t were these gentlemen that Everett was made to understand
that, until they approved, his recognition as the American minister was
in a manner temporary.

Chester Ward, or "Chet," as the exiles referred to him, was one of the
richest men in Amapala, and was engaged in exploring the ruins of the
lost city of Cobre, which was a one-hour ride from the capital. Ward
possessed the exclusive right to excavate that buried city and had held
it against all comers. The offers of American universities, of
archaeological and geographical societies that also wished to dig up
the ancient city and decipher the hieroglyphs on her walls, were met
with a curt rebuff. That work, the government of Amapala would reply,
was in the trained hands of Senor Chester Ward. In his chosen effort
the government would not disturb him, nor would it permit others coming
in at the eleventh hour to rob him of his glory. This Everett learned
from the consul, Garland.

"Ward and Colonel Goddard," the consul explained, "are two of five
countrymen of ours who run the American colony, and, some say, run the
government. The others are Mellen, who has the asphalt monopoly;
Jackson, who is building the railroads, and Major Feiberger, of the San
Jose silver-mines. They hold monopolies and pay President Mendoza ten
per cent of the earnings, and, on the side, help him run the country.
Of the five, the Amapalans love Goddard best, because he's not trying
to rob them. Instead, he wants to boost Amapala. His ideas are
perfectly impracticable, but he doesn't know that, and neither do they.
He's a kind of Colonel Mulberry Sellers and a Southerner. Not the
professional sort, that fight elevator-boys because they're colored,
and let off rebel yells in rathskellers when a Hungarian band plays
'Dixie,' but the sort you read about and so seldom see. He was once
State Treasurer of Alabama."

"What's he doing down here?" asked the minister.

"Never the same thing two months together," the consul told him;
"railroads, mines, rubber. He says all Amapala needs is developing."

As men who can see a joke even when it is against themselves, the two
exiles smiled ruefully.

"That's all it needs," said Everett.

For a moment the consul regarded him thoughtfully.

"I might as well tell you," he said, "you'll learn it soon enough
anyway, that the men who will keep you from getting your treaty are
these five, especially old man Goddard and Ward."

Everett exclaimed ind