.

"You can subpoena me," he sighed. "Why should they be afraid of a
birthday-party? Why!" he exclaimed, "they were even afraid of _me_! He
didn't believe that we don't know those Venezuelans. He said," Roddy
recapitulated, "he didn't mix in politics. That means, of course, that
those fellows are politicians, and, probably this is their fashion of
holding a primary. It must be the local method of floating a
revolution. But why should Von Amberg think we're in the plot, too?
Because my name's Forrester?"

Peter nodded. "That must be it," he said. "Your father is in deep with
these Venezuelans, and everybody knows that, and makes the mistake of
thinking you are also. I wish," he exclaimed patiently, "your father
was more confiding. It is all very well for him--plotting plots from
the top of the Forrester Building--but it makes it difficult for any
one down here inside the firing-line. If your father isn't more
careful," he protested warmly, "Alvarez will stand us blindfolded
against a wall, and we'll play blind man's buff with a firing-squad."

Peter's forebodings afforded Roddy much amusement. He laughed at his
friend, and mocked him, urging him to keep a better hold upon his
sense of humor.

"You have been down here too long yourself," he said. "You'll be
having tropic choler next. I tell you, you must think of them as
children: they're a pack of cards."

"Maybe they are," sighed Peter "but as long as we don't know the
game----"

From where Peter sat, with his back in their direction, he could not
see the Venezuelans; but Roddy, who was facing them, now observed that
they had finished their breakfast. Talking, gesticulating, laughing,
they were crowding down the path. He touched Peter, and Peter turned
in his chair to look at them.

At the same moment a man stepped from the bushes, and halting at one
side of Roddy, stood with his eyes fixed upon the men of the
birthday-party, waiting for them to approach. He wore the silk cap of
a chauffeur, a pair of automobile goggles, and a long automobile coat.
The attitude of the chauffeur suggested that he had come forward to
learn if his employer was among those now making their departure; and
Roddy wondered that he had heard no automobile arrive, and that he had
seen none in Willemstad. Except for that thought, so interested was
Roddy in the men who had shown so keen an interest in him, that to the
waiting figure he gave no further consideration.

The Venezuelans had