Cartagena's
interest in Simiti was merely casual--nay, rather, financial--and he
strove to maintain it so, lest the stimulation of a deeper interest
thwart his own plans. His conflict with Diego in regard to Carmen had
seemed for the moment to evoke the Bishop's interference; and the
sudden and unaccountable disappearance of that priest had threatened
to expose both Jose and Carmen to the full scrutiny of Wenceslas. But,
fortunately, the insistence of those matters which were rapidly
culminating in a political outbreak left Wenceslas little time for
interference in affairs which did not pertain exclusively to the
momentous questions with which he was now concerned, and Jose and
Carmen were still left unmolested. It was only when, desperate lest
Congress adjourn without passing the measure which he knew would
precipitate the conflict, and when, well nigh panic-stricken lest his
collusion with Ames and his powerful clique of Wall Street become
known through the exasperation of the latter over the long delay, he
had resolved to pit Don Mario against Jose in distant Simiti, and, in
that unknown, isolated spot, where close investigation would never be
made, apply the torch to the waiting combustibles, that Jose saw the
danger which had always hung over him and the girl suddenly descending
upon them and threatening anew the separation which he had ever
regarded as inevitable, and yet which he had hoped against hope to
avoid.

With the deposition of arms in Simiti, and the establishment of
federal authority in Don Mario, that always pompous official rose in
his own esteem and in the eyes of a few parasitical attaches to an
eminence never before dreamed of by the humble denizens of this
moss-encrusted town. From egotistical, Don Mario became insolent. From
sluggishness and torpidity of thought and action, he rose suddenly
into tremendous activity. He was more than once observed by Jose or
Rosendo emerging hastily from his door and button-holing some one of
the more influential citizens of the town and excitedly reading to him
excerpts from letters which he had just received from Cartagena. He
might be seen at any hour of the day in the little _patio_ back of his
store, busily engaged with certain of the men of the place in
examining papers and documents, talking volubly and with much excited
gesticulation and wild rolling of the eyes. A party seemed to be
crystallizing about him. His hitherto uncertain prestige appeared to
b