you didn't think I was in Chili," Clay replied, kindly. "I left
Chili two years ago. The Captain and I met there," he explained to the
others, "when Balmaceda was trying to make himself dictator. The
Captain was on the side of the Congressionalists, and was furnishing
arms and dynamite. The Captain is always on the winning side, at least
he always has been--up to the present. He is not a creature of
sentiment; are you, Burke? The Captain believes with Napoleon that God
is on the side that has the heaviest artillery."

Burke lighted his pipe and drummed absentmindedly on the table with his
match-box.

"I can't afford to be sentimental," he said. "Not in my business."

"Of course not," Clay assented, cheerfully. He looked at Burke and
laughed, as though the sight of him recalled pleasant memories. "I
wish I could give these boys an idea of how clever you are, Captain,"
he said. "The Captain was the first man, for instance, to think of
packing cartridges in tubs of lard, and of sending rifles in
piano-cases. He represents the Welby revolver people in England, and
half a dozen firms in the States, and he has his little stores in Tampa
and Mobile and Jamaica, ready to ship off at a moment's notice to any
revolution in Central America. When I first met the Captain," Clay
continued, gleefully, and quite unmindful of the other's continued
silence, "he was starting off to rescue Arabi Pasha from the island of
Ceylon. You may remember, boys, that when Dufferin saved Arabi from
hanging, the British shipped him to Ceylon as a political prisoner.
Well, the Captain was sent by Arabi's followers in Egypt to bring him
back to lead a second rebellion. Burke had everybody bribed at Ceylon,
and a fine schooner fitted out and a lot of ruffians to do the
fighting, and then the good, kind British Government pardoned Arabi the
day before Burke arrived in port. And you never got a cent for it; did
you, Burke?"

Burke shook his head and frowned.

"Six thousand pounds sterling I was to have got for that," he said,
with a touch of pardonable pride in his voice, "and they set him free
the day before I got there, just as Mr. Clay tells you."

"And then you headed Granville Prior's expedition for buried treasure
off the island of Cocos, didn't you?" said Clay. "Go on, tell them
about it. Be sociable. You ought to write a book about your different
business ventures, Burke, indeed you ought; but then," Clay added,
smiling, "nobo