Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

312 THE about the deserted pier of the yacht club, and then, whirling about, rowed off through the night as if the powers of evil were after the boat! _ It was early morning now as the two Americans tramped silently up-hill to the Hemmett home—silently because Puerto Carlo is largely ears, even in the small hours, and because each man was think- ing more astonishing thoughts than the normal brain could conveniently handle. Only as they came to the terrace of the still, dark house did Girton say softly: ‘“ Just what is going to be the speediest way of getting busy, Ned?” ‘We'll sleep on it till morning,’ Hem- mett answered. ‘“ Then we'll get Barton, the more or less gifted American minister, up here, lay the truth before him, and have a report in Washington before noon. After that, it’s up to the United States— and while that has lately been a darned sight more complacent nation than it used to be in our time, I still have a suspicion that there will be something doing!” ‘The nation’s all right; it needs wak- ing up, that’s all!’’ Girton said. ‘ And I think this ‘Il do it—and whether it does it or not, I’d rather be an American hod- carrier than the president of this dirty, traitorous little hole. When I think—”’ “That you’re engaged to a Guanaman girl and I’m married: to another?” Hemmett laughed queerly. ‘“T hadn’t thought of that,” the retired secretary said rather blankly. ‘Well, I had, and they’re no more to blame for the doings of the politi- cians here than the folks back home— and we won’t discuss the thing over the breakfast-table, by the way.” Daylight came before sleep reached either man. Their personal world had turned upside down since eight o’clock or thereabouts last evening. Mentally, and to some extent physically, they had been settling down these last years to Guanama and all that Guanama implied. They had been content and prosperous and too busy with routine work to give great heed to possible plottings; indeed, ARGOSY: while neither of them had harbored the concrete thought, perhaps, they had be- lieved that plotting and Guanama, once so intimately associated, were divorced for all time. Ferrata was president and due for reelection, like the bulk of the lawmakers; Guanama was a hive of industry, and all was well. And now Ferrata and his party had been ousted, and sinister influences, long at work beneath the surface, were coming into full view with some of the manifesta- tions focusing upon themselves! There could be no question that the hidden powers were more than merely anxious to see the last of them. Ricoro, tool or conspirator, had proved it con- clusively, could they have but read the true significance of his offer at the time of its making. Jones, the incredible, had proved it—and both had proved that the giant fester was coming to a head. Morning, as a rule, found both men very clear-brained, but not this morning. The whole thing was too overwhelming, too grotesque, for assimilation even now. Girton, before breakfast, went with his high-powered binoculars to the terrace and looked over the National Engine Works and the Almiranta, as if to assure himself that they really existed. Rust was the thing mainly visible on such of the cruiser as might be seen from Puerto Carlo. Piles of packing-cases, tiers of harmless lumber, were all the glasses showed of the works beside roofs and walls. , Carmen, it appeared, wished to ride with the boy to an aunt in the up-hill suburbs for the morning, and her hus- band assented with a readiness that caused her to stare for a moment. She went, nevertheless, and before the motor was out of sight Hemmett had John Barton, the American minister, on the telephone and was fairly ordering him to report at the Hemmett home. It was up to Barton alone, of course, and they wished sincerely that he might have been a gentleman of different stamp. They looked him over as he came in—a MICLOOOK C©