acious, she's got the Venus Belvedere lashed to the mast. Did you ever
see--"

"I've never had the pleasure of seeing the Venus Belvedere," interrupted
Landover coldly.

"You haven't?" exclaimed Morris, amazed. "The armless wonder? You ain't
seen her? Why, she's supposed to have the most perfect figger in the
world. Maybe you've seen her without knowing what her name is. They
never put the name on it, simply because every school boy and girl is
supposed to know who it is without being told. Funny you don't know--Oh,
she ain't alive, you know,--she ain't real. She's a statue,--thousands
of 'em turned out every year. Gee, the feller that designed that statue
must have cleaned up a pile. But, as I was saying, our little old Olga
has got her--Say, did you ever see a figger like that?"

"Yes," broke in Landover shortly, "thousands of them."

Mr. Shine looked sceptical. "Well," he said after a moment's reflection,
and with studied politeness,--having already offended at the outset,
"all I got to say is, you talk like a woman, that's all I got to say."

Landover was a greatly changed man in these days. There had come a
crisis in the affairs of Trigger Island, not many weeks before the
second annual election in April, when he was obliged to show his true
colours. The banker suddenly realized with a shock that he was actually
involved in a well-organized, though secret plot to overthrow the
so-called "government." He had been completely deceived by the wily
Manuel Crust and several of his equally wily friends. They professed to
be organizing an opposition party to oust the dictatorial Percival and
his clique from office at the ensuing election,--a feat, they
admitted, that could be accomplished only by the most adroit and covert
"educational" campaign, "under the rose" perforce, but justifiable in
the circumstances. They had led Landover to believe that he was their
choice for governor. They went among the people, insidiously sowing the
seeds of discontent, hinting at the advantages to be obtained by the
election of an entirely new set of officers, mostly from among the
people themselves, but headed by the ablest man on the island,--Abel T.
Landover. They argued that as treasurer and comptroller of currency he
had shown himself to be the only man qualified to direct the affairs of
the people.

And Landover believed them. Despite his superior intelligence and
his vaunted ability to size up his fellow man, he was as blind an