ee. Three
millions of dollars; that's a good deal of money. It will be some time
before we realize anything on that investment."

Mendoza shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I will be frank
with you," he said, with the air of one to whom dissimulation is
difficult. "I come here to-night on an unpleasant errand, but it is
with me a matter of duty, and I am a soldier, to whom duty is the
foremost ever. I have come to tell you, Mr. Clay, that we, the
Opposition, are not satisfied with the manner in which the Government
has disposed of these great iron deposits. When I say not satisfied,
my dear friend, I speak most moderately. I should say that we are
surprised and indignant, and we are determined the wrong it has done
our country shall be righted. I have the honor to have been chosen to
speak for our party on this most important question, and on next
Tuesday, sir," the General stood up and bowed, as though he were before
a great assembly, "I will rise in the Senate and move a vote of want of
confidence in the Government for the manner in which it has given away
the richest possessions in the storehouse of my country, giving it not
only to aliens, but for a pittance, for a share which is not a share,
but a bribe, to blind the eyes of the people. It has been a shameful
bargain, and I cannot say who is to blame; I accuse no one. But I
suspect, and I will demand an investigation; I will demand that the
value not of one-tenth, but of one-half of all the iron that your
company takes out of Olancho shall be paid into the treasury of the
State. And I come to you to-night, as the Resident Director, to inform
you beforehand of my intention. I do not wish to take you unprepared.
I do not blame your people; they are business men, they know how to
make good bargains, they get what they best can. That is the rule of
trade, but they have gone too far, and I advise you to communicate with
your people in New York and learn what they are prepared to offer
now--now that they have to deal with men who do not consider their own
interests but the interests of their country."

Mendoza made a sweeping bow and seated himself, frowning dramatically,
with folded arms. His voice still hung in the air, for he had spoken
as earnestly as though he imagined himself already standing in the hall
of the Senate championing the cause of the people.

MacWilliams looked up at Clay from where he sat on the steps below him,
but Clay did n