 and Madame Alvarez sitting in the State car 
 riage with one of her attendants, and with 
 Stuart s troopers gathered so closely about her 
 that the men s boots scraped against the wheels, 
 and their numbers hid her almost entirely from 
 sight. 
 
 The great square in which the evolutions 
 were to take place was lined on its four sides 
 by the carriages of the wealthy Olancheans, 
 except at the two gates, where there was a wide 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 253 
 
 space left open to admit the soldiers. The 
 branches of the trees on the edges of the bare 
 parade ground were black with men and boys, 
 and the balconies and roofs of the houses that 
 faced it were gay with streamers and flags, and 
 alive with women wrapped for the occasion in 
 their colored shawls. Seated on the grass be 
 tween the carriages, or surging up and down 
 behind them, were thousands of people, each 
 hurrying to gain a better place of vantage, or 
 striving to hold the one he had, and forming a 
 restless, turbulent audience in which all indi 
 vidual cries were lost in a great murmur of 
 laughter, and calls, and cheers. The mass 
 knit together, and pressed forward as the 
 President s band swung jauntily into the square 
 and halted in one corner, and a shout of expec 
 tancy went up from the trees and housetops as 
 the President s body-guard entered at the lower 
 gate, and the broken place in its ranks showed 
 that it was escorting the State carriage. The 
 troopers fell back on two sides, and the car 
 riage, with the President riding at its head, 
 passed on, and took up a position in front of 
 the other carriages, and close to one of the 
 sides of the hollow square. At Stuart s orders 
 Clay, MacWilliams, and Langham had pushed 
 their horses into the rear rank of cavalry, and 
 
254 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 remained wedged between the troopers within 
 twenty feet of where Madame Alvarez was sit 
 ting. She was very white, and the powder on 
 her face gave her an added and unnatural pal 
 lor. As the people cheered her husband and 
 herself she raised her head slightly and seemed 
 to be trying to catch any sound of dissent in 
 their greeting, or some possible undercurrent 
 of disfavor, but the welcome appeared to be 
 both genuine and hearty, until a second shout 
 smothered it completely as the figure of old 
 General Rojas, the Vice-President, and the 
 most dearly loved by the common people, came 
 through the gate at the head of his regiment. 
 There was such greeting for him that the wel 
 come to the President seemed mean in compari 
 son, and it was with an embarrassment which 
 both felt that the two men drew near together, 
 and each leaned from his saddle to grasp the 
 other s hand. Madame Alvarez sank back 
 rigidly on her cushions, and her eyes flashed 
 with anticipation and excitement. She drew 
 her mantilla a little closer about her shoulders, 
 with a nervous shudder as though she were 
 cold. Suddenly the look of anxiety in her eyes 
 changed to one of annoyance, and she beckoned 
 Clay imperiously to the side of the carriage. 
 "Look," she said, pointing across the square. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 255 
 
 " If I am not mistaken that is Miss Langham, 
 Miss Hope. The one on the black horse it 
 must be she, for none of the native ladies ride. 
 It is not safe for her to be here alone. Go," 
 she commanded, " bring her here to me. Put 
 her next to the carriage, or perhaps she will 
 be safer with you among the troopers." 
 
 Clay had recognized Hope before Madame 
 Alvarez had finished speaking, and dashed off 
 at a gallop, skirting the line of carriages. 
 Hope had stopped her horse beside a victoria, 
 and was talking to the native women who occu 
 pied it, and who were scandalized at her 
 appearance in a public place with no one but a 
 groom to attend her. 
 
 " Why, it s the same thing as a polo match," 
 protested Hope, as Clay pulled up angrily 
 beside the victoria. "I always ride over to 
 polo alone at Newport, at least with James," 
 she added, nodding her head toward the 
 servant. 
 
 The man approached Clay and touched his 
 hat apologetically, "Miss Hope would come, 
 sir," he said, " and I thought I d better be with 
 her than to go off and tell Mr. Langham, sir. 
 I knew she would n t wait for me. " 
 
 "I asked you not to come," Clay said to 
 Hope, in a low voice. 
 
256 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "I wanted to know the worst at once," she 
 answered. " I was anxious about Ted and 
 you." 
 
 "Well, it can t be helped now," he said. 
 " Come, we must hurry, here is our friend, the 
 enemy." He bowed to their acquaintances in 
 the victoria and they trotted briskly off to the 
 side of the President s carriage, just as a yell 
 arose from the crowd that made all the other 
 shouts which had preceded it sound like the 
 cheers of children at recess. 
 
 "It reminds me of a football match," whis 
 pered young Langham, excitedly, "when the 
 teams run on the field. Look at Alvarez and 
 Rojas watching Mendoza." 
 
 Mendoza advanced at the front of his three 
 troops of cavalry, looking neither to the left 
 nor right, and by no sign acknowledging the 
 fierce uproarious greeting of the people. Close 
 behind him came his chosen band of cowboys 
 and ruffians. They were the best equipped and 
 least disciplined soldiers in the army, and 
 were, to the great relief of the people, seldom 
 seen in the city, but were kept moving in the 
 mountain passes and along the coast line, on 
 the lookout for smugglers with whom they were 
 on the most friendly terms. They were a 
 picturesque body of blackguards, in their high- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 257 
 
 topped boots and silver-tipped sombreros and 
 heavy, gaudy saddles, but the shout that had 
 gone up at their advance was due as much to 
 the fear they inspired as to any great love for 
 them or their chief. 
 
 " Now all the chessmen are on the board, and 
 the game can begin," said Clay. "It s like the 
 scene in the play, where each man has his 
 sword at another man s throat and no one dares 
 make the first move. " He smiled as he noted, 
 with the eye of one who had seen continental 
 troops in action, the shuffling steps and slovenly 
 carriage of the half-grown soldiers that followed 
 Mendoza s cavalry at a quick step. Stuart s 
 picked men, over whom he had spent many hot 
 and weary hours, looked like a troop of Life 
 Guardsmen in comparison. Clay noted their 
 superiority, but he also saw that in numbers 
 they were most woefully at a disadvantage. 
 
 It was a brilliant scene for so modest a capi 
 tal. The sun flashed on the trappings of the 
 soldiers, on the lacquer and polished metal 
 work of the carriages ; and the Parisian gowns 
 of their occupants and the fluttering flags and 
 banners filled the air with color and movement, 
 while back of all, framing the parade ground 
 with a band of black, was the restless mob of 
 people applauding the evolutions, and cheering 
 17 
 
258 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 for their favorites, Alvarez, Mendoza, and 
 Rojas, moved by an excitement that was in 
 disturbing contrast to the easy good-nature of 
 their usual manner. 
 
 The marching and countermarching of the 
 troops had continued with spirit for some time, 
 and there was a halt in the evolutions which 
 left the field vacant, except for the presence of 
 Mendoza s cavalrymen, who were moving at a 
 walk along one side of the quadrangle. Alvarez 
 and Vice-President Rojas, with Stuart, as an 
 adjutant at their side, were sitting their horses 
 within some fifty yards of the State carriage 
 and the body-guard. Alvarez made a conspicu 
 ous contrast in his black coat and high hat to 
 the brilliant greens and reds of his generals 
 uniforms, but he sat his saddle as well as either 
 of the others, and his white hair, white imperial 
 and mustache, and the dignity of his bearing 
 distinguished him above them both. Little 
 Stuart, sitting at his side, with his blue eyes 
 glaring from under his white helmet and his 
 face burned to almost as red a tint as his curly 
 hair, looked like a fierce little bull-dog in com 
 parison. None of the three men spoke as they 
 sat motionless and quite alone waiting for the 
 next movement of the troops. 
 
 It proved to be one of moment. Even before 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 259 
 
 Mendoza had ridden toward them with his 
 sword at salute, Clay gave an exclamation of 
 enlightenment and concern. He saw that the 
 men who were believed to be devoted to Rojas, 
 had been halted and left standing at the farthest 
 corner of the plaza, nearly two hundred yards 
 from where the President had taken his place, 
 that Mendoza s infantry surrounded them on 
 every side, and that Mendoza s cowboys, who 
 had been walking their horses, had wheeled and 
 were coming up with an increasing momentum, 
 a flying mass of horses and men directed 
 straight at the President himself. 
 
 Mendoza galloped up to Alvarez with his 
 sword still in salute. His eyes were burning 
 with excitement and with the light of success. 
 No one but Stuart and Rojas heard his words ; 
 to the spectators and to the army he appeared 
 as though he was, in his capacity of Commander- 
 in-Chief, delivering some brief report, or asking 
 for instructions. 
 
 " Dr. Alvarez," he said, " as the head of the 
 army I arrest you for high treason ; you have 
 plotted to place yourself in office without popu 
 lar election. You are also accused of large 
 thefts of public funds. I must ask you to ride 
 with me to the military prison. General Rojas, 
 I regret that as an accomplice of the Presi- 
 
260 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 dent s, you must come with us also. I will ex 
 plain my action to the people when you are safe 
 in prison, and I will proclaim martial law. If 
 your troops attempt to interfere, my men have 
 orders to fire on them and you." 
 
 Stuart did not wait for his sentence. He had 
 heard the heavy heat of the cavalry coming up 
 on them at a trot. He saw the ranks open and 
 two men catch at each bridle rein of both Al 
 varez and Rojas and drag them on with them, 
 buried in the crush of horses about them, and 
 swept forward by the weight and impetus of the 
 moving mass behind. Stuart dashed off to the 
 State carriage and seized the nearest of the hor 
 ses by the bridle, " To the Palace ! " he shouted 
 to his men. " Shoot any one who tries to stop 
 you. Forward, at a gallop," he commanded. 
 
 The populace had not discovered what had 
 occurred until it was finished. The coup d etat 
 had been long considered and the manner in 
 which it was to be carried out carefully planned. 
 The cavalry had swept across the parade ground 
 and up the street before the people saw that 
 they carried Rojas and Alvarez with them. The 
 regiment commanded by Rojas found itself hem 
 med in before and behind by Mendoza s two 
 regiments. They were greatly outnumbered, 
 but they fired a scattering shot, and following 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 261 
 
 their captured leader, broke through the line 
 around them and pursued the cavalry toward the 
 military prison. 
 
 It was impossible to tell in the uproar which 
 followed how many or how few had been parties 
 to the plot. The mob, shrieking and shouting 
 and leaping in the air, swarmed across the pa 
 rade ground, and from a dozen different points 
 men rose above the heads of the people and ha 
 rangued them in violent speeches. And while 
 some of the soldiers and the citizens gathered 
 anxiously about these orators, others ran through 
 the city calling for the rescue of the President, 
 for an attack on the palace, and shrieking 
 " Long live the Government!" and "Long live 
 the Revolution ! " The State carriage raced 
 through the narrow streets with its body-guard 
 galloping around it, sweeping down in its rush 
 stray pedestrians, and scattering the chairs and 
 tables in front of the cafe s. As it dashed up 
 the long avenue of the palace, Stuart called his 
 men back and ordered them to shut and barri 
 cade the great iron gates and to guard them 
 against the coming of the mob, while Mac Wil 
 liams and young Langham pulled open the car 
 riage door and assisted the President s wife and 
 her terrified companion to alight. Madame 
 Alvarez was trembling with excitement as she 
 
262 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 leaned on Langham s arm, but she showed no 
 signs of fear in her face or in her manner. 
 
 " Mr. Clay has gone to bring your travel 
 ling carriage to the rear door," Langham said. 
 " Stuart tells us it is harnessed and ready. You 
 will hurry, please, and get whatever you need 
 to carry with you. We will see you safely to 
 the coast." 
 
 As they entered the hall, and were ascending 
 the great marble stairway, Hope and her groom, 
 who had followed in the rear of the cavalry, 
 came running to meet them. " 1 got in by the 
 back way," Hope explained. " The streets there 
 are all deserted. How can I help you?" she 
 asked, eagerly. 
 
 " By leaving me," cried the older woman. 
 " Good God, child, have I not enough to answer 
 for without dragging you into this ? Go home 
 at once through the botanical garden, and then 
 by way of the wharves. That part of the city 
 is still empty." 
 
 " Where are your servants ; why are they not 
 here ? " Hope demanded without heeding her. 
 The palace was strangely empty ; no footsteps 
 came running to greet them,, no doors opened 
 or shut as they hurried to Madame Alvarez s 
 apartments. The servants of the household had 
 fled at the first sound of the uproar in the city, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 263 
 
 and the dresses and ornaments scattered on the 
 floor told that they had not gone empty-handed. 
 The woman who had accompanied Madame Al 
 varez to the review sank weeping on the bed, 
 and then, as the shouts grew suddenly louder 
 and more near, ran to hide herself in the upper 
 stories of the house. Hope crossed to the win 
 dow and saw a great mob of soldiers and citizens 
 sweep around the corner and throw themselves 
 against the iron fence of the palace. " You will 
 have to hurry," she said. " Remember, you are 
 risking the lives of those boys by your delay." 
 
 There was a large bed in the room, and Ma 
 dame Alvarez had pulled it forward and was 
 bending over a safe that had opened in the wall, 
 and which had been hidden by the head-board of 
 the bed. She held up a bundle of papers in her 
 hand, wrapped in a leather portfolio. " Do you 
 see these ?" she cried, " they are drafts for five 
 millions of dollars. She tossed them back into 
 the safe and swung the door shut. 
 
 " You are a witness. I do not take them," 
 she said. 
 
 "I don t understand," Hope answered, " but 
 hurry. Have you everything you want have 
 you your jewels ? " 
 
 " Yes," the woman answered, as she rose to 
 her feet, " they are mine." 
 
264 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 A yell more loud and terrible than any that 
 had gone before rose from the garden below, 
 and there was the sound of iron beating against 
 iron, and cries of rage and execration from a 
 great multitude. 
 
 " I will not go!" the Spanish woman cried, 
 suddenly. " I will not leave Alvarez to that 
 mob. If they want to kill me, let them kill 
 me." She threw the bag that held her jewels 
 on the bed, and pushing open the window step 
 ped out upon the balcony. She was conspicuous 
 in her black dress against the yellow stucco of 
 the wall, and in an instant the mob saw her and 
 a mad shout of exultation and anger rose from 
 the mass that beat and crushed itself against 
 the high iron railings of the garden. Hope 
 caught the woman by the skirt and dragged her 
 back. " You are mad," she said. " What good 
 can you do your husband here ? Save yourself 
 and he will come to you when lie can. There 
 is nothing you can do for him now ; you cannot 
 give your life for him. You are wasting it, and 
 you are risking the lives of the men who are 
 waiting for us below. Come, I tell you." 
 
 Mac Williams left Clay waiting beside the dili 
 gence and ran from the stable through the 
 empty house and down the marble stairs to the 
 garden without meeting any one on his way. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 265 
 
 He saw Stuart helping and directing his men to 
 barricade the gates with iron urns and garden 
 benches and sentry-boxes. Outside the mob 
 were firing at him with their revolvers, and 
 calling him foul names, but Stuart did not 
 seem to hear them. He greeted Mac Williams 
 with a cheerful little laugh. " Well," he asked, 
 " is she ready ? " 
 
 " No, but we are. Clay and I ve been waiting 
 there for five minutes. We found Miss Hope s 
 groom and sent him back to the Palms with a 
 message to King. We told him to run the yacht 
 to Los Bocos and lie off shore until we came. 
 He is to take her on down the coast to Tru- 
 xillo, where our man-of-war is lying, and they 
 will give her shelter as a political refugee." 
 
 " Why don t you drive her to the Palms at 
 once?" demanded Stuart, anxiously, " and take 
 her on board the yacht there ? It is ten miles to 
 Bocos and the roads are very bad." 
 
 " Clay says we could never get her through 
 the city," Mac Williams answered. u We should 
 have to fight all the way. Bat the city to the 
 south is deserted, and by going out by the back 
 roads, we can make Bocos by ten o clock to 
 night. The yacht should reach there by seven." 
 
 " You are right ; go back. I will call off 
 some of my men. The rest must hold this mob 
 
266 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 back until you start ; then I will follow with the 
 others. Where is Miss Hope ? " 
 
 " We don t know. Clay is frantic. Her 
 groom says she is somewhere in the palace." 
 
 " Hurry," Stuart commanded. " If Mendoza 
 gets here before Madame Alvarez leaves, it will 
 be too late." 
 
 Mac Williams sprang up the steps of the pal 
 ace, and Stuart, calling to the men nearest him 
 to follow, started after him on a run. 
 
 As Stuart entered the palace with his men at 
 his heels, Clay was hurrying from its rear en 
 trance along the upper hall, and Hope and Ma 
 dame Alvarez were leaving the apartments of the 
 latter at its front. They met at the top of the 
 main stairway just as Stuart put his foot on its 
 lower step. The young Englishman heard the 
 clatter of his men following close behind him 
 and leaped eagerly forward. Half way to the 
 top the noise behind him ceased, and turning his 
 head quickly he looked back over his shoulder 
 and saw that the men had halted at the foot of 
 the stairs and stood huddled together in disorder 
 looking up at him. Stuart glanced over their 
 heads and down the hallway to the garden be 
 yond to* see if they were followed, but the mob 
 still fought from the outer side of the barricade. 
 He waved his sword impatiently and started 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 267 
 
 forward again. " Come on ! " he shouted. But 
 the men below him did not move. Stuart halted 
 once more and this time turned about and looked 
 down upon them with surprise and anger. There 
 was not one of them he could not have called by 
 name. He knew all their little troubles, their 
 love-affairs, even. They came to him for com 
 fort and advice, and to beg for money. He had 
 regarded them as his children, and he was proud 
 of them as soldiers because they were the work 
 of his hands. 
 
 So, instead of a sharp command, he asked, 
 " What is it ? " in surprise, and stared at them 
 wondering. He could not or would not com 
 prehend, even though he saw that those in the 
 front rank were pushing back and those behind 
 were urging them forward. The muzzles of 
 their carbines were directed at every point, 
 and on their faces fear and hate and cowardice 
 were written in varying likenesses. 
 
 "What does this mean ? " Stuart demanded, 
 sharply. " What are you waiting for ? " 
 
 Clay had just reached the top of the stairs. 
 He saw Madame Alvarez and Hope coming 
 toward him, and at the sight of Hope he gave 
 an exclamation of relief. 
 
 Then his eyes turned and fell on the tableau 
 below, on Stuart s back, as he stood confront- 
 
268 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 ing the men, and on their scowling upturned 
 faces and half-lifted carbines. Clay had lived 
 for a longer time among Spanish-Americans 
 than had the English subaltern, or else he was 
 the quicker of the two to believe in evil and 
 ingratitude, for he gave a cry of warning, and 
 motioned the women away. 
 
 " Stuart ! " he cried. " Come away ; for God s 
 sake, what are you doing ? Come back ! " 
 
 The Englishman started at the sound of his 
 friend s voice, but he did not turn his head. 
 He began to descend the stairs slowly, a step 
 at a time, staring at the mob so fiercely that 
 they shrank back before the look of wounded 
 pride and anger in his eyes. Those in the rear 
 raised and levelled their rifles. Without tak 
 ing his eyes from theirs, Stuart drew his 
 revolver, and with his sword swinging from its 
 wrist-strap, pointed his weapon at the mass 
 below him. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " he demanded. " Is 
 this mutiny ? " 
 
 A voice from the rear of the crowd of men 
 shrieked: "Death to the Spanish woman. 
 Death to all traitors. Long live Mendoza," 
 and the others echoed the cry in chorus. 
 
 Clay sprang down the broad stairs calling, 
 " Come to me ; " but before he could reach 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 269 
 
 Stuart, a woman s voice rang out, in a long 
 terrible cry of terror, a cry that was neither a 
 prayer nor an imprecation, but which held the 
 agony of both. Stuart started, and looked up 
 to where Madame Alvarez had thrown herself 
 toward him across the broad balustrade of the 
 stairway. She was silent with fear, and her 
 hand clutched at the air, as she beckoned wildly 
 to him. Stuart stared at her with a troubled 
 smile and waved his empty hand to reassure 
 her. The movement was final, for the men 
 below, freed from the reproach of his eyes, 
 flung up their carbines and fired, some wildly, 
 without placing their guns at rest, and others 
 steadily and aiming straight at his heart. 
 
 As the volley rang out and the smoke drifted 
 up the great staircase, the subaltern s hands 
 tossed high above his head, his body sank into 
 itself and toppled backwards, and, like a tired 
 child falling to sleep, the defeated soldier of 
 fortune dropped back into the outstretched arms 
 of his friend. 
 
 Clay lifted him upon his knee, and crushed 
 him closer against his breast with one arm, 
 while he tore with his free hand at the stock 
 about the throat and pushed his fingers in 
 between the buttons of the tunic. They came 
 forth again wet and colored crimson. 
 
270 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "Stuart!" Clay gasped. "Stuart, speak to 
 me, look at me ! " He shook the body in his 
 arms with fierce roughness, peering into the 
 face that rested on his shoulder, as though he 
 could command the eyes back again to light 
 and life. "Don t leave me!" he said. "For 
 God s sake, old man, don t leave me!" 
 
 But the head on his shoulder only sank the 
 closer and the body stiffened in his arms. 
 Clay raised his eyes and saw the soldiers still 
 standing, irresolute and appalled at what they 
 had done, and awe-struck at the sight of the 
 grief before them. 
 
 Clay gave a cry as terrible as the cry of a 
 woman who has seen her child mangled before 
 her eyes, and lowering the body quickly to the 
 steps, he ran at the scattering mass below him. 
 As he came they fled down the corridor, shriek 
 ing and calling to their friends to throw open the 
 gates and begging them to admit the mob. 
 When they reached the outer porch they turned, 
 encouraged by the touch of numbers, and halted 
 to fire at the man who still followed them. 
 
 Clay stopped, with a look in his eyes which 
 no one who knew them had ever seen there, 
 and smiled with pleasure in knowing himself a 
 master in what he had to do. And at each 
 report of his revolver one of Stuart s assassins 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 271 
 
 stumbled and pitched heavily forward on his 
 face. Then he turned and walked slowly back 
 up the hall to the stairway like a man moving 
 in his sleep. He neither saw nor heard the 
 bullets that bit spitefully at the walls about 
 him and rattled among the glass pendants of 
 the great chandeliers above his head. When 
 he came to the step on which the body lay he 
 stooped and picked it up gently, and holding it 
 across his breast, strode on up the stairSo 
 MacWilliams and Langham were coming toward 
 him, and saw the helpless figure in his arms. 
 
 " What is it ? " they cried ; " is he wounded, 
 is he hurt ? " 
 
 "He is dead," Clay answered, passing on 
 with his burden. " Get Hope away. " 
 
 Madame Alvarez stood with the girl s arms 
 about her, her eyes closed and her figure 
 trembling. 
 
 "Let me be!" she moaned. "Don t touch 
 me; let me die. My God, what have I to live 
 for now ? " She shook off Hope s supporting 
 arm, and stood before them, all her former 
 courage gone, trembling and shivering in 
 agony. " I do not care what they do to me ! " 
 she cried. She tore her lace mantilla from her 
 shoulders and threw it on the floor. "I shall 
 not leave this place. He is dead. Why should 
 
272 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 I go ? He is dead. They have murdered him ; 
 he is dead." 
 
 "She is fainting," said Hope. Her voice 
 was strained and hard. To her brother she 
 seemed to have grown suddenly much older, 
 and he looked to her to tell him what to do. 
 
 "Take hold of her," she said. "She will 
 fall." The woman sank back into the arms 
 of the men, trembling and moaning feebly. 
 "Now carry her to the carriage," said Hope. 
 "She has fainted; it is better; she does not 
 know what has happened." 
 
 Clay, still bearing the body in his arms, 
 pushed open the first door that stood ajar before 
 him with his foot. It opened into the great 
 banqueting hall of the palace, .but he could not 
 choose. He had to consider now the safety of 
 the living, whose lives were still in jeopardy. 
 
 The long table in the centre of the hall was 
 laid with places for many people, for it had 
 been prepared for the President and the Presi 
 dent s guests, who were to have joined with 
 him in celebrating the successful conclusion of 
 the review. From outside the light of the sun, 
 which was just sinking behind the mountains, 
 shone dimly upon the silver on the board, on 
 the glass and napery, and the massive gilt 
 centre-pieces filled with great clusters of fresh 
 
HE STRODE ON UP THE STAIRS, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 273 
 
 flowers. It looked as though the servants had 
 but just left the room. Even the candles had 
 been lit in readiness, and as their flames wav 
 ered and smoked in the evening breeze they 
 cast uncertain shadows on the walls and showed 
 the stern faces of the soldier presidents frown 
 ing down on the crowded table from their 
 gilded frames. 
 
 There was a great leather lounge stretching 
 along one side of the hall, and Clay moved 
 toward this quickly and laid his burden down. 
 He was conscious that Hope was still following 
 him. He straightened the limbs of the body 
 and folded the arms across the breast and 
 pressed his hand for an instant on the cold 
 hands of his friend, and then whispering some 
 thing between his lips, turned and walked 
 hurriedly away. 
 
 Hope confronted him in the doorway. She 
 was sobbing silently. "Must we leave him," 
 she pleaded, " must we leave him like this ? " 
 
 From the garden there came the sound of 
 hammers ringing on the iron hinges, and a 
 great crash of noises as the gate fell back from 
 its fastenings, and the mob rushed over the 
 obstacles upon which it had fallen. It seemed 
 as if their yells of exultation and anger must 
 reach even the ears of the dead man. 
 18 
 
274 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "They are calling Mendoza," Clay whis 
 pered, "he must be with them. Come, we will 
 have to run for our lives now. " 
 
 But before he could guess what Hope was 
 about to do, or could prevent her, she had 
 slipped past him and picked up Stuart s sword 
 that had fallen from his wrist to the floor, and 
 laid it on the soldier s body, and closed his 
 hands upon its hilt. She glanced quickly about 
 her as though looking for something, and then 
 with a sob of relief ran to the table, and sweep 
 ing it of an armful of its flowers, stepped swiftly 
 back again to the lounge and heaped them 
 upon it. 
 
 "Come, for God s sake, come!" Clay called 
 to her in a whisper from the door. 
 
 Hope stood for an instant staring at the 
 young Englishman as the candle-light flickered 
 over his white face, and then, droppping on her 
 knees, she pushed back the curly hair from 
 about the boy s forehead and kissed him. 
 Then, without turning to look again, she placed 
 her hand in Clay s and he ran with her, drag 
 ging her behind him down the length of the 
 hall, just as the mob entered it on the floor 
 below them and filled the palace with their 
 shouts of triumph. 
 
 As the sun sank lower its light fell more 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 275 
 
 dimly on the lonely figure in the vast dining- 
 hall, and as the gloom deepened there, the 
 candles burned with greater brilliancy, and the 
 faces of the portraits shone more clearly. 
 
 They seemed to be staring down less sternly 
 now upon the white mortal face of the brother- 
 in-arms who had just joined them. 
 
 One who had known him among his own 
 people would have seen in the attitude and in 
 the profile of the English soldier a likeness to 
 his ancestors of the Crusades who lay carved 
 in stone in the village church, with their faces 
 turned to the sky, their faithful hounds waiting 
 at their feet, and their hands pressed upward 
 in prayer. 
 
 And when, a moment later, the half-crazed 
 mob of men and boys swept into the great 
 room, with Mendoza at their head, something 
 of the pathos of the young Englishman s death 
 in his foreign place of exile must have touched 
 them, for they stopped appalled and startled, 
 and pressed back upon their fellows, with eager 
 whispers. The Spanish-American General 
 strode boldly forward, but his eyes lowered 
 before the calm, white face, and either because 
 the lighted candles and the flowers awoke in 
 him some memory of the great Church that had 
 nursed him, or because the jagged holes in the 
 
276 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 soldier s tunic appealed to what was bravest in 
 him, he crossed himself quickly, and then 
 raising his hands slowly to his visor, lifted his 
 hat and pointed with it to the door. And the 
 mob, without once looking back at the rich 
 treasure of silver on the table, pushed out 
 before him, stepping softly, as though they had 
 intruded on a shrine. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE President s travelling carriage was a 
 double-seated diligence covered with heavy 
 hoods and with places on the box for two men. 
 Only one of the coachmen, the same man who 
 had driven the State carriage from the review, 
 had remained at the stables. As he knew the 
 roads to Los Bocos, Clay ordered him up to the 
 driver s seat, and MacWilliams climbed into 
 the place beside him after first storing three 
 rifles under the lap-robe. 
 
 Hope pulled open the leather curtains of the 
 carriage and found Madame Alvarez where the 
 men had laid her upon the cushions, weak and 
 hysterical. The girl crept in beside her, and 
 lifting her in her arms, rested the older 
 woman s head against her shoulder, and 
 soothed and comforted her with tenderness and 
 sympathy. 
 
 Clay stopped with his foot in the stirrup and 
 looked up anxiously at Langham who was 
 already in the saddle. 
 
278 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "Is there no possible way of getting Hope 
 out of this and back to the Palms ? " he asked. 
 
 "No, it s too late. This is the only way 
 now. " 
 
 Hope opened the leather curtains and looking 
 out shook her head impatiently at Clay. "I 
 wouldn t go now if there were another way," 
 she said. "I couldn t leave her like this." 
 
 "You re delaying the game, Clay," cried 
 Langham, warningly, as he stuck his spurs 
 into his pony s side. 
 
 The people in the diligence lurched forward 
 as the horses felt the lash of the whip and 
 strained against the harness, and then plunged 
 ahead at a gallop on their long race to the sea. 
 As they sped through the gardens, the stables 
 and the trees hid them from the sight of those 
 in the palace, and the turf, upon which the 
 driver had turned the horses for greater safety, 
 deadened the sound of their flight. 
 
 They found the gates of the botanical gardens 
 already open,, and Clay, in the street outside, 
 beckoning them on. Without waiting for the 
 others the two outriders galloped ahead to the 
 first cross street, looked up and down its 
 length, and then, in evident concern at what 
 they saw in the distance, motioned the driver 
 to greater speed, and crossing the street sig- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 279 
 
 nailed him to follow them. At the next corner 
 Clay flung himself off his pony, and throwing 
 the bridle to Langham, ran ahead into the 
 cross street on foot, and after a quick glance 
 pointed down its length away from the heart 
 of the city to the mountains. 
 
 The driver turned as Clay directed him, and 
 when the man found that his face was fairly 
 set toward the goal he lashed his horses reck 
 lessly through the narrow street, so that the 
 murmur of the mob behind them grew percep 
 tibly fainter at each leap forward. 
 
 The noise of the galloping hoofs brought 
 women and children to the barred windows of 
 the houses, but no men stepped into the road 
 to stop their progress, and those few they met 
 running in the direction of the palace hastened 
 to get out of their way, and stood with their 
 backs pressed against the walls of the narrow 
 thoroughfare looking after them with wonder. 
 
 Even those who suspected their errand were 
 helpless to detain them, for sooner than they 
 could raise the hue and cry or formulate a plan 
 of action, the carriage had passed and was dis 
 appearing in the distance, rocking from wheel 
 to wheel like a ship in a gale. Two men who 
 were so bold as to start to follow, stopped 
 abruptly when they saw the outriders draw rein 
 
280 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and turn in their saddles as though to await 
 their coming. 
 
 Clay s mind was torn with doubts, and his 
 nerves were drawn taut like the strings of a 
 violin. Personal danger exhilarated him, but 
 this chance of harm to others who were help 
 less, except for him, depressed his spirit with 
 anxiety. He experienced in his own mind all 
 the nervous fears of a thief who sees an officer 
 in every passing citizen, and at one moment he 
 warned the driver to move more circumspectly, 
 and so avert suspicion, and the next urged him 
 into more desperate bursts of speed. In his 
 fancy every cross-street threatened an ambush, 
 and as he cantered now before and now behind 
 the carriage, he wished that he was a multitude of 
 men who could encompass it entirely and hide it. 
 
 But the solid streets soon gave way to open 
 places, and low mud cabins, where the horses 
 lioofs beat on a sun-baked road, and where the 
 inhabitnnts sat lazily before the door in the 
 fading light, with no knowledge of the changes 
 that the day had wrought in the city, and with 
 only a moment s curious interest in the hooded 
 carriage, and the grim, white-faced foreigners 
 who guarded it. 
 
 Clay turned his pony into a trot at Lang- 
 ham s side. His face was pale and drawn. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 281 
 
 As the danger of immediate pursuit and 
 capture grew less, the carriage had slackened 
 its pace, and for some minutes the outriders 
 galloped on together side by side in silence. 
 But the same thought was in the mind of each, 
 and when Langham spoke it was as though he 
 were continuing where he had but just been 
 interrupted. 
 
 He laid his hand gently on Clay s arm. He 
 did not turn his face toward him, and his eyes 
 were still peering into the shadows before 
 them. "Tell me ? " he asked. 
 
 "He was coming up the stairs," Clay an 
 swered. He spoke in so low a voice that 
 Langham had to lean from his saddle to hear 
 him. "They were close behind; but when 
 they saw her they stopped and refused to go 
 farther. I called to him to come away, but he 
 would not understand. They killed him before 
 he really understood what they meant to do. 
 He was dead almost before I reached him. He 
 died in my arms." There was a long pause. 
 "I wonder if he knows that?" Clay said. 
 
 Langham sat erect in the saddle again and 
 drew a short breath. "I wish he could have 
 known how he helped me, " he whispered, " how 
 much just knowing him helped me." 
 
 Clay bowed his head to the boy as though he 
 
282 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 were thanking him. "His was the gentlest 
 soul I ever knew," he said. 
 
 "That s what I wanted to say," Langham 
 answered. "We will let that be his epitaph," 
 and touching his spur to his horse he galloped 
 on ahead and left Clay riding alone. 
 
 Langham had proceeded for nearly a mile 
 when he saw the forest opening before them, 
 and at the sight he gave a shout of relief, but 
 almost at the same instant he pulled his pony 
 back on his haunches and whirling him about, 
 sprang back to the carriage with a cry of 
 warning. 
 
 "There are soldiers ahead of us," he cried. 
 " Did you know it ? " he demanded of the driver. 
 "Did you lie to me ? Turn back." 
 
 "He can t turn back," MacWilliams an 
 swered. " They have seen us. They are only 
 the custom officers at the city limits. They 
 know nothing. Go on." He reached forward 
 and catching the reins dragged the horses down 
 into a walk. Then he handed the reins back 
 to the driver with a shake of the head. 
 
 " If you know these roads as well as you say 
 you do, you want to keep us out of the way of 
 soldiers," he said. "If we fall into a trap 
 you ll be the first man shot on either side." 
 
 A sentry strolled lazily out into the road 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 283 
 
 dragging his gun after him by the bayonet, and 
 raised his hand for them to halt. His captain 
 followed him from the post-house throwing 
 away a cigarette as he came, and saluted 
 MacWilliams on the box and bowed to the two 
 riders in the background. In his right hand 
 he held one of the long iron rods with which 
 the collectors of the city s taxes were wont to 
 pierce the bundles and packs, and even the car 
 riage cushions of those who entered the city 
 limits from the coast, and who might be sus 
 pected of smuggling. 
 
 "Whose carriage is this, and where is it 
 going ? " he asked. 
 
 As the speed of the diligence slackened, 
 Hope put her head out of the curtains, and as 
 she surveyed the soldier with apparent sur 
 prise, she turned to her brother. 
 
 " What does this mean ?" she asked. "What 
 are we waiting for ? " 
 
 "We are going to the Hacienda of Senor 
 Palacio," MacWilliams said, in answer to the 
 officer. "The driver thinks that this is the 
 road, but I say we should have taken the one 
 to the right." 
 
 "No, this is the road to Senor Palacio s 
 plantation," the officer answered, "but you 
 cannot leave the city without a pass signed by 
 
284 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 General Mendoza. That is the order we re 
 ceived this morning. Have you such a pass ? " 
 
 "Certainly not," Clay answered, warmly. 
 "This is the carriage of an American, the 
 president of the mines. His daughters are in 
 side and on their way to visit the residence of 
 Senor Palacio. They are foreigners Ameri 
 cans. We are all foreigners, and we have a 
 perfect right to leave the city when we choose. 
 You can only stop us when we enter it." 
 
 The officer looked uncertainly from Clay to 
 Hope and up at the driver on the box. His 
 eyes fell upon the heavy brass mountings of the 
 harness. They bore the arms of Olancho. He 
 wheeled sharply and called to his men inside 
 the post-house, and they stepped out from the 
 veranda and spread themselves leisurely across 
 the road. 
 
 "Ride him down, Clay," Langham muttered, 
 in a whisper. The officer did not understand 
 the words, but he saw Clay gather the reins 
 tighter in his hands and he stepped back quickly 
 to the safety of the porch, and from that ground 
 of vantage smiled pleasantly. 
 
 "Pardon/ he said, "there is no need for 
 blows when one is rich enough to pay. A little 
 something for myself and a drink for my brave 
 fellows, and you can go where you please. " 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 285 
 
 "Damned brigands," growled Langham, 
 savagely. 
 
 "Not at all," Clay answered. "He is an 
 officer and a gentleman. I. have no money 
 with me," he said, in Spanish, addressing the 
 officer, "but between caballeros a word of 
 honor is sufficient. I shall be returning this 
 way to-morrow morning, and I will bring a few 
 hundred sols from Senor PaUcio for you and 
 your men ; but if we are followed you will get 
 nothing, and you must have forgotten in the 
 mean time that you have seen us pass." 
 
 There was a murmur inside the carriage, and 
 Hope s face disappeared from between the cur 
 tains to reappear again almost immediately. 
 She beckoned to the officer with her hand, and 
 the men saw that she held between her thumb 
 and little finger a diamond ring of size and 
 brilliancy. She moved it so that it flashed in 
 the light of the guard lantern above the post- 
 house. 
 
 " My sister tells me you shall be given this 
 to-morrow morning," Hope said, "if we are 
 not followed." 
 
 The man s eyes laughed with pleasure. He 
 swept his sombrero to the ground. 
 
 "I am your servant, Senorita," he said. 
 "Gentlemen," he cried, gayly, turning to Clay, 
 
286 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " if you wish it, I will accompany you with my 
 men. Yes, I will leave word that I have gone 
 in the sudden pursuit of smugglers; or I will 
 remain here as you wish, and send those who 
 may follow back again." 
 
 " You are most gracious, sir, " said Clay. " It 
 is always a pleasure to meet with a gentleman 
 and a philosopher. We prefer to travel with 
 out an escort, and remember, you have seen 
 nothing and heard nothing. He leaned from 
 the saddle, and touched the officer on the 
 breast. " That ring is worth a king s ransom. " 
 
 "Or a president s," muttered the man, smil 
 ing. "Let the American ladies pass," he 
 commanded. 
 
 The soldiers scattered as the whip fell, and 
 the horses once more leaped forward, and as 
 the carriage entered the forest, Clay looked 
 back and saw the officer exhaling the smoke of 
 a fresh cigarette, with the satisfaction of one 
 who enjoys a clean conscience and a sense of 
 duty well performed. 
 
 The road through the forest was narrow and 
 uneven, and as the horses fell into a trot the 
 men on horseback closed up together behind 
 the carriage. 
 
 "Do you think that road-agent will keep his 
 word ? " Langham asked. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 287 
 
 " Yes ; he has nothing to win by telling the 
 truth, " Clay answered. "He can say he saw 
 a party of foreigners, Americans, driving in 
 the direction of Palacio s coffee plantation. 
 That lets him out, and in the morning he 
 knows he can levy on us for the gate money. 
 I am not so much afraid of being overtaken as 
 I am that King may make a mistake and not 
 get to Bocos on time. We ought to reach 
 there, if the carriage holds together, by eleven. 
 King should be there by eight o clock, and the 
 yacht ought to make the run to Truxillo in 
 three hours. But we shall not be able to get 
 back to the city before five to-morrow morning. 
 I suppose your family will be wild about Hope. 
 We did n t know where she was when we sent 
 the groom back to King." 
 
 "Do you think that driver is taking us the 
 right way ? " Langham asked, after a pause. 
 
 "He d better. He knows it wel 1 enough. 
 He was through the last revolution, and car 
 ried messages from Los Bocos to the city on 
 foot for two months. He has covered every 
 trail on the way, and if he goes wrong he 
 knows what will happen to him." 
 
 "And Los Bocos it is a village, isn t it, 
 and the landing must be in sight of the Custom 
 house ? " 
 
288 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "The village lies some distance back from 
 the shore, and the only house on the beach is 
 the Custom-house itself; but every one will be 
 asleep by the time we get there, and it will 
 take us only a minute to hand her into the 
 launch. If there should be a guard there, King 
 will have fixed them one way or another by 
 the time we arrive. Anyhow, there is no need 
 of looking for trouble that far ahead. There is 
 enough to worry about in between. We have n t 
 got there yet. " 
 
 The moon rose grandly a few minutes later, 
 and flooded the forest with light so that the 
 open places were as clear as day. It threw 
 strange shadows across the trail, and turned 
 the rocks and fallen trees into figures of men 
 crouching or standing upright with uplifted 
 arms. They were so like to them that Clay 
 and Langham flung their carbines to their 
 shoulders again and again, and pointed them 
 at some black object that turned as they ad 
 vanced into wood or stone. From the forest 
 they came to little streams and broad shallow 
 rivers where the rocks in the fording places 
 churned the water into white masses of foam, 
 and the horses kicked up showers of spray as 
 they made their way, slipping and stumbling, 
 against the current. It was a silent pilgrim- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 289 
 
 age, and never for a moment did the strain 
 slacken or the men draw rein. Sometimes, as 
 they hurried across a broad tableland, or 
 skirted the edge of a precipice and looked 
 down hundreds of feet below at the shining 
 waters they had just forded, or up at the rocky 
 points of the mountains before them, the beauty 
 of the night overcame them and made them 
 forget the significance of their journey. 
 
 They were not always alone, for they passed 
 at intervals through sleeping villages of mud 
 huts with thatched roofs, where the dogs ran 
 yelping out to bark at them, and where the pine- 
 knots, blazing on the clay ovens, burned cheer 
 ily in the moonlight. In the low lands where 
 the fever lay, the mist rose above the level of 
 their heads and enshrouded them in a curtain 
 of fog, and the dew fell heavily, penetrating their 
 clothing and chilling their heated bodies so that 
 the sweating horses moved in a lather of steam. 
 
 They had settled down into a steady gallop 
 now, and ten or fifteen miles had been left be 
 hind them. 
 
 " We are making excellent time," said Clay. 
 " The village of San Lorenzo should lie beyond 
 that ridge." He drove up beside the driver and 
 pointed with his whip. " Is not that San Lo 
 renzo ?" he asked. 
 
 19 
 
290 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Yes, senor," the man answered, " but I mean 
 to drive around it by the old wagon trail. It is 
 a large town, and people may be awake. You 
 will be able to see it from the top of the next 
 hill." 
 
 The cavalcade stopped at the summit of the 
 ridge and the men looked down into the silent 
 village. It was like the others they had passed, 
 with a few houses built round a square of grass 
 that could hardly be recognized as a plaza, ex 
 cept for the church on its one side, and the huge 
 wooden cross planted in its centre. From the 
 top of the hill they could see that the greater 
 number of the houses were in darkness, but in a 
 large building of two stories lights were shining 
 from every window. 
 
 " That is the comandancia," said the driver, 
 shaking his head. " They are still awake. It 
 is a telegraph station." 
 
 " Great Scott ! " exclaimed Mac Williams. 
 " We forgot the telegraph. They may have 
 sent word to head us off already." 
 
 " Nine o clock is not so very late," said Clay. 
 " It may mean nothing." 
 
 " We had better make sure, though," Mac- 
 Williams answered, jumping to the ground. 
 " Lend me your pony, Ted, and take my place. 
 I 11 run in there and dust around and see what s 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 291 
 
 up. I 11 join you on the other side of the town 
 after you get back to the main road." 
 
 " Wait a minute," said Clay. " What do you 
 mean to do ? " 
 
 " I can t tell till I get there, but I 11 try to 
 find out how much they know. Don t you be 
 afraid. I 11 run fast enough if there s any sign 
 of trouble. And if you come across a telegraph 
 wire, cut it. The message may not have gone 
 over yet." 
 
 The two women in the carriage had parted 
 the flaps of the hoods and were trying to hear 
 what was being said, but could not understand, 
 and Langham explained to them that they were 
 about to make a slight detour to avoid San 
 Lorenzo while Mac Williams was going into it 
 to reconnoitre. He asked if they were comfort 
 able, and assured them that the greater part of 
 the ride was over, and that there was a good 
 road from San Lorenzo to the sea. 
 
 MacWilliams rode down into the village along 
 the main trail, and threw his reins over a post 
 in front of the comandancia. He mounted 
 boldly to the second floor of the building and 
 stopped at the head of the stairs, in front of an 
 open door. There were three men in the room 
 before him, one an elderly man, whom he rightly 
 guessed was the comandante, and two younger 
 
292 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 men who were standing behind a railing and 
 bending over a telegraph instrument on a table. 
 As he stamped into the room, they looked up 
 and stared at him in surprise ; their faces showed 
 that he had interrupted them at a moment of 
 unusual interest. 
 
 Mac Williams saluted the three men civilly, 
 and, according to the native custom, apologized 
 for appearing before them in his spurs. He 
 had been riding from Los Bocos to the capital, 
 he said, and his horse had gone lame. Could 
 they tell him if there was any one in the village 
 from whom he could hire a mule, as he must 
 push on to the capital that night? 
 
 The comandarite surveyed him for a mo 
 ment, as though still disturbed by the interrup 
 tion, and then shook his head impatiently : "You 
 can hire a mule from one Pulido Paul, at the 
 corner of the plaza," he said. And as Mac Wil 
 liams still stood uncertainly, he added, "You 
 say you have come from Los Bocos. Did you 
 meet any one on your way ? " 
 
 The two younger men looked up at him anx 
 iously, but before he could answer, the instru 
 ment began to tick out the signal, and they 
 turned their eyes to it again, and one of them 
 began to take its message down on paper. 
 
 The instrument spoke to Mac Williams also, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 293 
 
 for he was used to sending telegrams daily from 
 the office to the mines, and could make it talk 
 for him in either English or Spanish. So, in 
 his effort to hear what it might say, he stam 
 mered and glanced at it involuntarily, and the 
 comanddnte, without suspecting his reason for 
 doing so, turned also and peered over the shoul 
 der of the man who was receiving the message. 
 Except for the clicking of the instrument, the 
 room was absolutely still ; the three men bent 
 silently over the table, while Mac Williams stood 
 gazing at the ceiling and turning his hat in his 
 hands. The message Mac Williams read from 
 the instrument was this : " They are reported 
 to have left the city by the south, so they are 
 going to Para, or San Pedro, or to Los Bocos. 
 She must be stopped take an armed force and 
 guard the roads. If necessary, kill her. She 
 has in the carriage or hidden on her person, 
 drafts for five million sols. You will be held 
 responsible for every one of them. Repeat this 
 message to show you understand, and relay it to 
 Los Bocos. If you fail " 
 
 Mac Williams could not wait to hear more; 
 he gave a curt nod to the men and started 
 toward the stairs. " Wait," the comandante 
 called after him. 
 
 Mac Williams paused with one hand on top of 
 
294 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 the banisters balancing himself in readiness for 
 instant flight. 
 
 " You have not answered me. Did you meet 
 with any one on your ride here from Los 
 Bocos?" 
 
 " I met several men on foot, and the mail car 
 rier passed me a league out from the coast, and 
 oh, yes, I met a carriage at the cross roads, and 
 the driver asked me the way of San Pedro 
 Sals." 
 
 " A carriage ? yes and what did you tell 
 him?" 
 
 " I told him he was on the road to Los Bocos, 
 and he turned back and " 
 
 " You are sure he turned back ? " 
 
 " Certainly, sir. I rode behind him for some 
 distance. He turned finally to the right into 
 the trail to San Pedro Sula." 
 
 The man flung himself across the railing. 
 
 " Quick," he commanded, " telegraph to Mo 
 rales, Comandante San Pedro Sula- 
 
 He had turned his back on Mac Williams, and 
 as the younger man bent over the instrument, 
 MacWilliams stepped softly down the stairs, 
 and mounting his pony rode slowly off in the 
 direction of the capital. As soon as he had 
 reached the outskirts of the town, he turned 
 and galloped round it and then rode fast with 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 295 
 
 his head in air, glancing up at the telegraph 
 wire that sagged from tree-trunk to tree-trunk 
 along the trail. At a point where he thought 
 he could dismount in safety and tear down 
 the wire, he came across it dangling from the 
 branches and he gave a shout of relief. He 
 caught the loose end and dragged it free from 
 its support, and then laying it across a rock 
 pounded the blade of his knife upon it with a 
 stone, until he had hacked off a piece some fifty 
 feet in length. Taking this in his hand he 
 mounted again and rode off with it, dragging 
 the wire in the road behind him. He held it up 
 as he rejoined Clay, and laughed triumphantly. 
 " They 11 have some trouble splicing that cir 
 cuit," he said, "you only half did the work. 
 What would n t we give to know all this little 
 piece of copper knows, eh ? " 
 
 " Do you mean you think they have tele 
 graphed to Los Bocos already ? " 
 
 " I know that they were telegraphing to San 
 Pedro Sula as I left and to all the coast towns. 
 But whether you cut this down before or after is 
 what I should like to know." 
 
 " We shall probably learn that later," said 
 Clay, grimly. 
 
 The last three miles of the journey lay over a 
 hard, smooth road, wide enough to allow the 
 
f 
 296 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 carriage and its escort to ride abreast. It was 
 in such contrast to the tortuous paths they 
 had just followed, that the horses gained a 
 fresh impetus and galloped forward as freely 
 as though the race had but just begun. 
 
 Madame Alvarez stopped the carriage at one 
 place and asked the men to lower the hood at 
 the back that she might feel the fresh air and 
 see about her, and when this had been done, the 
 women seated themselves with their backs to the 
 horses where they could look out at the moonlit 
 road as it unrolled behind them. 
 
 Hope felt selfishly and wickedly happy. The 
 excitement had kept her spirits at the highest 
 point, and the knowledge that Clay was guard 
 ing and protecting her was in itself a pleasure. 
 She leaned back on the cushions and put her 
 arm around the older woman s waist, and lis 
 tened to the light beat of his pony s hoofs out 
 side, now running ahead, now scrambling and 
 slipping up some steep place, and again coming 
 to a halt as Langham or MacWilliams called, 
 " Look to the right, behind those trees," or 
 " Ahead there ! Don t you see what I mean, 
 something crouching ? " 
 
 She did not know when the false alarms 
 would turn into a genuine attack, but she was 
 confident that when the time came, he would 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 297 
 
 take care of her, and she welcomed the danger 
 because it brought that solace with it. 
 
 Madame Alvarez sat at her side, rigid, silent, 
 and beyond the help of comfort. She tortured 
 herself with thoughts of the ambitions she had 
 held, and which had been so cruelly mocked 
 that very morning; of the chivalric love that 
 had been hers, of the life even that had been 
 hers, and which had been given up for her so 
 tragically. When she spoke at all, it was to 
 murmur her sorrow that Hope had exposed her 
 self to danger on her poor account, and that 
 her life, as far as she loved it, was at an end. 
 Only once after the men had parted the curtains 
 and asked concerning her comfort with grave 
 solicitude did she give way to tears. 
 
 " Why are they so good to me ? " she moaned. 
 " Why are you so good to me ? I am a wicked, 
 vain woman, I have brought a nation to war 
 and I have killed the only man I ever trusted." 
 
 Hope touched her gently with her hand and 
 felt guiltily how selfish she herself must be not 
 to feel the woman s grief, but she could not. 
 She only saw in it a contrast to her own happi 
 ness, a black background before which the fig 
 ure of Clay and his solicitude for her shone out, 
 the only fact in the world that was of value. 
 
 Her thoughts were interrupted by the carriage 
 
298 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 coining to a halt, and a significant movement 
 upon the part of the men. MacWilliams had 
 descended from the box-seat and stepping into 
 the carriage took the place the women had just 
 left. 
 
 He had a carbine in his hand, and after he 
 was seated Langham handed him another which 
 he laid across his knees. 
 
 " They thought I was too conspicuous on the 
 box to do any good there," he explained in 
 a confidential whisper. " In case there is any 
 firing now, you ladies want to get down on your 
 knees here at my feet, and hide your heads in 
 the cushions. We are entering Los Bocos." 
 
 Langham and Clay were riding far in ad 
 vance, scouting to the right and left, and the 
 carriage moved noiselessly behind them through 
 the empty streets. There was no light in any 
 of the windows, and not even a dog barked, or 
 a cock crowed. The women sat erect, listening 
 for the first signal of an attack, each holding the 
 other s hand and looking at MacWilliams, who 
 sat with his thumb on the trigger of his carbine, 
 glancing to the right and left and breathing 
 quickly. His eyes twinkled, like those of a little 
 fox terrier. The men dropped back, and drew 
 up on a level with the carriage. 
 
 " We are all right, so far," Clay whispered. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 299 
 
 " The beach slopes down from the other side 
 of that line of trees. What is the matter with 
 you ?" he demanded, suddenly, looking up at the 
 driver, " are you afraid ? " 
 
 " No," the man answered, hurriedly, his voice 
 shaking ; " it s the cold." 
 
 Langham had galloped on ahead and as he 
 passed through the trees and came out upon 
 the beach, he saw a broad stretch of moonlit 
 water and the lights from the yacht shining from 
 a point a quarter of a mile off shore. Among 
 the rocks on the edge of the beach was the 
 6 Testa s long-boat and her crew seated in it or 
 standing about on the beach. The carriage had 
 stopped under the protecting shadow of the 
 trees, and he raced back toward it. 
 
 " The yacht is here," he cried. " The long 
 boat is waiting and there is not a sign of light 
 about the Custom-house. Come on," he cried. 
 " We have beaten them after all." 
 
 A sailor, who had been acting as lookout on 
 the rocks, sprang to his full height, and shouted 
 to the group around the long-boat, and King 
 came up the beach toward them running heav 
 ily through the deep sand. 
 
 Madame Alvarez stepped down from the car 
 riage, and as Hope handed her her jewel case 
 in silence, the men draped her cloak about her 
 
300 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 shoulders. She put out her hand to them, and 
 as Clay took it in his, she bent her head quickly 
 and kissed his hand. " You were his friend," 
 she murmured. 
 
 She held Hope in her arms for an instant, 
 and kissed her, and then gave her hand in turn 
 to Langham and to Mac Williams. 
 
 " I do not know whether I shall ever see you 
 again," she said, looking slowly from one to the 
 other, " but I will pray for you every day, and 
 God will reward you for saving a worthless 
 life." As she finished speaking King came up 
 to the group, followed by three of his men. 
 
 " Is Hope with you, is she safe ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, she is with me," Madame Alvarez an 
 swered. 
 
 " Thank God," King exclaimed, breathlessly. 
 " Then we will start at once, Madame. Where 
 is she ? She must come with us ! " 
 
 " Of course," Clay assented, eagerly, " she 
 will be much safer on the yacht." 
 
 But Hope protested. " I must get back to 
 father," she said. " The yacht will not arrive 
 until late to-morrow, and the carriage can take 
 me to him five hours earlier. The family have 
 worried too long about me as it is, and, besides, 
 I will not leave Ted. I am going back as I 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 301 
 
 " It is most unsafe," King urged. 
 
 " On the contrary, it is perfectly safe now," 
 Hope answered. " It was not one of us they 
 wanted." 
 
 "You may be right," King said. "They 
 don t know what has happened to you, and per 
 haps after all it would be better if you went 
 back the quicker way." He gave his arm to 
 Madame Alvarez and walked with her toward 
 the shore. As the men surrounded her on 
 every side and moved away, Clay glanced back 
 at Hope and saw her standing upright in the 
 carriage looking after them. 
 
 " We will be with you in a minute," he 
 called, as though in apology for leaving her for 
 even that brief space. And then the shadow of 
 the trees shut her and the carriage from his 
 sight. His footsteps made no sound in the soft 
 sand, and except for the whispering of the 
 palms and the sleepy wash of the waves as they 
 ran up the pebbly beach and sank again, the 
 place was as peaceful and silent as a deserted 
 island, though the moon made it as light as day. 
 
 The long-boat had been drawn up with her 
 stern to the shore, and the men were already in 
 their places, some standing waiting for the 
 order to shove off, and others seated balancing 
 their oars. 
 
302 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 King had arranged to fire a rocket when the 
 launch left the shore, in order that the captain 
 of the yacht might run in closer to pick them 
 up. As he hurried down the beach, he called 
 to his boatswain to give the signal, and the man 
 answered that he understood and stooped to 
 light a match. King had jumped into the stern 
 and lifted Madame Alvarez after him, leaving 
 her late escort standing with uncovered heads 
 on the beach behind her, when the rocket shot 
 up into the calm white air, with a roar and a 
 rush and a sudden flash of color. At the same 
 instant, as though in answer to its challenge, 
 the woods back of them burst into an irregular 
 line of flame, a volley of rifle shots shattered 
 the silence, and a score of bullets splashed in 
 the water and on the rocks about them. 
 
 The boatswain in the bow of the long-boat 
 tossed up his arms and pitched forward between 
 the thwarts. 
 
 " Give way," he shouted as he fell. 
 
 " Pull," Clay yelled, " pull, all of you." 
 
 He threw himself against the stern of the 
 boat, and Langham and MacWilliams clutched 
 its sides, and with their shoulders against it and 
 their bodies half sunk in the water, shoved it 
 off, free of the shore. 
 
 The shots continued fiercely, and two of the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FOETUNE 303 
 
 crew cried out and fell back upon the oars of 
 the men behind them. 
 
 Madame Alvarez sprang to her feet and stood 
 swaying unsteadily as the boat leaped forward. 
 
 " Take me back. Stop, I command you, " she 
 cried, "I will not leave those men. Do you 
 hear ? " 
 
 King caught her by the waist and dragged 
 her down, but she struggled to free herself. " I 
 will not leave them to be murdered, " she cried. 
 " You cowards, put me back. " 
 
 "Hold her, King," Clay shouted. "We re 
 all right. They re not firing at us." 
 
 His voice was drowned in the noise of the 
 oars beating in the rowlocks, and the reports 
 of the rifles. The boat disappeared in a mist 
 of spray and moonlight, and Clay turned and 
 faced about him. Langham and MacWilliams 
 were crouching behind a rock and firing at the 
 flashes in the woods. 
 
 "You can t stay there," Clay cried. "We 
 must get back to Hope." 
 
 He ran forward, dodging from side to side 
 and firing as he ran. He heard shots from the 
 water, and looking back saw that the men in 
 the long-boat had ceased rowing, and were 
 returning the fire from the shore. 
 
 "Come back, Hope is all right," her brother 
 
304 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 called to him. " I have n t seen a shot within 
 a hundred yards of her yet, they re firing from 
 the Custom-house and below. I think Mac s hit." 
 
 "I m not," MacWilliam i voice answered 
 from behind a rock, " but I d like to see some 
 thing to shoot at." 
 
 A hot tremor of rage swept over Clay at the 
 thought of a possibly fatal termination to the 
 night s adventure. He groaned at the mockery 
 of having found his life only to lose it now, 
 when it was more precious to him than it had 
 ever been, and to lose it in a silly brawl with 
 semi-savages. He cursed himself impotcntly 
 and rebelliously for a senseless fool. 
 
 "Keep hack, can t you V " he heard Langham 
 calling to him from the shore. "You re only 
 drawing the fire toward Hope. She s got away 
 by now. She had both the horses. " 
 
 Langham and MacWilliams started forward 
 to Clay s side, but the instant they left the 
 shadow of the rock, the bullets threw up the 
 sand at their feet and they stopped irresolutely. 
 The moon showed the three men outlined 
 against the white sand of the beach as clearly 
 as though a search light had been turned upon 
 them, even while its shadows sheltered and 
 protected their assailants. At their backs the 
 open sea cut off retreat, and the line of fire in 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 305 
 
 front held them in check. They were as help 
 less as chessni3ii upon a board. 
 
 "I m not going to stand still to be shot at," 
 cried Mac Williams. " Let s hide or let s run. 
 This isn t doing anybody any good." But no 
 one moved. They could hear the singing of 
 the bullets as they passed them whining in the 
 air like a banjo-string that is being tightened, 
 and they knew they were in equal danger from 
 those who were firing from the boat. 
 
 "They re shooting better," said MacWil- 
 liams. "They ll reach us in a minute." 
 
 "They ve reached me already, I think," 
 Langham answered, with suppressed satisfac 
 tion, "in the shoulder. It s nothing." His 
 unconcern was quite sincere; to a young man 
 who had galloped through two long halves of a 
 football match on a strained tendon, a scratched 
 shoulder was not important, except as an 
 unsought honor. 
 
 But it was of the most importance to Mac- 
 Williams. He raised his voice against the 
 men in the woods in impotent fury. " Come 
 out, you cowards, where we can see you," he 
 cried. " Come out where I can shoot your 
 black heads off." 
 
 Clay had fired the last cartridge in his rifle, 
 and throwing it away drew his revolver. 
 
 20 
 
306 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 "We must either swim or hide," he said. 
 "Put your heads down and run." 
 
 But as he spoke, they saw the carriage plung 
 ing out of the shadow of the woods and the 
 horses galloping toward them down the beach. 
 MacWilliams gave a cheer of welcome. " Hur 
 rah ! " he shouted, " it s Jos coming for us. 
 He s a good man. Well done, Josd ! " he 
 called. 
 
 "That s not Josd," Langham cried, doubt 
 fully, peering through the moonlight. " Good 
 God! It s Hope," he exclaimed. He waved 
 his hands frantically above his head. " Go 
 back, Hope," he cried, "go back!" 
 
 But the carriage did not swerve on its way 
 toward them. They all saw her now distinctly. 
 She was on the driver s box and alone, leaning 
 forward and lashing the horses backs with the 
 whip and reins, and bending over to avoid the 
 bullets that passed above her head. As she 
 came down upon them, she stood up, her 
 woman s figure outlined clearly in the riding 
 habit she still wore. "Jump in when I turn," 
 she cried. " I m going to turn slowly, run 
 and jump in." 
 
 She bent forward again and pulled the horses 
 to the right, and as they obeyed her, plunging 
 and tugging at their bits, as though they knew 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 307 
 
 the danger they were in, the men threw them 
 selves at the carriage. Clay caught the hood 
 at the back, swung himself up, and scrambled 
 over the cushions and up to the box seat. He 
 dropped down behind Hope, and reaching his 
 arms around her took the reins in one hand, and 
 with the other forced her down to her knees 
 upon the footboard, so that, as she knelt, his 
 arms and body protected her from the bullets 
 sent after them. Langham followed Clay, and 
 tumbled into the carriage over the hood at the 
 back, but MacWilliams endeavored to vault in 
 from the step, and missing his footing fell 
 under the hind wheel, so that the weight of 
 the carriage passed over him, and his head was 
 buried for an instant in the sand. But he was 
 on his feet again before they had noticed that 
 he was down, and as he jumped for the hood, 
 Langham caught him by the collar of his coat 
 and dragged him into the seat, panting and 
 gasping, and rubbing the sand from his mouth 
 and nostrils. Clay turned the carriage at a 
 right angle through the heavy sand, and still 
 standing with Hope crouched at his knees, he 
 raced back to the woods into the face of the 
 firing, with the boys behind him answering it 
 from each side of the carriage, so that the 
 horses leaped forward in a frenzy of terror, 
 
308 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and dashing through the woods, passed into the 
 first road that opened before them. 
 
 The road into which they had turned was 
 narrow, but level, and ran through a forest of 
 banana palms that bent and swayed above them. 
 Langham and MacWilliams still knelt in the 
 rear seat of the carriage, watching the road on 
 the chance of possible pursuit. 
 
 " Give me some cartridges," said Langham. 
 u My belt is empty. What road is this ? " 
 
 " It is a private road, I should say, through 
 somebody s banana plantation. But it must 
 cross the main road somewhere. It doesn t 
 matter, we re all right now. I mean to take it 
 easy." MacWilliams turned on his back and 
 stretched out his legs on the seat opposite. 
 
 " Where do you suppose those men sprang 
 from ? Were they following us all the time ? " 
 
 " Perhaps, or else that message got over the 
 wire before we cut it, and they ve being lying 
 in wait for us. They were probably watching 
 King and his sailors for the last hour or so, 
 but they did n t want him. They wanted her 
 and the money. It was pretty exciting, was n t 
 it ? How s your shoulder ? " 
 
 " It s a little stiff, thank you," said Langham. 
 He stood up and by peering over the hood could 
 just see the top of Clay s sombrero rising above 
 it where he sat on the back seat. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 309 
 
 " You and Hope all right up there, Clay ?" he 
 asked. 
 
 The top of the sombrero moved slightly, and 
 Langham took it as a sign that all was well. 
 He dropped back into his seat beside Mac Wil 
 liams, and they both breathed a long sigh of re 
 lief and content. Langham s wounded arm was 
 the one nearest Mac Williams, and the latter 
 parted the torn sleeve and examined the furrow 
 across the shoulder with unconcealed envy. 
 
 " I am afraid it won t leave a scar," he said, 
 sympathetically. 
 
 " Won t it ? " asked Langham, in some concern. 
 
 The horses had dropped into a walk, and the 
 beauty of the moonlit night put its spell upon 
 the two boys, and the rustling of the great leaves 
 above their heads stilled and quieted them so 
 that they unconsciously spoke in whispers. 
 
 Clay had not moved since the horses turned 
 of their own accord into the valley of the palms. 
 He no longer feared pursuit nor any interrup 
 tion to their further progress. His only sensa 
 tion was one of utter thankfulness that they 
 were all well out of it, and that Hope had been 
 the one who had helped them in their trouble, 
 and his dearest thought was that, whether she 
 wished or not, he owed his safety, and possibly 
 his life, to her. 
 
310 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 She still crouched between his knees upon 
 the broad footboard, with her hands clasped in 
 front of her, and looking ahead into the vista 
 of soft mysterious lights and dark shadows that 
 the moon cast upon the road. Neither of them 
 spoke, and as the silence continued unbroken, it 
 took a weightier significance, and at each added 
 second of time became more full of meaning. 
 
 The horses had dropped into a tired walk, 
 and drew them smoothly over the white road ; 
 from behind the hood came broken snatches of 
 the boys talk, and above their heads the heavy 
 leaves of the palms bent and bowed as though 
 in benediction. A warm breeze from the land 
 filled the air with the odor of ripening fruit and 
 pungent smells, and the silence seemed to en 
 velop them and mark them as the only living 
 creatures awake in the brilliant tropical night. 
 
 Hope sank slowly back, and as she did so, 
 her shoulder touched for an instant against 
 Clay s knee ; she straightened herself and made 
 a movement as though to rise. Her nearness 
 to him and something in her attitude at his feet 
 held Clay in a spell. He bent forward and laid 
 his hand fearfully upon her shoulder, and the 
 touch seemed to stop the blood in his veins and 
 hushed the words upon his lips. Hope raised 
 her head slowly as though with a great effort, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 311 
 
 and looked into his eyes. It seemed to him that 
 lie had been looking into those same eyes for 
 centuries, as though he had always known them, 
 and the soul that looked out of them into his. 
 He bent his head lower, and stretching out his 
 arms drew her to him, and the eyes did not 
 waver. He raised her and held her close against 
 his breast. Her eyes faltered and closed. 
 
 " Hope," he whispered, " Hope." He stooped 
 lower and kissed her, and his lips told her what 
 they could not speak and they were quite 
 alone. 
 
XIV 
 
 AN hour later Langham rose with a protest 
 ing sigh and shook the hood violently. 
 
 " I say ! " he called. " Are you asleep up 
 there ? We 11 never get home at this rate. 
 Does n t Hope want to come back here and go 
 to sleep?" 
 
 The carriage stopped, and the boys tumbled 
 out and walked around in front of it. Hope 
 sat smiling on the box-seat. She was appar 
 ently far from sleepy, and she was quite con 
 tented where she was, she told him. 
 
 " Do you know we have n t had anything to 
 eat since yesterday at breakfast?" asked Lang- 
 ham. " Mac Williams and I are fainting. We 
 move that we stop at the next shack we come to, 
 and waken the people up and make them give 
 us some supper." 
 
 Hope looked aside at Clay and laughed softly. 
 " Supper ? " she said. " They want supper ! " 
 
 Their suffering did not seem to impress Clay 
 deeply. He sat snapping his whip at the palm- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 313 
 
 trees above him, and smiled happily in an incon 
 sequent and irritating manner at nothing. 
 
 " See here ! Do you know that we are lost ? " 
 demanded Langliam, indignantly, " and starv 
 ing ? Have you any idea at all where you are ? " 
 
 " I have not," said Clay, cheerfully. " All I 
 know is that a long time ago there was a revo 
 lution and a woman with jewels, who escaped 
 in an open boat, and I recollect playing that I 
 was a target and standing up to be shot at in a 
 bright light. After that I woke up to the really 
 important things of life among which supper 
 is not one." 
 
 Langham and Mac Williams looked at each 
 other doubtfully, and Langham shook his head. 
 
 " Get down off that box," he commanded. 
 " If you and Hope think this is merely a pleas 
 ant moonlight drive, we don t. You two can sit 
 in the carriage now, and we ll take a turn at 
 driving, and we 11 guarantee to get you to some 
 place soon." 
 
 Clay and Hope descended meekly and seated 
 themselves under the hood, where they could 
 look out upon the moonlit road as it unrolled 
 behind them. But they were no longer to enjoy 
 their former leisurely progress. The new whip 
 lashed his horses into a gallop, and the trees flew 
 past them on either hand. 
 
314 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Do you remember that chap in the Last 
 Ride Together ? " said Clay. 
 
 " I and my mistress, side by side, 
 
 Shall be together forever ride, 
 And so one more day am I deified. 
 
 Who knows the world may end to-night." 
 
 Hope laughed triumphantly, and threw out her 
 arms as though she would embrace the whole 
 beautiful world that stretched around them. 
 
 " Oh, no," she laughed. " To-night the world 
 has just begun." 
 
 The carriage stopped, and there was a confu 
 sion of voices on the box-seat, and then a great 
 barking of dogs, and they beheld MacWilliams 
 beating and kicking at the door of a hut. The 
 door opened for an inch, and there was a long 
 debate in Spanish, and finally the door was 
 closed again, and a light appeared through the 
 windows. A few minutes later a man and 
 woman came out of the hut, shivering and 
 yawning, and made a fire in the sun-baked oven 
 at the side of the house. Hope and Clay re 
 mained seated in the carriage, and watched the 
 flames springing up from the oily fagots, and 
 the boys moving about with flaring torches of 
 pine, pulling down bundles of fodder for the 
 horses from the roof of the kitchen, while two 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 315 
 
 sleepy girls disappeared toward a mountain 
 stream, one carrying a jar on her shoulder, 
 and the other lighting the way with a torch. 
 Hope sat with her chin on her hand, watching 
 the black figures passing between them and the 
 fire, and standing above it with its light on 
 their faces, shading their eyes from the heat 
 with one hand, and stirring something in a 
 smoking caldron with the other. Hope felt an 
 overflowing sense of gratitude to these simple 
 strangers for the trouble they were taking. She 
 felt how good every one was, and how wonder 
 fully kind and generous was the world that she 
 lived in. 
 
 Her brother came over to the carriage and 
 bowed with mock courtesy. 
 
 "I trust, now that we have done all the 
 work," he said, " that your excellencies will 
 condescend to share our frugal fare, or must we 
 bring it to you here ? " 
 
 The clay oven stood in the middle of a hut 
 of laced twigs, through which the smoke drifted 
 freely. There was a row of wooden benches 
 around it, and they all seated themselves and 
 ate ravenously of rice and fried plantains, while 
 the woman patted and tossed tortillas between 
 her hands, eyeing her guests curiously. Her 
 glance fell upon Langham s shoulder, and rested 
 
316 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 there for so long that Hope followed the direc 
 tion of her eyes. She leaped to her feet with 
 a cry of fear and reproach, and ran toward 
 her brother. 
 
 " Ted ! " she cried, " you are hurt ! you are 
 wounded, and you never told me ! What is it ? 
 Is it very bad ? " Clay crossed the floor in a 
 stride, his face full of concern. 
 
 " Leave me alone ! " cried the stern brother, 
 backing away and warding them off with the 
 coffee-pot. " It s only scratched. You 11 spill 
 the coffee." 
 
 But at the sight of the blood Hope had turned 
 very white, and throwing her arms around her 
 brother s neck, hid her eyes on his other shoul 
 der and began to cry. 
 
 " I am so selfish," she sobbed. " I have 
 been so happy and you were suffering all the 
 time." 
 
 Her brother stared at the others in dismay. 
 " What nonsense," he said, patting her on the 
 shoulder. " You re a bit tired, and you need 
 rest. That s what you need. The idea of my 
 sister going off in hysterics after behaving like 
 such a sport and before these young ladies, 
 too. Are n t you ashamed ? " 
 
 "I should think they d be ashamed," said 
 Mac Williams, severely, as he continued placidly 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 317 
 
 with his supper. " They have n t got enough 
 clothes on." 
 
 Langham looked over Hope s shoulder at 
 Clay and nodded significantly. " She s been 
 on a good deal of a strain," he explained apolo 
 getically, " and no wonder ; it s been rather an 
 unusual night for her." 
 
 Hope raised her head and smiled at him 
 through her tears. Then she turned and moved 
 toward Clay. She brushed her eyes with the 
 back of her hand and laughed. " It has been 
 an unusual night," she said. u Shall I tell 
 him ? " she asked. 
 
 Clay straightened himself unconsciously, and 
 stepped beside her and took her hand ; Mac- 
 Williams quickly lowered to the bench the dish 
 from which he was eating, and stood up, too. 
 The people of the house stared at the group 
 in the firelight with puzzled interest, at the 
 beautiful young girl, and at the tall, sunburned 
 young man at her side. Langham looked from 
 his sister to Clay and back again, and laughed 
 uneasily. 
 
 " Langham, I have been very bold," said Clay. 
 " I have asked your sister to marry me and 
 she has said that she would." 
 
 Langham flushed as red as his sister. He 
 felt himself at a disadvantage in the presence 
 
318 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 of a love as great and strong as he knew this 
 must be. It made him seem strangely young 
 and inadequate. He crossed over to his sister 
 awkwardly and kissed her, and then took Clay s 
 hand, and the three stood together and looked 
 at one another, and there was no sign of doubt or 
 question in the face of any one of them. They 
 stood so for some little time, smiling and ex 
 claiming together, and utterly unconscious of 
 anything but their own delight and happiness. 
 Mac Williams watched them, his face puckered 
 into odd wrinkles and his eyes half-closed. 
 Hope suddenly broke away from the others and 
 turned toward him with her hands held out. 
 
 " Have you nothing to say to me, Mr. Mac- 
 Williams ? " she asked. 
 
 MacWilliams looked doubtfully at Clay, as 
 though from force of habit he must ask advice 
 from his chief first, and then took the hands 
 that she held out to him and shook them up 
 and down. His usual confidence seemed to 
 have forsaken him, and he stood, shifting from 
 one foot to the other, smiling and abashed. 
 
 " Well, I always said they did n t make them 
 any better than you," he gasped at last. " I was 
 always telling him that, was n t I ? " He nodded 
 energetically at Clay. " And that s so ; they 
 don t make em any better than you." 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 319 
 
 He dropped her hands and crossed over to 
 Clay, and stood surveying him with a smile of 
 wonder and admiration. 
 
 " How d you do it?" he demanded. "How 
 did you do it ? I suppose you know," he asked 
 sternly, " that you re not good enough for Miss 
 Hope ? You know that, don t you ? " 
 
 " Of course I know that," said Clay. 
 
 MacWilliams walked toward the door and 
 stood in it for a second, looking back at them 
 over his shoulder. " They don t make them any 
 better than that," he reiterated gravely, and dis 
 appeared in the direction of the horses, shaking 
 his head and muttering his astonishment and 
 delight. 
 
 " Please give me some money," Hope said to 
 Clay. " All the money you have," she added, 
 smiling at her assumption of authority over him, 
 " and you, too, Ted." The men emptied their 
 pockets, and Hope poured the mass of silver into 
 the hands of the women, who gazed at it uncom- 
 prehendingly. 
 
 " Thank you for your trouble and your good 
 supper," Hope said in Spanish, "and may no 
 evil come to your house." 
 
 The woman and her daughters followed her 
 to the carriage, bowing and uttering good wishes 
 in the extravagant metaphor of their country ; 
 
320 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and as they drove away, Hope waved her hand 
 to them as she sank closer against Clay s 
 shoulder. 
 
 " The world is full of such kind and gentle 
 souls," she said. 
 
 In an hour they had regained the main road, 
 and a little later the stars grew dim and the 
 moonlight faded, and trees and hushes and rocks 
 began to take substance and to grow into form 
 and outline. They saw by the cool, gray light 
 of the morning the familiar hills around the 
 capital, and at a cry from the boys on the box- 
 seat, they looked ahead and beheld the harbor 
 of Valencia at their feet, lying as placid and 
 undisturbed as the water in a bath-tub. As 
 they turned up the hill into the road that led to 
 the Palms, they saw the sleeping capital like 
 a city of the dead below them, its white buildings 
 reddened with the light of the rising sun. From 
 three places in different parts of the city, thick 
 columns of smoke rose lazily to the sky. 
 
 " I had forgotten ! " said Clay ; " they have 
 been having a revolution here. It seems so long 
 ago." 
 
 By five o clock they had reached the gate of 
 the Palms, and their appearance startled the 
 sentry on post into a state of undisciplined joy. 
 A riderless pony, the one upon which Josd had 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 321 
 
 made his escape when the firing began, had 
 crept into the stable an hour previous, stiff and 
 bruised and weary, and had led the people at 
 the Palms to fear the worst. 
 
 Mr. Lang-ham and his daughter were standing 
 on the veranda as the horses came galloping up 
 the avenue. They had been awake all the night, 
 and the face of each was white and drawn with 
 anxiety and loss of sleep. Mr. Langham caught 
 Hope in his arms and held her face close to his 
 in silence. 
 
 " Where have you been ? " he said at last. 
 " Why did you treat me like this ? You knew 
 how I would suffer." 
 
 " I could not help it," Hope cried. " I had to 
 go with Madame Alvarez." 
 
 Her sister had suffered as acutely as had Mr. 
 Langham himself, as long as she was in igno 
 rance of Hope s whereabouts. But now that 
 she saw Hope in the flesh again, she felt a 
 reaction against her for the anxiety and distress 
 she had caused them. 
 
 " My dear Hope," she said, " is every one to 
 be sacrificed for Madame Alvarez ? What pos 
 sible use could you be to her at such a time ? 
 It was not the time nor the place for a young 
 girl. You were only another responsibility for 
 the men." 
 
 21 
 
322 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Clay seemed willing to accept the responsi 
 bility," said Langham, without a smile. " And, 
 besides," he added, " if Hope had not been with 
 us we might never have reached home alive." 
 
 But it was only after much earnest protest 
 and many explanations that Mr. Langham was 
 pacified, and felt assured that his son s wound 
 was not dangerous, and that his daughter was 
 quite safe. 
 
 Miss Langham and himself, he said, had 
 passed a trying night. There had been much 
 firing in the city, and continual uproar. The 
 houses of several of the friends of Alvarez had 
 been burned and sacked. Alvarez himself had 
 been shot as soon as he had entered the yard of 
 the military prison. It was then given out that 
 he had committed suicide. Mendoza had not 
 dared to kill Rojas, because of the feeling of 
 the people toward him, and had even shown him 
 to the mob from behind the bars of one of the 
 windows in order to satisfy them that he was 
 still living. The British Minister had sent to 
 the Palace for the body of Captain Stuart, and 
 had had it escorted to the Legation, from 
 whence it would be sent to England. This, as 
 far as Mr. Langham had heard, was the news of 
 the night just over. 
 
 " Two native officers called here for you about 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 323 
 
 midnight, Clay," he continued, " and they are 
 still waiting for you below at your office. They 
 came from Rojas s troops, who are encamped 
 on the hills at the other side of the city. They 
 wanted you to join them with the men from the 
 mines. I told them I did not know when you 
 would return, and they said they would wait. 
 If you could have been here last night, it is 
 possible that we might have done something, 
 but now that it is all over, I am glad that you 
 saved that woman instead. I should have liked, 
 though, to have struck one blow at them. But 
 we cannot hope to win against assassins. The 
 death of young Stuart has hurt me terribly, 
 and the murder of Alvarez, coming on top of 
 it, has made me wish I had never heard of nor 
 seen Olancho. I have decided to go away at 
 once, on the next steamer, and I will take my 
 daughters with me, and Ted, too. The State 
 Department at Washington can fight with Men- 
 doza for the mines. You made a good stand, 
 but they made a better one, and they have 
 beaten us. Mcndoza s coup d etat has passed 
 into history, and the revolution is at an end." 
 
 On his arrival Clay had at once asked for a 
 cigar, and while Mr. Langham was speaking he 
 had been biting it between his teeth, with the 
 serious satisfaction of a man who had been 
 
324 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 twelve hours without one. He knocked the 
 ashes from it and considered the burning end 
 thoughtfully. Then he glanced at Hope as she 
 stood among the group on the veranda. She 
 was waiting for his reply and watching him 
 intently. He seemed to be confident that she 
 would approve of the only course he saw open 
 to him. 
 
 " The revolution is not at an end by any 
 means, Mr. Langham," lie said at last, simply. 
 " It has just begun." He turned abruptly and 
 walked away in the direction of the office, and 
 Mac Williams and Langham stepped off the ve 
 randa and followed him as a matter of course. 
 
 The soldiers in the army who were known 
 to be faithful to General Rojas belonged to the 
 Third and Fourth regiments, and numbered four 
 thousand on paper, and two thousand by count 
 of heads. When they had seen their leader 
 taken prisoner, and swept off the parade-ground 
 by Mendoza s cavalry, they had first attempted 
 to follow in pursuit and recapture him, but the 
 men on horseback had at once shaken off the 
 men on foot and left them, panting and breath 
 less, in the dust behind them. So they halted 
 uncertainly in the road, and their young officers 
 held counsel together. They first considered 
 the advisability of attacking the military prison, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 325 
 
 but decided against doing so, as it would lead, 
 they feared, whether it proved successful or 
 not, to the murder of Rojas. It was impossible 
 to return to the city where Mendoza s First and 
 Second regiments greatly outnumbered them. 
 Having no leader and no headquarters, the offi 
 cers marched the men to the hills above the city 
 and went into camp to await further developments. 
 Throughout the night they watched the illu 
 mination of the city and of the boats in the 
 harbor below them ; they saw the flames burst 
 ing from the homes of the members of Alvarez s 
 Cabinet, and when the morning broke they be 
 held the grounds of the Palace swarming with 
 Mendoza s troops, and the red and white barred 
 flag of the revolution floating over it. The 
 news of the assassination of Alvarez and the 
 fact that Rojas had been spared for fear of 
 the people, had been carried to them early in 
 the evening, and with this knowledge of their 
 General s safety hope returned and fresh plans 
 were discussed. By midnight they had defi 
 nitely decided that should Mendoza attempt to 
 dislodge them the next morning, they would 
 make a stand, but that if the fight went against 
 them, they would fall back along the mountain 
 roads to the Valencia mines, where they hoped 
 to persuade the fifteen hundred soldiers there 
 
326 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 installed to join forces with them against the 
 new Dictator. 
 
 In order to assure themselves of this help, 
 a messenger was despatched by a circuitous 
 route to the Palms, to ask the aid of the 
 resident director, and another was sent to the 
 mines to work upon the feelings of the soldiers 
 themselves. The officer who had been sent to 
 the Palms to petition Clay for the loan of his 
 soldier-workmen, had decided to remain until 
 Clay returned, and another messenger had been 
 sent after him from the camp on the same 
 errand. 
 
 These two lieutenants greeted Clay with en 
 thusiasm, but he at once interrupted them, and 
 began plying them with questions as to where 
 their camp was situated and what roads led 
 from it to the Palms. 
 
 " Bring your men at once to this end of our 
 railroad," he said. " It is still early, and the 
 revolutionists will sleep late. They are drugged 
 with liquor and worn out with excitement, and 
 whatever may have been their intentions towards 
 you last night, they will be late in putting them 
 into practice this morning. I will telegraph 
 Kirkland to come up at once with all of his 
 soldiers and with his three hundred Irishmen. 
 Allowing him a half-hour to collect them and 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 327 
 
 to get his flat cars together, and another half- 
 hour in which to make the run, he should be 
 here by half-past six and that s quick mob 
 ilization. You ride back now and march your 
 men here at a double-quick. With your two 
 thousand we shall have in all three thousand 
 and eight hundred men. I must have absolute 
 control over my own troops. Otherwise I shall 
 act independently of you and go into the city 
 alone with my workmen." 
 
 " That is unnecessary," said one of the lieu 
 tenants. " We have no officers. If you do not 
 command us, there is no one else to do it. We 
 promise that our men will follow you and give 
 you every obedience. They have been led by 
 foreigners before, by young Captain Stuart and 
 Major Fergurson and Colonel Shrevington. 
 They know how highly General Rojas thinks of 
 you, and they know that you have led Continen 
 tal armies in Europe." 
 
 " Well, don t tell them I have n t until this is 
 over," said Clay. " Now, ride hard, gentlemen, 
 and bring your men here as quickly as possible." 
 
 The lieutenants thanked him effusively and 
 galloped away, radiant at the success of their 
 mission, and Clay entered the office where Mac- 
 Williams was telegraphing his orders to Kirk- 
 land. He seated himself beside the instrument, 
 
328 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and from time to time answered the questions 
 Kirkland sent back to him over the wire, and in 
 the intervals of silence thought of Hope. It was 
 the first time he had gone into action feeling the 
 touch of a woman s hand upon his sleeve, and 
 he was fearful lest she might think he had con 
 sidered her too lightly. 
 
 He took a piece of paper from the table and 
 wrote a few lines upon it, and then rewrote them 
 several times. The message he finally sent to 
 her was this : " I am sure you understand, and 
 that you would not have me give up beaten now, 
 when what we do to-day may set us right again. 
 I know better than any one else in the world 
 can know, what I run the risk of losing, but you 
 would not have that fear stop me from going on 
 with what we have been struggling for so long. 
 I cannot come back to see you before we start, 
 but I know your heart is with me. With great 
 love, Robert Clay." 
 
 He gave the note to his servant, and the 
 answer was brought to him almost immediately. 
 Hope had not rewritten her message : " I love 
 you because you are the sort of man you are, 
 and had you given up as father wished you to do, 
 or on my account, you would have been some 
 one else, and I would have had to begin over 
 again to learn to love you for some different 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 329 
 
 reasons. I know that you will come back to me 
 bringing your sheaves with you. Nothing can 
 happen to you now. Hope." 
 
 He had never received a line from her before, 
 and he read and reread this with a sense of such 
 pride and happiness in his face that Mac Williams 
 smiled covertly and bent his eyes upon his in 
 strument. Clay went back into his room and 
 kissed the page of paper gently, flushing like a 
 boy as he did so, and then folding it carefully, 
 he put it away beneath his jacket. He glanced 
 about him guiltily, although he was quite alone, 
 and taking out his watch, pried it open and 
 looked down into the face of the photograph that 
 had smiled up at him from it for so many years. 
 He thought how unlike it was to Alice Langham 
 as he knew her. He judged that it must have 
 been taken when she was very young, at the age 
 Hope was then, before the little world she lived 
 in had crippled and narrowed her and marked 
 her for its own. He remembered what she had 
 said to him the first night he had seen her. 
 " That is the picture of the girl who ceased to 
 exist four years ago, and whom you have never 
 met." He wondered if she had ever existed. 
 
 u It looks more like Hope than her sister," he 
 mused. " It looks very much like Hope." He 
 decided that he would let it remain where it was 
 
330 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 until Hope gave him a better one ; and smiling 
 slightly he snapped the lid fast, as though he 
 were closing a door on the face of Alice Lang- 
 ham and locking it forever. 
 
 Kirkland was in the cab of the locomotive that 
 brought the soldiers from the mine. He stopped 
 the first car in front of the freight station until 
 the workmen had filed out and formed into a 
 double line on the platform. Then he moved 
 the train forward the length of that car, and 
 those in the one following were mustered out in 
 a similar manner. As the cars continued to 
 come in, the men at the head of the double line 
 passed on through the freight station and on up 
 the road to the city in an unbroken column. 
 There was no confusion, no crowding, and no 
 haste. 
 
 When the last car had been emptied, Clay 
 rode down the line and appointed a foreman to 
 take charge of each company, stationing his en 
 gineers and the Irish-Americans in the van. It 
 looked more like a mob than a regiment. None 
 of the men were in uniform, and the native 
 soldiers were barefoot. But they showed a win 
 ning spirit, and stood in as orderly an array as 
 though they were drawn up in line to receive 
 their month s wages. The Americans in front 
 of the column were humorously disposed, and 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 331 
 
 inclined to consider the whole affair as a pleas 
 ant outing. They had been placed in front, not 
 because they were better shots than the natives, 
 but because every South American thinks that 
 every citizen of the United States is a master 
 either of the rifle or the revolver, and Clay was 
 counting on this superstition. His assistant en 
 gineers and foremen hailed him as he rode on up 
 and down the line with good-natured cheers, and 
 asked him when they were to get their commis 
 sions, and if it were true that they were all cap 
 tains, or only colonels, as they were at home. 
 
 They had been waiting for a half-hour, when 
 there was the sound of horses hoofs on the road, 
 and the even beat of men s feet, and the advance 
 guard of the Third and Fourth regiments came 
 toward them at a quickstep. The men were 
 still in the full-dress uniforms they had worn at 
 the review the day before, and in comparison 
 with the soldier-workmen and the Americans in 
 flannel shirts, they presented so martial a show 
 ing that they were welcomed with tumultuous 
 cheers. Clay threw them into a double line on 
 one side of the road, down the length of which 
 his own marched until they had reached the end 
 of it nearest to the city, when they took up their 
 position in a close formation, and the native regi 
 ments fell in behind them. Clay selected twenty 
 
332 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 of the best shots from among the engineers and 
 sent them on ahead as a skirmish line. They 
 were ordered to fall back at once if they saw any 
 sign of the enemy. In this order the column of 
 four thousand men started for the city. 
 
 It was a little after seven when they advanced, 
 and the air was mild and peaceful. Men and 
 women came crowding to the doors and windows 
 of the huts as they passed, and stood watching 
 them in silence, not knowing to which party the 
 small army might belong. In order to enlighten 
 them, Clay shouted, "Viva Rojas." And his 
 men took it up, and the people answered gladly. 
 
 They had reached the closely built portion of 
 the city when the skirmish line came running 
 back to say that it had been met by a detach 
 ment of Mendoza s cavalry, who had galloped 
 away as soon as they saw them. There was 
 then no longer any doubt that the fact of their 
 coming was known at the Palace, and Clay 
 halted his men in a bare plaza and divided them 
 into three columns. Three streets ran parallel 
 with one another from this plaza to the heart of 
 the city, and opened directly upon the garden of 
 the Palace where Mendoza had fortified himself. 
 Clay directed the columns to advance up these 
 streets, keeping the head of each column in touch 
 with the other two. At the word they were to 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 333 
 
 pour down the side streets and rally to each 
 other s assistance. 
 
 As they stood, drawn up on the three sides of 
 the plaza, he rode out before them and held up his 
 hat for silence. .They were there with arms in 
 their hands, he said, for two reasons : the greater 
 one, and the one which he knew actuated the 
 native soldiers, was their desire to preserve the 
 Constitution of the Republic. According to 
 their own laws, the Vice-President must succeed 
 when the President s term of office had expired, 
 or in the event of his death. President Alvarez 
 had been assassinated, and the Vice-President, 
 General Rojas, was, in consequence, his legal 
 successor. It was their duty, as soldiers of the 
 Republic, to rescue him from prison, to drive the 
 man who had usurped his place into exile, and 
 by so doing uphold the laws which they had 
 themselves laid down. The second motive, he 
 went on, was a less worthy and more selfish one. 
 The Olancho mines, which now gave work to 
 thousands and brought millions of dollars into 
 the country, were coveted by Mendoza, who 
 would, if he could, convert them into a monopoly 
 of his government. If he remained in power all 
 foreigners would be driven out of the country, 
 and the soldiers would be forced to work in the 
 mines without payment. Their condition would 
 
334 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 be little better than that of the slaves in the salt 
 mines of Siberia. Not only would they no 
 longer be paid for their labor, but the people as a 
 whole would cease to receive that share of the 
 earnings of the mines which had hitherto been 
 theirs. 
 
 " Under President Rojas you will have liberty, 
 justice, and prosperity," Clay cried. " Under 
 Mendoza you will be ruled by martial law. He 
 will rob and overtax you, and you will live 
 through a reign of terror. Between them 
 which will you choose ? " 
 
 The native soldiers answered by cries of 
 " Rojas," and breaking ranks rushed across the 
 plaza towards him, crowding around his horse 
 and shouting, " Long live Rojas," " Long live the 
 Constitution," " Death to Mendoza." The Amer 
 icans stood as they were and gave three cheers 
 for the Government. 
 
 They were still cheering and shouting as they 
 advanced upon the Palace, and the noise of their 
 coming drove the people indoors, so that they 
 marched through deserted streets and between 
 closed doors and sightless windows. No one 
 opposed them, and no one encouraged them. 
 But they could now see the fagade of the Palace 
 and the flag of the Revolutionists hanging from 
 the mast in front of it. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 335 
 
 Three blocks distant from the Palace they 
 came upon the buildings of the United States 
 and English Legations, where the flags of the 
 two countries had been hung out over the narrow 
 thoroughfare. The windows and the roofs of 
 each legation were crowded with women and 
 children who had sought refuge there, and the 
 column halted as Weimer, the Consul, and Sir 
 Julian Pindar, the English Minister, came out, 
 bare-headed, into the street and beckoned to 
 Clay to stop. 
 
 " As our Minister was not here," Weimer said, 
 " I telegraphed to Truxillo for the man-of-war 
 there. She started some time ago, and we have 
 just heard that she is entering the lower harbor. 
 She should have her blue-jackets on shore in 
 twenty minutes. Sir Julian and I think you 
 ought to wait for them." 
 
 The English Minister put a detaining hand on 
 Clay s bridle. " If you attack Mendoza at the 
 Palace with this mob," he remonstrated, " riot 
 ing and lawlessness generally will break out all 
 over the city. I ask you to keep them back 
 until we get your sailors to police the streets 
 and protect property." 
 
 Clay glanced over his shoulder at the engi 
 neers and the Irish workmen standing in solemn 
 array behind him. " Oh, you can hardly call 
 
336 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 this a mob," he said. " They look a little rough 
 and ready, but I will answer for them. The 
 two other columns that are coming up the street 
 parallel to this are Government troops and 
 properly engaged in driving an usurper out of 
 the Government building. The best thing you 
 can do is to get down to the wharf and send the 
 marines and blue-jackets where you think they 
 will do the most good. I can t wait for them. 
 And they can t come too soon." 
 
 The grounds of the Palace occupied two entire 
 blocks ; the Botanical Gardens were in the rear, 
 and in front a series of low terraces ran down 
 from its veranda to the high iron fence which 
 separated the grounds from the chief thorough 
 fare of the city. 
 
 Clay sent word to the left and right wing of 
 his little army to make a detour one street 
 distant from the Palace grounds and form in 
 the street in the rear of the Botanical Gardens. 
 When they heard the firing of his men from the 
 front they were to force their way through the 
 gates at the back and attack the Palace in the 
 rear. 
 
 "Mendoza has the place completely barri 
 caded," Weimer warned him, " and he has three 
 field pieces covering each of these streets. You 
 and your men are directly in line of one of them 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 337 
 
 now. He is only waiting for you to get a little 
 nearer before he lets loose." 
 
 From where he sat Clay could count the bars 
 of the iron fence in front of the grounds. But 
 the boards that backed them prevented his 
 forming any idea of the strength or the dis 
 tribution of Mendoza s forces. He drew his 
 staff of amateur officers to one side and ex 
 plained the situation to them. 
 
 " The Theatre National and the Club Union," 
 he said, " face the Palace from the opposite 
 corners of this street. You must get into them 
 and barricade the windows and throw up some 
 sort of shelter for yourselves along the edge of 
 the roofs and drive the men behind that fence 
 back to the Palace. Clear them away from the 
 cannon first, and keep them away from it. I 
 will be waiting in the street below. When you 
 have driven them back, we will charge the gates 
 and have it out with them in the gardens. The 
 Third and Fourth regiments ought to take them 
 in the rear about the same time. You will con 
 tinue to pick them off from the roof." 
 
 The two supporting columns had already 
 started on their roundabout way to the rear of 
 the Palace. Clay gathered up his reins, and 
 telling his men to keep close to the walls, started 
 forward, his soldiers following on the sidewalks 
 22 
 
338 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and leaving the middle of the street clear. As 
 they reached a point a hundred yards below 
 the Palace, a part of the wooden shield behind 
 the fence was thrown down, there was a puff 
 of white smoke and a report, and a cannon-ball 
 struck the roof of a house which they were pass 
 ing and sent the tiles clattering about their 
 heads. But the men in the lead had already 
 reached the stage-door of the theatre and were 
 opposite one of the doors to the club. They 
 drove these in with the butts of their rifles, and 
 raced up the stairs of each of the deserted 
 buildings until they reached the roof. Langham 
 was swept by a weight of men across a stage, 
 and jumped among the music racks in the 
 orchestra. He caught a glimpse of the early 
 morning sun shining on the tawdry hangings of 
 the boxes and the exaggerated perspective of 
 the scenery. He ran through corridors between 
 two great statues of Comedy and Tragedy, and 
 up a marble staircase to a lobby in which he 
 saw the white faces about him multiplied in 
 long mirrors, and so out to an iron balcony from 
 which he looked down, panting and breathless, 
 upon the Palace Gardens, swarming with soldiers 
 and white with smoke. Men poured through 
 the windows of the club opposite, dragging sofas 
 and chairs out to the balcony and upon the flat 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 339 
 
 roof. The men near him were tearing down 
 the yellow silk curtains in the lobby and draping 
 them along the railing of the balcony to better 
 conceal their movements from the enemy below. 
 Bullets spattered the stucco about their heads, 
 and panes of glass broke suddenly and fell in 
 glittering particles upon their shoulders. The 
 firing had already begun from the roofs near 
 them. Beyond the club and the theatre and far 
 along the street on each side of the Palace the 
 merchants were slamming the iron shutters of 
 their shops, and men and women were running 
 for refuge up the high steps of the church 
 of Santa Maria. Others were gathered in 
 black masses on the balconies and roofs of the 
 more distant houses, where they stood outlined 
 against the soft blue sky in gigantic silhouette. 
 Their shouts of encouragement and anger carried 
 clearly in the morning air, and spurred on 
 the gladiators below to greater effort. In the 
 Palace Gardens a line of Mendoza s men fought 
 from behind the first barricade, while others 
 dragged tables and bedding and chairs across 
 the green terraces and tumbled them down to 
 those below, who seized them and formed them 
 into a second line of defence. 
 
 Two of the assistant engineers were kneeling 
 at Langham s feet with the barrels of their 
 
340 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 rifles resting on the railing of the balcony. 
 Their eyes had been trained for years to judge 
 distances and to measure space, and they glanced 
 along the sights of their rifles as though they 
 were looking through the lens of a transit, and 
 at each report their faces grew more earnest 
 and their lips pressed tighter together. One 
 of them lowered his gun to light a cigarette, 
 and Langham handed him his match-box, with 
 a certain feeling of repugnance. 
 
 " Better get under cover, Mr. Langham," the 
 man said, kindly. " There s no use our keep 
 ing your mines for you if you re not alive to 
 enjoy them. Take a shot at that crew around 
 the gun." 
 
 u I don t like this long range business," Lang- 
 ham answered. " I am going down to join Clay. 
 I don t like the idea of hitting a man when he 
 is n t looking at you." 
 
 The engineer gave an incredulous laugh. 
 
 " If he is n t looking at you, he s aiming at 
 the man next to you. Live and let Live 
 does n t apply at present." 
 
 As Langham reached Clay s side triumphant 
 shouts arose from the roof-tops, and the men 
 posted there stood up and showed themselves 
 above the barricades and called to Clay that the 
 cannon were deserted. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 341 
 
 Kirkland had come prepared for the barricade, 
 and, running across the street, fastened a dyna 
 mite cartridge to each gate post and lit the fuses. 
 The soldiers scattered before him as he came 
 leaping back, and in an instant later there was 
 a racking roar, and the gates were pitched out 
 of their sockets and thrown forward, and those 
 in the street swept across them and surrounded 
 the cannon. 
 
 Langham caught it by the throat as though it 
 were human, and did not feel the hot metal 
 burning the palms of his hands as he choked it 
 and pointed its muzzle toward the Palace, while 
 the others dragged at the spokes of the wheel. 
 It was fighting at close range now, close enough 
 to suit even Langham. He found himself in the 
 front rank of it without knowing exactly how he 
 got there. Every man on both sides was playing 
 his own hand, and seemed to know exactly what 
 to do. He felt neglected and very much alone, 
 and was somewhat anxious lest his valor might 
 be wasted through his not knowing how to put 
 it to account. He saw the enemy in changing 
 groups of scowling men, who seemed to eye him 
 for an instant down the length of a gun-barrel 
 and then disappear behind a puff of smoke. He 
 kept thinking that war made men take strange 
 liberties with their fellow-men, and it struck him 
 
342 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 as being most absurd that strangers should stand 
 up and try to kill one another, men who had so 
 little in common that they did not even know 
 one another s names. The soldiers who were 
 fighting on his own side were equally unknown 
 to him, and he looked in vain for Clay. He saw 
 MacWilliams for a moment through the smoke, 
 jabbing at a jammed cartridge with his pen 
 knife, and hacking the lead away to make it slip. 
 He was remonstrating with the gun and swear 
 ing at it exactly as though it were human, and 
 as Langham ran toward him he threw it away 
 and caught up another from the ground. Kneel 
 ing beside the wounded man who had dropped 
 it and picking the cartridges from his belt, he 
 assured him cheerfully that he was not so badly 
 hurt as he thought. 
 
 " You all right ? " Langham asked. 
 
 " I m all right. I m trying to get a little 
 laddie hiding behind that blue silk sofa over 
 there. He s taken an unnatural dislike to me, 
 and he s nearly got me three times. I m knock 
 ing horse-hair out of his rampart, though." 
 
 The men of Stuart s body-guard were fighting 
 outside of the breastworks and mattresses. 
 They were using their swords as though they 
 were machetes, and the Irishmen were swinging 
 their guns around their shoulders like sledge- 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 343 
 
 hammers, and beating their foes over the head 
 and breast. The gnns at his own side sounded 
 close at Langham s ear, and deafened him, and 
 those of the enemy exploded so near to his face 
 that he was kept continually winking and dodg 
 ing, as though he were being taken by a flash 
 light photograph. When he fired he aimed 
 where the mass was thickest, so that he might 
 not see what his bullet did, but he remembered 
 afterward that he always reloaded with the most 
 anxious swiftness in order that he might not be 
 killed before he had had another shot, and that 
 the idea of being killed was of no concern to 
 him except on that account. Then the scene 
 before him changed, and apparently hundreds of 
 Mendoza s soldiers poured out from the Palace 
 and swept down upon him, cheering as they 
 came, and he felt himself falling back naturally 
 and as a matter of course, as he would have 
 stepped out of the way of a locomotive, or a run 
 away horse, or any other unreasoning thing. 
 His shoulders pushed against a mass of shouting, 
 sweating men, who in turn pressed back upon 
 others, until the mass reached the iron fence and 
 could move no further. He heard Clay s voice 
 shouting to them, and saw him run forward, 
 shooting rapidly as he ran, and he followed him, 
 even though his reason told him it was a useless 
 
344 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 thing to do, and then there came a great shout 
 from the rear of the Palace, and more soldiers, 
 dressed exactly like the others, rushed through 
 the great doors and swarmed around the two 
 wings of the building, and he recognized them 
 as Rojas s men and knew that the fight was 
 over. 
 
 He saw a tall man with a negro s face spring 
 out of the first mass of soldiers and shout to 
 them to follow him. Clay gave a yell of wel 
 come and ran at him, calling upon him in Span 
 ish to surrender. The negro stopped and stood 
 at bay, glaring at Clay and at the circle of 
 soldiers closing in around him. He raised his 
 revolver and pointed it steadily. It was as 
 though the man knew he had only a moment 
 to live, and meant to do that one thing well 
 in the short time left him. 
 
 Clay sprang to one side and ran towards 
 him, dodging to the right and left, but Men- 
 doza followed his movements carefully with his 
 revolver. 
 
 It lasted but an instant. Then the Spaniard 
 threw his arm suddenly across his face, drove 
 the heel of his boot into the turf, and spinning 
 about on it fell forward. 
 
 " If he was shot where his sash crosses his 
 heart, I know the man who did it," Langham 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 345 
 
 heard a voice say at his elbow, and turning saw 
 Mac Williams wetting his finger at his lips and 
 touching them gingerly to the heated barrel of 
 his Winchester. 
 
 The death of Mendoza left his followers with 
 out a leader and without a cause. They threw 
 their muskets on the ground and held their 
 hands above their heads, shrieking for mercy. 
 Clay and his officers answered them instantly 
 by running from one group to another, knocking 
 up the barrels of the rifles and calling hoarsely 
 to the men on the roofs to cease firing, and as 
 they were obeyed the noise of the last few ran 
 dom shots was drowned in tumultuous cheering 
 and shouts of exultation, that, starting in the 
 gardens, were caught up by those in the streets 
 and passed on quickly as a line of flame along 
 the swaying housetops. 
 
 The native officers sprang upon Clay and 
 embraced him after their fashion, hailing him 
 as the Liberator of Olancho, as the Preserver 
 of the Constitution, and their brother patriot. 
 Then one of them climbed to the top of a gilt 
 and marble table and proclaimed him military 
 President. 
 
 " You 11 proclaim yourself an idiot, if you 
 don t get down from there," Clay said, laughing. 
 " I thank you for permitting me to serve with 
 
346 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 you, gentlemen. I shall have great pleasure in 
 telling our President how well you acquitted 
 yourself in this row battle, I mean. And 
 now I would suggest that you store the prison 
 ers weapons in the Palace and put a guard over 
 them, and then conduct the men themselves to 
 the military prison, where you can release Gen 
 eral Rojas and escort him back to the city in a 
 triumphal procession. You d like that, would n t 
 you?" 
 
 But the natives protested that that honor was 
 for him alone. Clay declined it, pleading that 
 he must look after his wounded. 
 
 " I can hardly believe there are any dead," he 
 said to Kirkland. " For, if it takes two thou 
 sand bullets to kill a man in European warfare, 
 it must require about two hundred thousand to 
 kill a man in South America." 
 
 He told Kirkland to march his men back to 
 the mines and to see that there were no strag 
 glers. "If they want to celebrate, let them 
 celebrate when they get to the mines, but not 
 here. They have made a good record to-day 
 and I won t have it spoiled by rioting. They 
 shall have their reward later. Between Rojas 
 and Mr. Langham they should all be rich 
 men." 
 
 The cheering from the housetops since the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 347 
 
 firing ceased had changed suddenly into hand- 
 clappings, and the cries, though still undistin- 
 guishable, were of a different sound. Clay saw 
 that the Americans on the balconies of the club 
 and of the theatre had thrown themselves far 
 over the railings and were all looking in the 
 same direction and waving their hats and cheer 
 ing loudly, and he heard above the shouts of the 
 people the regular tramp of men s feet march 
 ing in step, and the rattle of a machine gun as 
 it bumped and shook over the rough stones. 
 He gave a shout of pleasure, and Kirkland and 
 the two boys ran with him up the slope, crowd 
 ing each other to get a better view. The mob 
 parted at the Palace gates, and they saw two 
 lines of blue-jackets, spread out like the sticks 
 of a fan, dragging the gun between them, the 
 middies in their tight-buttoned tunics and gait 
 ers, and behind them more blue-jackets with 
 bare, bronzed "throats, and with the swagger and 
 roll of the sea in their legs and shoulders. An 
 American flag floated above the white helmets 
 of the marines. Its presence and the sense of 
 pride which the sight of these men from home 
 awoke in them made the fight just over seem 
 mean and petty, and they took off their hats 
 and cheered with the others. 
 
 A first lieutenant, who felt his importance 
 
348 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and also a sense of disappointment at having 
 arrived too late to see the fighting, left his men 
 at the gate of the Palace, and advanced up the 
 terrace, stopping to ask for information as he 
 came. Each group to which he addressed him 
 self pointed to Clay. The sight of his own flag- 
 had reminded Clay that the banner of Mendoza 
 still hung from the mast beside which he was 
 standing, and as the officer approached he was 
 busily engaged in untwisting its halyards and 
 pulling it down. 
 
 The lieutenant saluted him doubtfully. 
 
 " Can you tell me who is in command here ?" 
 he asked. He spoke somewhat sharply, for 
 Clay was not a military looking personage, 
 covered as he was with dust and perspiration, 
 and with his sombrero on the back of his head. 
 
 " Our Consul here told us at the landing- 
 place," continued the lieutenant in an aggrieved 
 tone, " that a General Mendoza was in power, 
 and that I had better report to him, and then 
 ten minutes later I hear that he is dead and 
 that a General Rojas is President, but that a 
 man named Clay has made himself Dictator. 
 My instructions are to recognize no belligerents, 
 but to report to the Government party. Now, 
 who is the Government party ? " 
 
 Clay brought the red-barred flag down with 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 349 
 
 a jerk, and ripped it free from the halyards. 
 Kirkland and the two boys were watching him 
 with amused smiles. 
 
 " I appreciate your difficulty," he said. " Presi 
 dent Alvarez is dead, and General Mendoza, 
 who tried to make himself Dictator, is also 
 dead, and the real President, General Rojas, 
 is still in jail. So at present I suppose that I 
 represent the Government party, at least I am 
 the man named Clay. It had n t occurred to 
 me before, but, until Rojas is free, I guess I 
 am the Dictator of Olancho. Is Madame Alvarez 
 on board your ship ? " 
 
 " Yes, she is with us," the officer replied, in 
 some confusion. "Excuse me ^are you the 
 three gentlemen who took her to the yacht ? 
 I am afraid I spoke rather hastily just now, 
 but you are not in uniform, and the Govern 
 ment seems to change so quickly down here 
 that a stranger finds it hard to keep up with 
 it." 
 
 Six of the native officers had approached 
 as the lieutenant was speaking and saluted 
 Clay gravely. u We have followed your in 
 structions," one of them said, " and the regi 
 ments are ready to march with the prisoners. 
 Have you any further orders for us can we 
 deliver any messages to General Rojas ? " 
 
350 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Present my congratulations to General Rojas, 
 and best wishes," said Clay. " And tell him 
 for me, that it would please me greatly if he 
 would liberate an American citizen named Burke? 
 who is at present in the cuartel. And that I 
 wish him to promote all of you gentlemen one 
 grade and give each of you the Star of Olancho. 
 Tell him that in my opinion you have deserved 
 even higher reward and honor at his hands." 
 
 The boy-lieutenants broke out into a chorus 
 of delighted thanks. They assured Clay that 
 he was most gracious ; that he overwhelmed 
 them, and that it was honor enough for them 
 that they had served under him. But Clay 
 laughed, and drove them off with a paternal 
 wave of the hand. 
 
 The officer from the man-of-war listened with 
 an uncomfortable sense of having blundered in 
 his manner toward this powder-splashed young 
 man who set American citizens at liberty, 
 and created captains by the half-dozen at a 
 time. 
 
 " Are you from the States ? " he asked as 
 they moved toward the man-of-war s men. 
 
 " I am, thank God. Why not ? " 
 
 " I thought you were, but you saluted like 
 an Englishman." 
 
 " I was an officer in the English army once 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 351 
 
 in the Soudan, when they were short of officers." 
 Clay shook his head and looked wistfully at the 
 ranks of the blue-jackets drawn up on either 
 side of them. The horses had been brought 
 out and Langham and MacWilliams were wait 
 ing for him to mount. " I have worn several 
 uniforms since I was a boy," said Clay. " But 
 never that of my own country." 
 
 The people were cheering him from every 
 part of the square. Women waved their hands 
 from balconies and housetops, and men climbed 
 to awnings and lampposts and shouted his name. 
 The officers and men of the landing party took 
 note of him and of this reception out of the 
 corner of their eyes, and wondered. 
 
 " And what had I better do ?" asked the com 
 manding officer. 
 
 " Oh, I would police the Palace grounds, if I 
 were you, and picket that street at the right, 
 where there are so many wine shops, and pre 
 serve order generally until Rojas gets here. He 
 won t be more than an hour, now. We shall be 
 coming over to pay our respects to your captain 
 to-morrow. Glad to have met you." 
 
 " Well, I m glad to have met you," answered 
 the officer, heartily. " Hold on a minute. Even 
 if you haven t worn our uniform, you re as 
 good, and better, than some I ve seen that have, 
 
352 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 and you re a sort of a commander-in-chief , any 
 way, and I m damned if I don t give you a sort 
 of salute." 
 
 Clay laughed like a boy as he swung himself 
 into the saddle. The officer stepped back and 
 gave the command ; the middies raised their 
 swords and Clay passed between massed rows of 
 his countrymen with their muskets held rigidly 
 toward him. The housetops rocked again at 
 the sight, and as he rode out into the brilliant 
 sunshine, his eyes were wet and winking. 
 
 The two boys had drawn up at his side, but 
 MacWilliama had turned in the saddle and was 
 still looking toward the Palace, with his hand 
 resting on the hindquarters of his pony. 
 
 " Look back, Clay," he said. " Take a last 
 look at it, you ll never see it after to-day. Turn 
 again, turn again, Dictator of Olancho." 
 
 The men laughed and drew rein as he bade 
 them, and looked back up the narrow street. 
 They saw the green and white flag of Olancho 
 creeping to the top of the mast before the Pal 
 ace, the blue-jackets driving back the crowd, the 
 gashes in the walls of the houses, where Men- 
 doza s cannon-balls had dug their way through 
 the stucco, and the silk curtains, riddled with 
 bullets, flapping from the balconies of the opera- 
 house. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 353 
 
 " You had it all your own way an hour ago," 
 Mac Williams said, mockingly. " You could 
 have sent Rojas into exile, and made us all 
 Cabinet Ministers and you gave it up for a 
 girl. Now, you re Dictator of Olancho. What 
 will you be to-morrow ? To-morrow you will be 
 Andrew Langham s son-in-law Benedict, the 
 married man. Andrew Langham s son-in-law 
 cannot ask his wife to live in such a hole as 
 this, so Good-bye, Mr. Clay. We have been 
 long together." 
 
 Clay and Langham looked curiously at the boy 
 to see if he were in earnest, but Mac Williams 
 would not meet their eyes. 
 
 " There were three of us," he said, " and one 
 got shot, and one got married, and the third ? 
 You will grow fat, Clay, and live on Fifth 
 Avenue and wear a high silk hat, and some day 
 when you re sitting in your club you 11 read a 
 paragraph in a newspaper with a queer Spanish 
 date-line to it, and this will all come back to 
 you, this heat, and the palms, and the fever, 
 and the days when you lived on plantains and 
 we watched our trestles grow out across the 
 canons, and you 11 be willing to give your hand 
 to sleep in a hammock again, and to feel the 
 sweat running down your back, and you 11 want 
 to chuck your gun up against your chin and 
 23 
 
354 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 shoot into a line of men, and the policemen 
 won t let you, and your wife won t let you. 
 That s what you re giving up. There it is. 
 Take a good look at it. You 11 never see it 
 again." 
 
XV 
 
 THE steamer "Santiago," carrying "passengers, 
 bullion, and coffee," was headed to pass Porto 
 Rico by midnight, when she would be free of 
 land until she anchored at the quarantine sta 
 tion of the green hills of Staten Island. She 
 had not yet shaken off the contamination of the 
 earth ; a soft inland breeze still tantalized her 
 with odors of tree and soil, the smell of the 
 fresh coat of paint that had followed her coaling 
 rose from her sides, and the odor of spilt coffee- 
 grains that hung around the hatches had yet to 
 be blown away by a jealous ocean breeze, or 
 washed by a welcoming cross sea. 
 
 The captain stopped at the open entrance of 
 the Social Hall. " If any of you ladies want to 
 take your last look at Olancho you vc got to 
 come now," he said. " We 11 lose the Valencia 
 light in the next quarter hour." 
 
 Miss Langham and King looked up from their 
 novels and smiled, and Miss Langham shook 
 her head. " I ve taken three final farewells of 
 
356 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 Olancho already," she said : " before we went 
 down to dinner, and when the sun set, and 
 when the moon rose. I have no more senti 
 ment left to draw on. Do you want to go ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " I m very comfortable, thank you," King 
 said, and returned to the consideration of his 
 novel. 
 
 But Clay and Hope arose at the captain s 
 suggestion with suspicious alacrity, and stepped 
 out upon the empty deck, and into the encom 
 passing darkness, with a little sigh of relief. 
 
 Alice Langham looked after them somewhat 
 wistfully and bit the edges of her book. She 
 sat for some time with her brows knitted, glanc 
 ing occasionally and critically toward King and 
 up with unseeing eyes at the swinging lamps of 
 the saloon. He caught her looking at him once 
 when he raised his eyes as he turned a page, and 
 smiled back at her, and she nodded pleasantly 
 and bent her head over her reading. She as 
 sured herself that after all King understood her 
 and she him, and that if they never rose to 
 certain heights, they never sank below a high 
 level of mutual esteem, and that perhaps was 
 the best in the end. 
 
 King had placed his yacht at the disposal of 
 Madame Alvarez, and she had sailed to Colon, 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 857 
 
 where she could change to the steamers for 
 Lisbon, while he accompanied the Langhams 
 and the wedding party to New York. 
 
 Clay recognized that the time had now arrived 
 in his life when he could graduate from the 
 position of manager-director and become the 
 engineering expert, and that his services in 
 Olancho were no longer needed. 
 
 With Rojas in power Mr. Langham had noth 
 ing further to fear from the Government, and 
 with Kirkland in charge and young Langham 
 returning after a few months absence to resume 
 his work, he felt himself free to enjoy his 
 holiday. 
 
 They had taken the first steamer out, and the 
 combined efforts of all had been necessary to 
 prevail upon Mac Williams to accompany them ; 
 and even now the fact that he was to act as 
 Clay s best man and, as Langham assured him 
 cheerfully, was to wear a frock coat and see his 
 name in all the papers, brought on such sudden 
 panics of fear that the fast-fading coast line 
 filled his soul with regret, and a wilful desire to 
 jump overboard and swim back. 
 
 Clay and Hope stopped at the door of the 
 chief engineer s cabin and said they had come to 
 pay him a visit. The chief had but just come 
 from the depths where the contamination of the 
 
358 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 earth was most evident in the condition of his 
 stokers ; but his chin was now cleanly shaven, 
 and his pipe was drawing as well as his engine 
 fires, and he had wrapped himself in an old 
 P. & 0. white duck jacket to show what he had 
 been before he sank to the level of a coasting 
 steamer. They admired the clerk-like neatness 
 of the report he had just finished, and in return 
 he promised them the fastest run on record, and 
 showed them the portrait of his wife, and of 
 their tiny cottage on the Isle of Wight, and his 
 jade idols from Corea, and carved cocoanut 
 gourds from Brazil, and a picture from the 
 " Graphic " of Lord Salisbury, tacked to the par 
 tition and looking delightedly down between 
 two highly colored lithographs of Miss Ellen 
 Terry and the Princess May. 
 
 Then they called upon the captain, and Clay 
 asked him why captains always hung so much 
 lace about their beds when they invariably slept 
 on a red velvet sofa with their boots on, and the 
 captain ordered his Chinese steward to mix 
 them a queer drink and offered them the choice 
 of a six months accumulation of paper novels, 
 and free admittance to his bridge at all hours. 
 And then they passed on to the door of the 
 smoking-room and beckoned MacWilliams to 
 come out and join them. His manner as he did 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 359 
 
 so bristled with importance, and he drew them 
 eagerly to the rail. 
 
 " I ve just been having a chat with Captain 
 Burke," he said, in an undertone. " He s been 
 telling Langham and me about a new game 
 that s better than running railroads. He says 
 there s a country called Macedonia that s got 
 a native prince who wants to be free from 
 Turkey, and the Turks won t let him, and 
 Burke says if we 11 each put up a thousand 
 dollars, he 11 guarantee to get the prince free in 
 six months. He s made an estimate of the 
 cost and submitted it to the Russian Embassy 
 at Washington, and he says they will help him 
 secretly, and he knows a man who has just 
 patented a new rifle, arid who will supply him 
 with a thousand of them for the sake of the 
 advertisement. He says it s a mountainous 
 country, and all you have to do is to stand on 
 the passes and roll rocks down on the Turks as 
 they come in. It sounds easy, does n t it ?" 
 
 " Then you re thinking of turning profes 
 sional filibuster yourself ? " said Clay. 
 
 " Well, I don t know. It sounds more inter 
 esting than engineering. Burke says I beat him 
 on this last fight, and he d like to have me with 
 him in the next one sort of young-blood-in- 
 the-firm idea and he calculates that we can 
 
360 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 go about setting people free and upsetting gov 
 ernments for some time to come. He says 
 there is always something to fight about if you 
 look for it. And I must say the condition 
 of those poor Macedonians does appeal to me. 
 Think of them all alone down there bullied by 
 that Sultan of Turkey, and wanting to be free 
 and independent. That s not right. You, as 
 an American citizen, ought to be the last person 
 in the world to throw cold water on an under 
 taking like that. In the name of Liberty now ? " 
 
 "I don t object; set them free, of course," 
 laughed Clay. " But how long have you enter 
 tained this feeling for the enslaved Macedonians, 
 Mac?" 
 
 tk Well, I never heard of them until a quartei 
 of an hour ago, but they oughtn t to suffer 
 through my ignorance." 
 
 " Certainly not. Let me know when you re 
 going to do it, and Hope and I will run over and 
 look on. I should like to see you and Burke and 
 the Prince of Macedonia rolling rocks down on 
 the Turkish Empire." 
 
 Hope and Clay passed on up the deck laugh 
 ing, and Mac Williams looked after them with a 
 fond and paternal smile. The lamp in the 
 wheelhouse threw a broad belt of light across 
 the forward deck as they passed through it into 
 
OVER THERE IS THE COAST OF AFRICA. 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 861 
 
 the darkness of the bow, where the lonely look 
 out turned and stared at them suspiciously, and 
 then resumed his stern watch over the great 
 waters. 
 
 They leaned upon the rail and breathed the 
 soft air which the rush of the steamer threw in 
 their faces, and studied in silence the stars that 
 lay so low upon the horizon line that they looked 
 like the harbor lights of a great city. 
 
 " Do you see that long line of lamps off our 
 port bow ? " asked Clay. 
 
 Hope nodded. 
 
 " Those are the electric lights along the ocean 
 drive at Long Branch and up the Rumson Road, 
 and those two stars a little higher up are fixed 
 to the mast-heads of the Scotland Lightship. 
 And that mass of light that you think is the 
 Milky Way, is the glare of the New York street 
 lamps thrown up against the sky." 
 
 " Are we so near as that?" said Hope, smil 
 ing. " And what lies over there ? " she asked, 
 pointing to the east. 
 
 " Over there is the coast of Africa. Don t you 
 see the lighthouse on Cape Bon ? If it was n t 
 for Gibraltar being in the way, I could show 
 you the harbor lights of Bizerta, and the ter 
 races of Algiers shining like a cafe chantant in 
 the night. 
 
362 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 " Algiers," sighed Hope, " where you were a 
 soldier of Africa, and rode across the deserts. 
 Will you take me there ?" 
 
 " There, of course, but to Gibralter first, where 
 we will drive along the Alameda by moonlight. 
 I drove there once coining home from a rness 
 dinner with the Colonel. The drive lies between 
 broad white balustrades, and the moon shone 
 down on us between the leaves of the Spanish 
 bayonet. It was like an Italian garden. But 
 he did not see it, and he would talk to me about 
 the Watkins range finder on the lower ramparts, 
 and he puffed on a huge cigar. I tried to imag 
 ine I was there on my honeymoon, but the end 
 of his cigar would light up and I would see his 
 white mustache and the glow on his red jacket, 
 so I vowed I would go over that drive again with 
 the proper person. And we won t talk of range 
 finders, will we ? 
 
 " There to the North is Paris; your Paris, and 
 my Paris, with London only eight hours away. 
 If you look very closely, you can see the thou 
 sands of hansom cab lamps flashing across the 
 asphalt, and the open theatres, and the fairy 
 lamps in the gardens back of the houses in May- 
 fair, where they are giving dances in your honor, 
 in honor of the beautiful American bride, whom 
 every one wants to meet. And you will wear the 
 
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 finest tiara we can get on Bond Street, but no 
 one will look at it ; they will only look at you. 
 And I will feel very miserable and tease you to 
 come home." 
 
 Hope put her hand in his, and he held her 
 finger-tips to his lips for an instant and closed 
 his other hand upon hers. 
 
 "And after that ?" asked Hope. 
 
 " After that we will go to work again, and 
 take long journeys to Mexico and Peru or wher 
 ever they want me, and I will sit in judgment 
 on the work other chaps have done. And when 
 we get back to our car at night, or to the section 
 house, for it will be very rough sometimes," 
 Hope pressed his hand gently in answer, " I will 
 tell you privately how very differently your hus 
 band would have done it, and you, knowing all 
 about it, will say that had it been left to me, I 
 would certainly have accomplished it in a vastly 
 superior manner." 
 
 " Well, so you would," said Hope, calmly. 
 
 " That s what I said you d say," laughed 
 Clay. " Dearest," he begged, " promise me some 
 thing. Promise me that you are going to be 
 very happy." 
 
 Hope raised her eyes and looked up at him in 
 silence, and had the man in the wheelhouse been 
 watching the stars, as he should have been, no 
 
364 SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE 
 
 one but the two foolish young people on the bow 
 of the boat would have known her answer. 
 
 The ship s bell sounded eight times, and Hope 
 moved slightly. 
 
 " So late as that," she sighed. " Come. We 
 must be going back." 
 
 A great wave struck the ship s side a friendly 
 slap, and the wind caught up the spray and 
 tossed it in their eyes, and blew a strand of her 
 hair loose so that it fell across Clay s face, and 
 they laughed happily together as she drew it 
 back and he took her hand again to steady her 
 progress across the slanting deck. 
 
 As they passed hand in hand out of the shadow 
 into the light from the wheelhouse, the lookout 
 in the bow counted the strokes of the bell to 
 himself, and then turned and shouted back his 
 measured cry to the bridge above them. His 
 voice seemed to be a part of the murmuring sea 
 and the welcoming winds. 
 
 " Listen," said Clay. 
 
 " Eight bells," the voice sang from the dark 
 ness. " The for ward light s shining bright 
 and all s well." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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