es, Desnoyers was no longer presenting himself
with his former assiduity at the hour of poker. The Counsellor's wife
was retiring to her stateroom earlier than usual--their approach to the
Equator inducing such an irresistible desire for sleep, that she had
to abandon her husband to his card playing. Julio also had mysterious
occupations which prevented his appearance on deck until after midnight.
With the precipitation of a man who desires to be seen in order to avoid
suspicion, he was accustomed to enter the smoking room talking loudly as
he seated himself near the husband and his boon companions.

The game had ended, and an orgy of beer and fat cigars from Hamburg
was celebrating the success of the winners. It was the hour of Teutonic
expansion, of intimacy among men, of heavy, sluggish jokes, of off-color
stories. The Counsellor was presiding with much majesty over the
diableries of his chums, prudent business men from the Hanseatic ports
who had big accounts in the Deutsche Bank or were shopkeepers installed
in the republic of the La Plata, with an innumerable family. He was a
warrior, a captain, and on applauding every heavy jest with a laugh that
distended his fat neck, he fancied that he was among his comrades at
arms.

In honor of the South Americans who, tired of pacing the deck, had
dropped in to hear what the gringoes were saying, they were turning into
Spanish the witticisms and licentious anecdotes awakened in the memory
by a superabundance of beer. Julio was marvelling at the ready laugh of
all these men. While the foreigners were remaining unmoved, they would
break forth into loud horse-laughs throwing themselves back in their
seats. And when the German audience was growing cold, the story-teller
would resort to an infallible expedient to remedy his lack of success:--

"They told this yarn to the Kaiser, and when the Kaiser heard it he
laughed heartily."

It was not necessary to say more. They all laughed then. Ha, ha, ha!
with a spontaneous roar but a short one, a laugh in three blows, since
to prolong it, might be interpreted as a lack of respect to His Majesty.

As they neared Europe, a batch of news came to meet the boat. The
employees in the wireless telegraphy office were working incessantly.
One night, on entering the smoking room, Desnoyers saw the German
notables gesticulating with animated countenances. They were no longer
drinking beer. They had had bottles of champagne uncorked, and the