its but the State, and it receives only ten per cent.
It is monstrous!"

"I see," said Clay, gravely. "That had not occurred to me before.
They feel they have been slighted. I see." He paused for a moment as
if in serious consideration. "Well," he added, "that might be
arranged."

He turned and jerked his head toward the open door. "If you boys mean
to go to town to-night, you'd better be moving," he said. The two men
rose together and bowed silently to their guest.

"I should like if Mr. Langham would remain a moment with us," said
Mendoza, politely. "I understand that it is his father who controls
the stock of the company. If we discuss any arrangement it might be
well if he were here."

Clay was sitting with his chin on his breast, and he did not look up,
nor did the young man turn to him for any prompting. "I'm not down
here as my father's son," he said, "I am an employee of Mr. Clay's. He
represents the company. Good-night, sir."

"You think, then," said Clay, "that if your friends were given an
opportunity to subscribe to the stock they would feel less resentful
toward us? They would think it was fairer to all?"

"I know it," said Mendoza; "why should the stock go out of the country
when those living here are able to buy it?"

"Exactly," said Clay, "of course. Can you tell me this, General? Are
the gentlemen who want to buy stock in the mine the same men who are in
the Senate? The men who are objecting to the terms of our concession?"

"With a few exceptions they are the same men."

Clay looked out over the harbor at the lights of the town, and the
General twirled his hat around his knee and gazed with appreciation at
the stars above him.

"Because if they are," Clay continued, "and they succeed in getting our
share cut down from ninety per cent to fifty per cent, they must see
that the stock would be worth just forty per cent less than it is now."

"That is true," assented the other. "I have thought of that, and if
the Senators in Opposition were given a chance to subscribe, I am sure
they would see that it is better wisdom to drop their objections to the
concession, and as stockholders allow you to keep ninety per cent of
the output. And, again," continued Mendoza, "it is really better for
the country that the money should go to its people than that it should
be stored up in the vaults of the treasury, when there is always the
danger that the President will seize it; or, if not this