be running over to the house now, old man. Mrs.
Goodwin is alone. There was nothing important you had to say, was
there?"

"That's all," said Blythe. "Unless you wouldn't mind sending in
another drink from the bar as you go out. Old Espada has closed my
account to profit and loss. And pay for the lot, will you, like a
good fellow?"

"All right," said Goodwin. "_Buenas noches._"

"Beelzebub" Blythe lingered over his cups, polishing his eyeglasses
with a disreputable handkerchief.

"I thought I could do it, but I couldn't," he muttered to himself
after a time. "A gentleman can't blackmail the man that he drinks
with."

VIII

THE ADMIRAL

Spilled milk draws few tears from an Anchurian administration. Many
are its lacteal sources; and the clocks' hands point forever to
milking time. Even the rich cream skimmed from the treasury by the
bewitched Miraflores did not cause the newly-installed patriots to
waste time in unprofitable regrets. The government philosophically
set about supplying the deficiency by increasing the import duties
and by "suggesting" to wealthy private citizens that contributions
according to their means would be considered patriotic and in
order. Prosperity was expected to attend the reign of Losada, the
new president. The ousted office-holders and military favourites
organized a new "Liberal" party, and began to lay their plans for
a re-succession. Thus the game of Anchurian politics began, like a
Chinese comedy, to unwind slowly its serial length. Here and there
Mirth peeps for an instant from the wings and illumines the florid
lines.

A dozen quarts of champagne in conjunction with an informal sitting
of the president and his cabinet led to the establishment of the navy
and the appointment of Felipe Carrera as its admiral.

Next to the champagne the credit of the appointment belongs to Don
Sabas Placido, the newly confirmed Minister of War.

The president had requested a convention of his cabinet for the
discussion of questions politic and for the transaction of certain
routine matters of state. The session had been signally tedious; the
business and the wine prodigiously dry. A sudden, prankish humour of
Don Sabas, impelling him to the deed, spiced the grave affairs of
state with a whiff of agreeable playfulness.

In the dilatory order of business had come a bulletin from the
coast department of Orilla del Mar reporting the seizure by the
custom-house officers at the town of