his was entirely new
to Jetta. She had always been aware more or less of her father's
secret business activities. As a child she had not understood them.
Nor did she now, with any clarity. Spawn, had always talked freely
within her hearing, ignoring her, though occasionally he threatened
her to keep her mouth shut.

She heard now fragments of this discussion between her father and
Perona. They moved away from the pergola and sat by the fountain,
speaking too low for her to hear. And then they paced the path, coming
nearer, and she caught their voices again. And occasionally they grew
excited, or vehement, and then their raised tones were plainly audible
to her.

And this that she heard, with what the knew already, and with what
subsequently transpired, enables me now to piece together the facts
into a connected explanation.

In the establishment of his cinnabar mine some years before, Spawn was
originally financed by Perona. The South American was then newly made
Minister of Nareda's Internal Affairs. He became Spawn's business
partner. They kept the connection secret. Spawn falsified his
production records; and Perona with his governmental position was
enabled to pass these false accounts of the mine's production. Nareda
was systematically cheated of a portion of its legal share.

But this, after a time, did not satisfy the ambitious Perona and
Spawn. They began to plan how they might engage in smuggling some of
their quicksilver into the United States.

Perona, during these years, had had ambitions of his own in other
directions. President Markes, of Nareda, was an honest official. He
handicapped Perona considerably. There were many ways by which Perona
could have grown rich through a dishonest handling of the government
affairs. It was done almost universally in all the small Latin
governments. But Markes as President made it dangerous in Nareda. Even
the duplicity with the mine was a precarious affair.

* * * * *

There was at this time in Nareda a young adventurer named De Boer. A
handsome, swaggering fellow in his late twenties. He was a good
talker; he spoke many languages; he could orate with fluency and
skilful guile. His smile, his colorful personality, and his gift for
oratory, made it easy for him to stir up dissatisfaction among the
people.

De Boer became known as a patriot. A revolution in Nareda was brewing.
Perona, as Nareda's Minister, was De Boer's political e