ow why! The Americans thought they were championing an oppressed
people struggling for justice. Nothing of the sort. They took the side
of one party struggling for jobs against another party struggling for
jobs. But the result was magnificent. Under the last American Military
Governor, Leonard Wood, Cuba advanced more in two years than she had in
two centuries. When the Americans went away, though, it was worse than
if they had never come. Cubans did not make Cuba a republic, Americans
made Cuba a republic and then abandoned us. Of course, confusion
followed. And in the revolution of 1906 and other revolutions, the
Americans meddled, and yet did nothing. It is idle to deny that American
influence is strong here! But what does it amount to? We are neither
really free, nor really possessed."

"But what do you want?" queried Stuart. "I don't seem to understand. You
don't want to be a possession of Spain, you don't want to be an American
colony, and you don't want to be a republic. What do you want?"

"Do I know?" came the vehement reply. "Does anyone in Cuba know? Does
anyone, anywhere, know? Remember, Young Senor, the Cuban guarijo does
not feel himself to be a citizen of Cuba, as an American farmer feels
himself a citizen of the United States. He has been brought up under
Spanish rule, and is, himself, Spanish in feeling.

"What does he know about a republic? Unless he can get a political job
for himself, unless he sees the chance to be a Rat, he cares nothing
about politics, but he will fight, at any time, under any cause, for any
leader who will promise him a bigger price for his sugar, his tobacco or
his fruit. The World War helped him, for sugar was worth gold. But
now--if the Cuban wishes to say anything to America, he must do it
through the Sugar Trust, the Tobacco Trust or the Fruit Trust.

"What!" Vellano flamed out, "The United States will not answer us when
we pray, nor listen when we speak? Then we will make her hear!"

Upon which, suddenly realizing that in this direct threat he might have
said too much, Vellano dropped the subject. Nothing that Stuart could
suggest would tempt him to say anything more.

The boy had been brought up in Cuba, and, though he had never been in
this eastern part of the island, he knew that a great deal of what his
companion had said was true. At the same time, he realized that Vellano
had not done justice to the modern improvements in Cuba, to the
extension of the railroads,