s Gould so far on his way to the town, walking by the side of the
horse, with his hand on the saddle-bow. They had stopped just outside
the open door to let the workmen cross the road.

"As quick as I can. We are not a political faction," answered the
engineer, meaningly. "And we are not going to give our new rulers a
handle against the railway. You approve me, Gould?"

"Absolutely," said Charles Gould's impassive voice, high up and outside
the dim parallelogram of light falling on the road through the open
door.

With Sotillo expected from one side, and Pedro Montero from the other,
the engineer-in-chief's only anxiety now was to avoid a collision with
either. Sulaco, for him, was a railway station, a terminus, workshops,
a great accumulation of stores. As against the mob the railway defended
its property, but politically the railway was neutral. He was a brave
man; and in that spirit of neutrality he had carried proposals of truce
to the self-appointed chiefs of the popular party, the deputies Fuentes
and Gamacho. Bullets were still flying about when he had crossed the
Plaza on that mission, waving above his head a white napkin belonging to
the table linen of the Amarilla Club.

He was rather proud of this exploit; and reflecting that the doctor,
busy all day with the wounded in the patio of the Casa Gould, had
not had time to hear the news, he began a succinct narrative. He had
communicated to them the intelligence from the Construction Camp as to
Pedro Montero. The brother of the victorious general, he had assured
them, could be expected at Sulaco at any time now. This news (as he
anticipated), when shouted out of the window by Senor Gamacho, induced
a rush of the mob along the Campo Road towards Rincon. The two deputies
also, after shaking hands with him effusively, mounted and galloped off
to meet the great man. "I have misled them a little as to the time," the
chief engineer confessed. "However hard he rides, he can scarcely get
here before the morning. But my object is attained. I've secured several
hours' peace for the losing party. But I did not tell them anything
about Sotillo, for fear they would take it into their heads to try
to get hold of the harbour again, either to oppose him or welcome
him--there's no saying which. There was Gould's silver, on which rests
the remnant of our hopes. Decoud's retreat had to be thought of, too.
I think the railway has done pretty well by its friends without
compromisi