第31章

``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 Countess 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 President, she came with him.She's a tremendously 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 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!'' exclaimed 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 Vice-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 make himself dictator, or Mendoza will make himself President.That's why Clay treats the soldiers here so well.He thinks he may need them against Mendoza.You may be turning your saluting-gun on the city yet, Commodore,'' he added, smiling, ``or, what is more likely, you'll need the yacht to take Miss Langham and the rest of the family out of the country.''

King smiled and Miss Langham regarded Weimer with flattering interest.``I've 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 wouldn'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 conspirators, 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.''

``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 troubled 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 coming 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 Langham 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 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 tableau; her father and Ted, MacWilliams 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.