warn him that in case of another war between the
republics, Zalapata was sure to be the chief sufferer. Bambos could
not gainsay this and he was now seeking to balance things, by floating
a loan which was to be used in arming his troops with modern weapons.
He made a tempting offer to Major Starland to enter his service,
agreeing to pay him an enormous salary in gold, though one might well
question where he was to obtain a fractional part of it, and to place
him in supreme command of the military forces of the Republic.

While the American was illimitably the superior in mentality to the
gross Dictator, he failed to perceive an important truth, which did
not become clear to him until after his plain talk with Captain
Guzman. The great object of the obese nuisance in warring against
Yozarro was to place Miss Starland under deep obligations to him,
though he was too cunning to intimate anything of that nature. When
Jack Starland kindly but firmly declined his offer, he feared that he
would become an obstacle to his scheme; and although he hid any such
feeling, he would have been glad to have him disappear from the stage
of action. What galled Bambos was the fact that the American lady was
the guest of his rival, who he knew would do his utmost to woo and win
her. To bring to naught anything of that nature, he determined to wage
war against Yozarro and shatter the opportunity that fortune had
placed in the hands of that detested individual. It cannot be said
that the logic of Bambos was of the best, but it must be remembered
that the gentle passion plays the mischief with numskulls as well as
with men of wisdom.

Such in brief was the situation, when Major Jack Starland yielded to
his growing unrest over the visit of his sister to her friend. He had
learned that General Yozarro was a widower--though as in the case of
Bambos that would have made little difference in his wayward
promptings--and he decided that it would be well to shorten the visit
of Miss Starland or to bear her company, so long as she stayed in
Atlamalco. He would be welcomed by the young women themselves, and,
although Yozarro might wish him to the uttermost parts of the earth,
he, too, would be gracious. So the sail of the American and Captain
Guzman up the forked river becomes clear to the reader.

Never was mortal man more infatuated with woman than was General
Yozarro, from the moment he first laid eyes on the "Flower of the
North," as he poetically