g for my sake. I have promised them that you, the
rich Senor Bleke, will supply the funds for the revolution. Once more,
comrades. To the Savior of Paranoya!"

Roland tried his hardest to catch the infection of this patriotic
enthusiasm, but somehow he could not do it. Base, sordid, mercenary
speculations would intrude themselves. About how much was a good,
well-furnished revolution likely to cost? As delicately as he could, he
put the question to Maraquita.

She said, "Poof! The cost? La, la!" Which was all very well, but hardly
satisfactory as a business chat. However, that was all Roland could get
out of her.

* * * * *

The next few days passed for Roland in a sort of dream. It was the kind
of dream which it is not easy to distinguish from a nightmare.

Maraquita's reticence at the supper-party on the subject of details
connected with the financial side of revolutions entirely disappeared.
She now talked nothing but figures, and from the confused mass which
she presented to him Roland was able to gather that, in financing
the restoration of royalty in Paranoya, he would indeed be risking
everything for her sake.

In the matter of revolutions Maraquita was no niggard. She knew how the
thing should be done--well, or not at all. There would be so much for
rifles, machine-guns, and what not: and there would be so much for the
expense of smuggling them into the country. Then there would be so much
to be laid out in corrupting the republican army. Roland brightened a
little when they came to this item. As the standing army of Paranoya
amounted to twenty thousand men, and as it seemed possible to corrupt
it thoroughly at a cost of about thirty shillings a head, the obvious
course, to Roland's way of thinking was to concentrate on this side of
the question and avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

It appeared, however, that Maraquita did not want to avoid bloodshed,
that she rather liked bloodshed, that the leaders of the revolution
would be disappointed if there were no bloodshed. Especially Bombito.
Unless, she pointed out, there was a certain amount of carnage, looting,
and so on, the revolution would not achieve a popular success. True, the
beloved Alejandro might be restored; but he would sit upon a throne
that was insecure, unless the coronation festivities took a bloodthirsty
turn. By all means, said Maraquita, corrupt the army, but not at the
risk of making the affair tame and unpopula