hink the senorita could have left it in
this house at all."

"Go and look for it in the patio again. Go now, my friend; look for it
on the steps, under the gate; examine every flagstone; search for it
till I come down again. . . . That fellow"--he addressed himself in
English to Mrs. Gould--"is always stealing up behind one's back on his
bare feet. I set him to look for that fan directly I came in to justify
my reappearance, my sudden return."

He paused and Mrs. Gould said, amiably, "You are always welcome." She
paused for a second, too. "But I am waiting to learn the cause of your
return."

Decoud affected suddenly the utmost nonchalance.

"I can't bear to be spied upon. Oh, the cause? Yes, there is a cause;
there is something else that is lost besides Antonia's favourite fan. As
I was walking home after seeing Don Jose and Antonia to their house, the
Capataz de Cargadores, riding down the street, spoke to me."

"Has anything happened to the Violas?" inquired Mrs. Gould.

"The Violas? You mean the old Garibaldino who keeps the hotel where
the engineers live? Nothing happened there. The Capataz said nothing
of them; he only told me that the telegraphist of the Cable Company was
walking on the Plaza, bareheaded, looking out for me. There is news from
the interior, Mrs. Gould. I should rather say rumours of news."

"Good news?" said Mrs. Gould in a low voice.

"Worthless, I should think. But if I must define them, I would say bad.
They are to the effect that a two days' battle had been fought near Sta.
Marta, and that the Ribierists are defeated. It must have happened a few
days ago--perhaps a week. The rumour has just reached Cayta, and the
man in charge of the cable station there has telegraphed the news to his
colleague here. We might just as well have kept Barrios in Sulaco."

"What's to be done now?" murmured Mrs. Gould.

"Nothing. He's at sea with the troops. He will get to Cayta in a couple
of days' time and learn the news there. What he will do then, who can
say? Hold Cayta? Offer his submission to Montero? Disband his army--this
last most likely, and go himself in one of the O.S.N. Company's
steamers, north or south--to Valparaiso or to San Francisco, no matter
where. Our Barrios has a great practice in exiles and repatriations,
which mark the points in the political game."

Decoud, exchanging a steady stare with Mrs. Gould, added, tentatively,
as it were, "And yet, if we had could have been done."