throne?

Landover was an unwitting, but thoroughly self-satisfied dupe. He fitted
in very nicely with Manuel's plan to gain control of the island. There
were certain people who regarded the great banker as an apostle, a man
to follow, to be imitated,--such men as Block, Nicklestick and a few
others. Was he not one of the great financial geniuses of the day? Was
he not a power, a tremendous power, in the banking world? Was he not
a man who understood how to transform a dollar into a business block
almost over-night? For a time, sentiment had played tricks with their
boasted astuteness. Swept along by the current, they had failed to
appreciate the true conditions. They began to realize that it had been a
mistake to keep such men as Percival in power; behind the hand they
went about convincing each other that it was high time to rectify the
original error. These, in addition to the ignorant, easily persuaded
rabble from the steerage,--who, by the way, could give ample testimony
as to Percival's ability to "bluff,"--provided Crust with a decidedly
formidable following. The steerage people had but to be reminded of the
time when Percival tricked them so successfully.

Crust contended that if the American could fool them once, he would do
so again,--in fact, he went so far as to say that he had been doing it
all the time.

There was nothing open and above board about the methods of Manuel
Crust. He proceeded about the business of fomenting dissatisfaction and
strife with an artfulness surprising in one of his type. At no time did
he openly denounce the "government." He was very careful about that.
A jesting word here, a derisive smile there, a shrug of the
shoulders,--and in good time others less politic than himself began to
do the talking. Others began to complain of the high-handed, dictatorial
manner in which Percival and his friends ruled the community.

The secret, stealthy opposition grew apace; it assumed sinister
proportions,--all the more sinister because it was masked by every
outward sign of submission. Crust had won friends right and left among
the very people who would have killed him not so many months before but
for the very man he was planning to destroy.

Outwardly he had changed,--not subtly, it is true,--from a sullen,
threatening bully into a hearty, smiling, sympathetic comrade who laid
himself out to be obliging. Even Percival was puzzled, if not deceived,
by this surprising transformation.