the noise of the last few random
shots was drowned in tumultuous cheering and shouts of exultation,
that, starting in the gardens, were caught up by those in the streets
and passed on quickly as a line of flame along the swaying housetops.

The native officers sprang upon Clay and embraced him after their
fashion, hailing him as the Liberator of Olancho, as the Preserver of
the Constitution, and their brother patriot. Then one of them climbed
to the top of a gilt and marble table and proclaimed him military
President.

"You'll proclaim yourself an idiot, if you don't get down from there,"
Clay said, laughing. "I thank you for permitting me to serve with you,
gentlemen. I shall have great pleasure in telling our President how
well you acquitted yourself in this row--battle, I mean. And now I
would suggest that you store the prisoners' weapons in the Palace and
put a guard over them, and then conduct the men themselves to the
military prison, where you can release General Rojas and escort him
back to the city in a triumphal procession. You'd like that, wouldn't
you?"

But the natives protested that that honor was for him alone. Clay
declined it, pleading that he must look after his wounded.

"I can hardly believe there are any dead," he said to Kirkland.

"For, if it takes two thousand bullets to kill a man in European
warfare, it must require about two hundred thousand to kill a man in
South America."

He told Kirkland to march his men back to the mines and to see that
there were no stragglers. "If they want to celebrate, let them
celebrate when they get to the mines, but not here. They have made a
good record to-day and I won't have it spoiled by rioting. They shall
have their reward later. Between Rojas and Mr. Langham they should all
be rich men."

The cheering from the housetops since the firing ceased had changed
suddenly into hand-clappings, and the cries, though still
undistinguishable, were of a different sound. Clay saw that the
Americans on the balconies of the club and of the theatre had thrown
themselves far over the railings and were all looking in the same
direction and waving their hats and cheering loudly, and he heard above
the shouts of the people the regular tramp of men's feet marching in
step, and the rattle of a machine gun as it bumped and shook over the
rough stones. He gave a shout of pleasure, and Kirkland and the two
boys ran with him up the slope, crowding each other to ge