o awaken the
beautiful tropics from their centuries' sleep. Generally he wears a
shamrock, which he matches pridefully against the extravagant palms;
and it is he who has driven Melpomene to the wings, and set Comedy to
dancing before the footlights of the Southern Cross.

So, there is a little tale to tell of many things. Perhaps to the
promiscuous ear of the Walrus it shall come with most avail; for in
it there are indeed shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbage-palms
and presidents instead of kings.

Add to these a little love and counterplotting, and scatter
everywhere throughout the maze a trail of tropical dollars--dollars
warmed no more by the torrid sun than by the hot palms of the scouts
of Fortune--and, after all, here seems to be Life, itself, with talk
enough to weary the most garrulous of Walruses.

I

"FOX-IN-THE-MORNING"

Coralio reclined, in the mid-day heat, like some vacuous beauty
lounging in a guarded harem. The town lay at the sea's edge on a
strip of alluvial coast. It was set like a little pearl in an emerald
band. Behind it, and seeming almost to topple, imminent, above it,
rose the sea-following range of the Cordilleras. In front the sea
was spread, a smiling jailer, but even more incorruptible than the
frowning mountains. The waves swished along the smooth beach; the
parrots screamed in the orange and ceiba-trees; the palms waved their
limber fronds foolishly like an awkward chorus at the prima donna's
cue to enter.

Suddenly the town was full of excitement. A native boy dashed down a
grass-grown street, shrieking: "_Busca el Senor Goodwin. Ha venido un
telegrafo por el!_"

The word passed quickly. Telegrams do not often come to anyone in
Coralio. The cry for Senor Goodwin was taken up by a dozen officious
voices. The main street running parallel to the beach became
populated with those who desired to expedite the delivery of the
despatch. Knots of women with complexions varying from palest olive
to deepest brown gathered at street corners and plaintively carolled:
"_Un telegrafo por Senor Goodwin!_" The _comandante_, Don Senor el
Coronel Encarnacion Rios, who was loyal to the Ins and suspected
Goodwin's devotion to the Outs, hissed: "Aha!" and wrote in his
secret memorandum book the accusive fact that Senor Goodwin had on
that momentous date received a telegram.

In the midst of the hullabaloo a man stepped to the door of a small
wooden building and looked out. Above the