by the simple tie of money. His name
was Antonio Cortez. He was a small, skinny, sallow Mexican with a great
moustache, behind which he seemed to be discreetly hiding, and a
consciously cunning eye. Of an old and once wealthy Spanish family, he had
lost all of his money by reason of a lack of aptitude for business, and
made his living as a sort of professional political henchman. He was a
bearer of secret messages, a maker of deals, an eavesdropper. The Latin
aptitude for intrigue he had in a high degree. He was capable of almost
anything in the way of falsehood or evasion, but he had that great
capacity for loyalty which is so often the virtue of weaklings.

"I have known your family for many years," he told Ramon importantly, "And
I feel an interest in you, almost as though you were my own son. You need
an older friend to advise you, to attend to details in the management of
your great estate. You will probably go into politics and you need a
political manager. As an old friend of your family I want to do these
things for you. What do you say?"

Ramon answered without any hesitation and prompted solely by intuition:

"I thank you, friend, and I accept your offer."

He knew instinctively that he could trust this man and also dominate him.
It was just such a follower that he needed. Nothing was said about money,
but on the first of the month Ramon mailed Cortez a check for a hundred
dollars, and that became his regular salary.

CHAPTER XVI

About two weeks after the Don's funeral, Ramon received a summons which he
had been vaguely expecting. He was asked by Mr. MacDougall's secretary
over the telephone to call, whenever it would be convenient, at Mr.
MacDougall's office.

He knew just what this meant. MacDougall would try to make with him an
arrangement somewhat similar to the one he had had with the Don. Ramon
knew that he did not want such an arrangement on any terms. He felt
confident that not one could swindle him, but at the same time he was half
afraid of the Scotchman; he felt instinctively that MacDougall was a man
for him to avoid. And besides, he intended to use his lands in his own
way. He would sell part of them to the railroad, which was projected to be
built through them, if he could get a good price; but the hunger for
owning land, for dominating a part of the earth, was as much a part of him
as his right hand. He wanted no modern business partnership. He wan