howed me a spear-head of obsidian and called it
flint; and he said the Aztecs borrowed from the Mayas, and that the
Toltecs were a myth. And he got the Aztec solar calendar mixed with
the Ahau. He's as ignorant as that."

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Everett.

"You may laugh," protested the professor, "but the ruins of Cobre hold
secrets the students of two continents are trying to solve. They hide
the history of a lost race, and I submit it's not proper one man should
keep that knowledge from the world, certainly not for a few gold
armlets!"

Everett raised his eyes.

"What makes you say that?"' he demanded.

"I've been kicking my heels in this town for a month," Peabody told
him, "and I've talked to the people here, and to the Harvard expedition
at Copan, and everybody tells me this fellow has found treasure." The
archaeologist exclaimed with indignation: "What's gold," he snorted,
"compared to the discovery of a lost race?"

"I applaud your point of view," Everett assured him. "I am to see the
President tomorrow, and I will lay the matter before him. I'll ask him
to give you a look in."

To urge his treaty of extradition was the reason for the audience with
the President, and with all the courtesy that a bad case demanded
Mendoza protested against it. He pointed out that governments entered
into treaties only when the ensuing benefits were mutual. For Amapala
in a treaty of extradition he saw no benefit. Amapala was not so far
"advanced" as to produce defaulting bank presidents, get-rich-quick
promoters, counterfeiters, and thieving cashiers. Her fugitives were
revolutionists who had fought and lost, and every one was glad to have
them go, and no one wanted them back.

"Or," suggested the President, "suppose I am turned out by a
revolution, and I seek asylum in your country? My enemies desire my
life. They would ask for my extradition--"

"If the offense were political," Everett corrected, "my government
would surrender no one."

"But my enemies would charge me with murder," explained the President.
"Remember Castro. And by the terms of the treaty your government would
be forced to surrender me. And I am shot against the wall." The
President shrugged his shoulders. "That treaty would not be nice for
me!"

"Consider the matter as a patriot," said the diplomat. "Is it good
that the criminals of my country should make their home in yours? When
you are so fortunate as to have no dishonest