on the balcony of the great restaurant in
the Plaza on those nights when the band played, and the senoritas
circled in long lines between admiring rows of officers and caballeros.
And he imagined how, when the ore-boats had been filled and his work
had slackened, he would be free to ride with her along the rough
mountain roads, between magnificent pillars of royal palms, or to
venture forth in excursions down the bay, to explore the caves and to
lunch on board the rolling paddle-wheel steamer, which he would have re
painted and gilded for her coming. He pictured himself acting as her
guide over the great mines, answering her simple questions about the
strange machinery, and the crew of workmen, and the local government by
which he ruled two thousand men. It was not on account of any personal
pride in the mines that he wanted her to see them, it was not because
he had discovered and planned and opened them that he wished to show
them to her, but as a curious spectacle that he hoped would give her a
moment's interest.

But his keenest pleasure was when young Langham suggested that they
should build a house for his people on the edge of the hill that jutted
out over the harbor and the great ore pier. If this were done, Langham
urged, it would be possible for him to see much more of his family than
he would be able to do were they installed in the city, five miles away.

"We can still live in the office at this end of the railroad," the boy
said, "and then we shall have them within call at night when we get
back from work; but if they are in Valencia, it will take the greater
part of the evening going there and all of the night getting back, for
I can't pass that club under three hours. It will keep us out of
temptation."

"Yes, exactly," said Clay, with a guilty smile, "it will keep us out of
temptation."

So they cleared away the underbrush, and put a double force of men to
work on what was to be the most beautiful and comfortable bungalow on
the edge of the harbor. It had blue and green and white tiles on the
floors, and walls of bamboo, and a red roof of curved tiles to let in
the air, and dragons' heads for water-spouts, and verandas as broad as
the house itself. There was an open court in the middle hung with
balconies looking down upon a splashing fountain, and to decorate this
patio, they levied upon people for miles around for tropical plants and
colored mats and awnings. They cut down the trees that hid