O'Halloran failed to see it, but he joined the little group that hurried
to the private office. Megales dragged his desk from the corner where
it set and touched a spring that opened a panel in the wall. Carlo,
blanched with fear at the threats and curses that filled the night,
sprang toward the passageway that appeared.

Megales plucked him back. "One moment, general. Ladies first.
Carmencita, enter."

Carlo followed her, after him the governor, and lastly Gabilonda,
tearing himself from a whispered conversation with O'Halloran. The panel
swung closed again, and Valdez and O'Halloran lifted back the desk
just as Garcia came running in to say that the mob would not be denied.
Immediately O'Halloran threw open a French window and stepped out to the
little railed porch upon which it opened. He had the chance of his life
to make a speech, and that is the one thing that no Irishman can resist.
He flung out from his revolver three shots in rapid succession to draw
the attention of the mob to him. In this he succeeded beyond his hopes.
The word ran like wildfire that the mad Irishman, O'Halloran, was about
to deliver a message to them, and from all sides of the building they
poured to hear it. He spoke in Mexican, rapidly, his great bull voice
reaching to the utmost confines of the crowd.

"Fellow lovers of liberty, the hour has struck that we have worked and
prayed for. The glorious redemption of our State has been accomplished
by your patriotic hands. An hour ago the tyrants, Megales and Carlo,
slipped out of the palace, mounted swift horses, and are galloping
toward the frontier."

A roar of rage, such as a tiger disappointed of its kill might give,
rose into the night. Such a terrible cry no man made of flesh and blood
could hear directed at him and not tremble.

"But the pursuit is already on. Swift riders are in chase, with orders
not to spare their horses so only they capture the fleeing despots. We
expect confidently that before morning the tyrants will be in our hands.
In the meantime, let us show ourselves worthy of the liberty we have
won. Let us neither sack nor pillage, but show our great president in
the City of Mexico that not ruffians but an outraged people have driven
out the oppressors."

The huge Celt was swimming into his periods beautifully, but it was very
apparent to him that the mob must have a vent for its stored excitement.
An inspiration seized him.

"But one sacred duty calls to us from h