mply a
desperate sort of fear. Bell waited in a terrible calmness, while rage
hammered at his temples.

Then the clattering of horses' hoofs outside. A carriage was being
brought. Soldiers came in and a man beckoned curtly. Bell stuffed his
pockets with smokes and followed languidly. He was realizing that there
was little pretense of secrecy about the power of The Master's deputy
here. Police and soldiers.... But Paraguay, of all the nations of the
southern continent, has learned a certain calm realism about
governmental matters.

The man who has power is obeyed. The man who has not power is not
obeyed. Titles are of little importance, though it is the custom for the
man with the actual power eventually to assume the official rank of
authority. Since the President in Asuncion was no more than a figurehead
who called anxiously upon the Senor Francia every morning for
instructions concerning the management of the nation, Francia
indifferently ignored him whenever he chose and gave orders directly.
There would be very little surprise and no disorder whatever when The
Master proclaimed Paraguay a viceroyalty of his intended empire.

* * * * *

The carriage went smartly through the cobbled streets with a cavalry
escort all about it. An officer sat opposite Bell with his hand on his
revolver.

"I am receiving at least the honors of royalty," Bell commented coldly
to him, in Spanish.

"Senor," said the officer harshly, "this is the state in which the
deputies of The Master were escorted."

He watched Bell heavily, but with the desperate intentness of a man who
knows no excuses will be received if his prisoner escapes.

Out of the town to a flying field, where a multi-engined plane was
warming up. It was one of the ships that had been at The Master's
_fazenda_ of Cuyaba, one of the ships that had fled from the burning
plantation. Bell was ushered into it with a ceremonious suspicion.
Almost immediately he was handcuffed to his seat. Two men took their
place behind him. The big ship rolled forward, lifted, steadied, and
after a single circling set out to the southeast for Buenos Aires.

* * * * *

The whole performance had had been run off with the smoothly oiled
precision of an iron discipline exercised upon men in the grip of deadly
fear.

"One man, at least," reflected Bell grimly, "has some qualities that fit
him for his job."

And then, for hour