d priest
and political malefactor, Jose de Rincon. Crowds of chattering,
gesticulating citizens gathered along the harbor shores, and loudly
voiced their disappointment and threats. But the boat lay like a thing
asleep. Not even a wisp of smoke rose from its yellow funnels.

Then came the Alcalde, and the Departmental Governor, grave and
sedate, with their aids and secretaries, their books and documents,
their mandates and red-sealed processes, and were rowed out to
confront the master whom they believed to have dared to thwart the
hand of justice and remain to taunt them with his egregious presence.
This should be made an international episode, whose ramifications
would wind down through years to come, and embrace long, stupid
congressional debates, apologies demanded, huge sums to salve a
wounded nation, and the making and breaking of politicians too
numerous to mention!

But the giant who received them, bound to his chair, in the splendid
library of the palatial yacht, and with no attendant, save a single
valet, flared out in a towering rage at the gross insult offered him
and his great country in these black charges. He had come on a
peaceful errand; partly, too, for reasons of health. And he was at
that moment awaiting a visit from His Grace. What manner of reception
was this, that Cartagena extended to an influential representative of
the powerful States of the North!

"But," the discomfited Indignation Committee gasped, "what of the tall
American who was seen to land the day before?"

The master laughed in their faces. He? Why, but a poor, obsessed
archaeologist, now prowling around the ruins of San Felipe, doubtless
mumbling childishly as he prods the dust and mold of centuries! Go,
visit him, if they would be convinced!

And when these had gone, chagrined and mortified--though filled
with wonder, for they had roamed the _Cossack_, and peered into
its every nook and cranny, and stopped to look a second time at the
fair-haired young boy who looked like a girl, and hovered close to
the master--came His Grace, Wenceslas. He came alone, and with a sneer
curling his imperious lips. And his calm, arrogant eyes held a
meaning that boded no good to the man who sat in his wheel chair,
alone, and could not rise to welcome him.

"A very pretty trick, my powerful friend," said the angered churchman
in his perfect English. "And one that will cause your Government at
Washington some--"

"Enough!" interrupted Ames in