and
showing his white teeth. "The telephone is not working. I tried at
the club, but I could not call you."

"It's the storm, I suppose," Clay answered, as he struggled into his
jacket. "Let me offer you something to drink." He entered the house,
and returned with several bottles on a tray and a bundle of cigars.
The Spanish-American poured himself out a glass of water, mixing it
with Jamaica rum, and said, smiling again, "It is a saying of your
countrymen that when a man first comes to Olancho he puts a little rum
into his water, and that when he is here some time he puts a little
water in his rum."

"Yes," laughed Clay. "I'm afraid that's true."

There was a pause while the men sipped at their glasses, and looked at
the horses and the orderly. The clanging of the guitar began again
from the kitchen. "You have a very beautiful view here of the harbor,
yes," said Mendoza. He seemed to enjoy the pause after his ride, and
to be in no haste to begin on the object of his errand. MacWilliams
and Langham eyed each other covertly, and Clay examined the end of his
cigar, and they all waited.

"And how are the mines progressing, eh?" asked the officer, genially.
"You find much good iron in them, they tell me."

"Yes, we are doing very well," Clay assented; "it was difficult at
first, but now that things are in working order, we are getting out
about ten thousand tons a month. We hope to increase that soon to
twenty thousand when the new openings are developed and our shipping
facilities are in better shape."

"So much!" exclaimed the General, pleasantly.

"Of which the Government of my country is to get its share of ten per
cent--one thousand tons! It is munificent!" He laughed and shook his
head slyly at Clay, who smiled in dissent.

"But you see, sir," said Clay, "you cannot blame us. The mines have
always been there, before this Government came in, before the Spaniards
were here, before there was any Government at all, but there was not
the capital to open them up, I suppose, or--and it needed a certain
energy to begin the attack. Your people let the chance go, and, as it
turned out, I think they were very wise in doing so. They get ten per
cent of the output. That's ten per cent on nothing, for the mines
really didn't exist, as far as you were concerned, until we came, did
they? They were just so much waste land, and they would have remained
so. And look at the price we paid down before we cut a tr