one's native land a great statue which should be her historic
monument."

That was his plan. In Congress Caesar kept silence; but he talked in
the corridors, and his ironic, cold, dispassionate comments began to be
quoted.

He had formed relations with the Minister of the Treasury, a man who
passed for famous and was a mediocrity, passed for honourable and was a
rogue. Caesar was much in his company.

The famous financier realized that Moncada knew far more than he did
about monetary questions, and among his friends he admitted it; but he
gave them to understand that Caesar was only a theorist, incapable of
quick decision and action.

Caesar's friendship was a convenience to the Minister, and the
Minister's to Caesar. In his heart the Minister hated Caesar, and Caesar
felt a deep contempt for the famous financier.

Nobody seeing them in a carriage talking affectionately together could
have imagined that there existed such an amount of hatred and hostility
between them.

The majority of people, with an absolute want of perspicacity, believed
Caesar to be fascinated by the Minister's brilliant intellect; but there
were persons that understood the situation of the pair and who used to
say:

"Moncada has an influence over the Minister like that of a priest over a
family."

And there was some truth in it.

Caesar carried his experimental method over from the stock exchange into
politics. He kept a note-book, in which he put down all data about the
private lives of Ministers and Deputies, and he filed these papers after
classifying them.

Castro Duro began to be aware of Caesar's exertions. The secretary of
the municipality, the employees, all who were friends and adherents to
the boss's group that Don Platon belonged with, began by degrees to
leave Castro.

Those who had lost their jobs, and their protectors too, began to write
letters and more letters to the Deputy. At first they believed that
Caesar wasn't interested; but they were soon able to understand at
Castro that he was interested enough, but not in them. The Minister of
the Treasury served him as a battering-ram to use against the Clericals
at Castro Duro.

Don Calixto was inwardly rejoiced to see his rivals reduced to
impotency.

Caesar began to establish political relations with the Republican
bookseller and his friends. When he began to perceive that he was making
headway with the Liberal and Labour element, he started without delay to
set mi