oin Bedient on the promenade-deck.

"I'm surprised and disappointed," she said. "I expected to hear
shooting long before this."

"It may not be started," he suggested. "And now, Miss Mallory, we'd
better not go ashore together. I'm known as a follower of Jaffier; and
since you go to _The Pleiad,_ the only really suitable place to live,
you'd only complicate your standing in the community by being seen with
me. If _The Pleiad_ should happen to be invested in a siege, I'll see
you comfortably quartered elsewhere. In any case, I am at your
service."

Bedient was entirely unexpected at the _hacienda_, but a small caravan
had come down to meet the steamer and carry back supplies. Coral City
was feverish with excitement, although the revolutionists had not yet
taken to gunning. Bedient dispatched a letter to Jaffier with greeting,
a congratulation on his escape from death (regarded in the letter as a
good omen), and among other matters, an inquiry in regard to the
American Jim Framtree, whom he had met in Coral City, just before he
embarked for New York. This done, Bedient procured a saddle-pony, and
started alone up the trails to the _hacienda_.

He reached the great house in the early dusk. Such was the welcome
Bedient met, that for a moment, he was unable to speak. It was
spontaneous, too, for he was an hour ahead of the caravan. All was as
he had left. Dozens of natives trooped in with flowers and fruits, and
when he was alone upstairs, their singing came to him from the
cabins.... Bedient did not realize how worn and near to breaking he
was, until the outer door of his apartment was shut; and standing in
the centre of the room, with a laugh on his lips, he had to wait two or
three minutes, for the upheaval to subside in his breast.... A little
later, he crossed to the Captain's quarters, opened the door, and stood
in the dark for several moments, his head bowed. And a breath of that
faint sweet perfume, which never wearied nor obtruded, came to his
nostrils, as if one of the old silk handkerchiefs were softly waved in
the darkness.

* * * * *

A convoy, in the charge of Dictator Jaffier's oldest and most trusted
servant, reached the _hacienda_ at noon the next day. Thus the reply to
his letter was borne to Bedient. The cumbersome efficiency clothed an
imperative need for money first of all. Bedient expected this and was
prepared to assist.... A revolution was inevitable, the communic