Coralio of the sloop _Estrella
del Noche_ and her cargo of drygoods, patent medicines, granulated
sugar and three-star brandy. Also six Martini rifles and a barrel of
American whisky. Caught in the act of smuggling, the sloop with its
cargo was now, according to law, the property of the republic.

The Collector of Customs, in making his report, departed from the
conventional forms so far as to suggest that the confiscated vessel
be converted to the use of the government. The prize was the first
capture to the credit of the department in ten years. The collector
took opportunity to pat his department on the back.

It often happened that government officers required transportation
from point to point along the coast, and means were usually lacking.
Furthermore, the sloop could be manned by a loyal crew and employed
as a coast guard to discourage the pernicious art of smuggling. The
collector also ventured to nominate one to whom the charge of the
boat could be safely intrusted--a young man of Coralio, Felipe
Carrera--not, be it understood, one of extreme wisdom, but loyal and
the best sailor along the coast.

It was upon this hint that the Minister of War acted, executing a
rare piece of drollery that so enlivened the tedium of executive
session.

In the constitution of this small, maritime banana republic was a
forgotten section that provided for the maintenance of a navy. This
provision--with many other wiser ones--had lain inert since the
establishment of the republic. Anchuria had no navy and had no use
for one. It was characteristic of Don Sabas--a man at once merry,
learned, whimsical and audacious--that he should have disturbed the
dust of this musty and sleeping statute to increase the humour of the
world by so much as a smile from his indulgent colleagues.

With delightful mock seriousness the Minister of War proposed the
creation of a navy. He argued its need and the glories it might
achieve with such gay and witty zeal that the travesty overcame with
its humour even the swart dignity of President Losada himself.

The champagne was bubbling trickily in the veins of the mercurial
statesmen. It was not the custom of the grave governors of Anchuria
to enliven their sessions with a beverage so apt to cast a veil of
disparagement over sober affairs. The wine had been a thoughtful
compliment tendered by the agent of the Vesuvius Fruit Company as a
token of amicable relations--and certain consummated deals--betw