ven allowed King to
arm half of his crew, and to place them on guard around the Palms.
Clay warned him that in the disorder that followed every successful
revolution, the homes of unpopular members of the Cabinet were often
burned, and that he feared, should Mendoza succeed, and Alvarez fall,
that the mob might possibly vent its victorious wrath on the Palms
because it was the home of the alien, who had, as they thought, robbed
the country of the iron mines. Mr. Langham said he did not think the
people would tramp five miles into the country seeking vengeance.

There was an American man-of-war lying in the harbor of Truxillo, a
seaport of the republic that bounded Olancho on the south, and Clay was
in favor of sending to her captain by Weimer, the Consul, and asking
him to anchor off Valencia, to protect American interests. The run
would take but a few hours, and the sight of the vessel's white hull in
the harbor would, he thought, have a salutary effect upon the
revolutionists. But Mr. Langham said, firmly, that he would not ask
for help until he needed it.

"Well, I'm sorry," said Clay. "I should very much like to have that
man-of-war here. However, if you say no, we will try to get along
without her. But, for the present, I think you had better imagine
yourself back in New York, and let us have an entirely free hand.
We've gone too far to drop out," he went on, laughing at the sight of
Mr. Langham's gloomy countenance. "We've got to fight them now. It's
against human nature not to do it."

Mr. Langham looked appealingly at his son and at King.

They both smiled back at him in unanimous disapproval of his policy of
non-interference.

"Oh, very well," he said, at last. "You gentlemen can go ahead, kill,
burn, and destroy if you wish. But, considering the fact that it is my
property you are all fighting about, I really think I might have
something to say in the matter." Mr. Langham gazed about him
helplessly, and shook his head.

"My doctor sends me down here from a quiet, happy home," he protested,
with humorous pathos, "that I may rest and get away from excitement,
and here I am with armed men patrolling my garden-paths, with a lot of
filibusters plotting at my own dinner-table, and a civil war likely to
break out, entirely on my account. And Dr. Winter told me this was the
only place that would cure my nervous prostration!"

Hope joined Clay as soon as the men left the dining-room, and beckoned
hi