twist on
the neutrality laws. Somebody's aidin' with munitions of war. I
wonder where the popguns are goin'?'

"I heard somebody cough, and I turned around. There stood a
little, round, fat man with a brown face and white clothes, a
first-class-looking little man, with a four-karat diamond on his
finger and his eye full of interrogations and respects. I judged
he was a kind of foreigner--may be from Russia or Japan or the
archipelagoes.

"'Hist!' says the round man, full of concealments and confidences.
'Will the senor respect the discoveryments he has made, that the mans
on the ship shall not be acquaint? The senor will be a gentleman that
shall not expose one thing that by accident occur.'

"'Monseer,' says I--for I judged him to be a kind of
Frenchman--'receive my most exasperated assurances that your secret
is safe with James Clancy. Furthermore, I will go so far as to
remark, Veev la Liberty--veev it good and strong. Whenever you hear
of a Clancy obstructin' the abolishment of existin' governments you
may notify me by return mail.'

"'The senor is good,' says the dark, fat man, smilin' under his
black mustache. 'Wish you to come aboard my ship and drink of wine a
glass.'

"Bein' a Clancy, in two minutes me and the foreigner man were seated
at a table in the cabin of the steamer, with a bottle between us. I
could hear the heavy boxes bein' dumped into the hold. I judged that
cargo must consist of at least 2,000 Winchesters. Me and the brown
man drank the bottle of stuff, and he called the steward to bring
another. When you amalgamate a Clancy with the contents of a bottle
you practically instigate secession. I had heard a good deal about
these revolutions in them tropical localities, and I begun to want a
hand in it.

"'You goin' to stir things up in your country, ain't you, monseer?'
says I, with a wink to let him know I was on.

"'Yes, yes,' said the little man, pounding his fist on the table.
'A change of the greatest will occur. Too long have the people been
oppressed with the promises and the never-to-happen things to become.
The great work it shall be carry on. Yes. Our forces shall in the
capital city strike of the soonest. _Carrambos!_'

"'_Carrambos_ is the word,' says I, beginning to invest myself with
enthusiasm and more wine, 'likewise veeva, as I said before. May the
shamrock of old--I mean the banana-vine or the pie-plant, or whatever
the imperial emblem may be of your down-trodden country,