Part 24 (1/2)
When the girl raised her eyes they were eloquent with distress.
”He has been so good to me,” she said; ”always so gentle. He has been mother and father to me. He is the first person I can remember. When I was a child he put me to bed, he dressed me, and comforted me. When we became rich there was nothing he did not wish to give me. I cannot leave him. He needs me more than ever I needed him. I am all he has.
And there is this besides. Were I to marry, of all the men in the world it would be harder for him if I married you. For if you succeed in what you came here to do, the law will punish him, and he will know it was through you he was punished. And even between you and me there always would be that knowledge, that feeling.”
”That is not fair,” cried Everett. ”I am not an individual fighting less fortunate individuals. I am an insignificant wheel in a great machine. You must not blame me because I-”
With an exclamation the girl reproached him.
”Because you do your duty!” she protested. ”Is that fair to me? If for my sake or my brother you failed in your duty, if you were less vigilant, less eager, even though we suffer, I could not love you.”
Everett sighed happily.
”As long as you love me,” he said, ”neither your brother nor any one else can keep us apart.”
”My brother,” said the girl, as though she were p.r.o.nouncing a sentence, ”always will keep us apart, and I will always love you.”
It was a week before he again saw her, and then the feeling he had read in her eyes was gone--or rigorously concealed. Now her manner was that of a friend, of a young girl addressing a man older than herself, one to whom she looked up with respect and liking, but with no sign of any feeling deeper or more intimate.
It upset Everett completely. When he pleaded with her, she asked:
”Do you think it is easy for me? But--” she protested, ”I know I am doing right. I am doing it to make you happy.”
”You are succeeding,” Everett a.s.sured her, ”in making us both d.a.m.ned miserable.”
For Everett, in the second month of his stay in Amapala, events began to move quickly. Following the example of two of his predecessors, the Secretary of State of the United States was about to make a grand tour of Central America. He came on a mission of peace and brotherly love, to foster confidence and good-will, and it was secretly hoped that, in the wake of his escort of battle-s.h.i.+ps, trade would follow fast. There would be salutes and visits of ceremony, speeches, banquets, reviews.
But in these rejoicings Amapala would have no part.
For, so Everett was informed by cable, unless, previous to the visit of the Secretary, Amapala fell into line with her sister republics and signed a treaty of extradition, from the itinerary of the great man Amapala would find herself pointedly excluded. It would be a humiliation. In the eyes of her sister republics it would place her outside the pale. Everett saw that in his hands his friend the Secretary had placed a powerful weapon; and lost no time in using it.
He caught the President alone, sitting late at his dinner, surrounded by bottles, and read to him the Secretary's ultimatum. General Mendoza did not at once surrender. Before he threw over the men who fed him the golden eggs that made him rich, and for whom he had sworn never to violate the right of sanctuary, he first, for fully half an hour, raged and swore. During that time, while Everett sat anxiously expectant, the President paced and repaced the length of the dining-hall. When to relight his cigar, or to gulp brandy from a tumbler, he halted at the table, his great bulk loomed large in the flickering candle-flames, and when he continued his march, he would disappear into the shadows, and only his scabbard clanking on the stone floor told of his presence. At last he halted and shrugged his shoulders so that the ta.s.sels of his epaulets tossed like wheat.
”You drive a hard bargain, sir,” he said. ”And I have no choice.
To-morrow bring the treaty and I will sign.”
Everett at once produced it and a fountain pen.
”I should like to cable to-night,” he urged, ”that you have signed.
They are holding back the public announcement of the Secretary's route until hearing from Your Excellency. This is only tentative,” he pointed out; ”the Senate must ratify. But our Senate will ratify it, and when you sign now, it is a thing accomplished.”
Over the place at which Everett pointed, the pen scratched harshly; and then, throwing it from him, the President sat in silence. With eyes inflamed by anger and brandy he regarded the treaty venomously. As though loath to let it go, his hands played with it, as a cat plays with the mouse between her paws. Watching him breathlessly, Everett feared the end was not yet. He felt a depressing premonition that if ever the treaty were to reach Was.h.i.+ngton he best had s.n.a.t.c.h it and run.
Even as he waited, the end came. An orderly, appearing suddenly in the light of the candles, announced the arrival, in the room adjoining, of ”the Colonel G.o.ddard and Senor Mellen.” They desired an immediate audience. Their business with the President was most urgent. Whether from Was.h.i.+ngton their agents had warned them, whether in Camaguay they had deciphered the cablegram from the State Department, Everett could only guess, but he was certain the cause of their visit was the treaty.
That Mendoza also believed this was most evident.
Into the darkness, from which the two exiles might emerge, he peered guiltily. With an oath he tore the treaty in half. Crus.h.i.+ng the pieces of paper into a ball, he threw it at Everett's feet. His voice rose to a shriek. It was apparent he intended his words to carry to the men outside. Like an actor on a stage he waved his arms.
”That is my answer!” he shouted. ”Tell your Secretary the choice he offers is an insult! It is blackmail. We will not sign his treaty. We do not desire his visit to our country.” Thrilled by his own bravado, his voice rose higher. ”Nor,” he shouted, ”do we desire the presence of his representative. Your usefulness is at an end. You will receive your pa.s.sports in the morning.”
As he might discharge a cook, he waved Everett away. His hand, trembling with excitement, closed around the neck of the brandy-bottle.
Everett stooped and secured the treaty. On his return to Was.h.i.+ngton, torn and rumpled as it was, it would be his justification. It was his ”Exhibit A.”