e. In fact (so he stated), he had not
even spoken with the president or been in his presence since his
arrival.

During this disturbance, White was preparing for his homeward voyage
in the steamship that was to sail within two or three days. About
noon, Keogh, the restless, took his camera out with the hope of
speeding the lagging hours. The town was now as quiet as if peace had
never departed from her perch on the red-tiled roofs.

About the middle of the afternoon, Keogh hurried back to the hotel
with something decidedly special in his air. He retired to the little
room where he developed his pictures.

Later on he came out to White on the balcony, with a luminous, grim,
predatory smile on his face.

"Do you know what that is?" he asked, holding up a 4 x 5 photograph
mounted on cardboard.

"Snap-shot of a senorita sitting in the sand--alliteration
unintentional," guessed White, lazily.

"Wrong," said Keogh with shining eyes. "It's a slung-shot. It's a can
of dynamite. It's a gold mine. It's a sight-draft on your president
man for twenty thousand dollars--yes, sir--twenty thousand this time,
and no spoiling the picture. No ethics of art in the way. Art! You
with your smelly little tubes! I've got you skinned to death with a
kodak. Take a look at that."

White took the picture in his hand, and gave a long whistle.

"Jove!" he exclaimed, "but wouldn't that stir up a row in town if you
let it be seen. How in the world did you get it, Billy?"

"You know that high wall around the president man's back garden?
I was up there trying to get a bird's-eye of the town. I happened
to notice a chink in the wall where a stone and a lot of plaster
had slid out. Thinks I, I'll take a peep through to see how Mr.
President's cabbages are growing. The first thing I saw was him and
this Sir Englishman sitting at a little table about twenty feet away.
They had the table all spread over with documents, and they were
hobnobbing over them as thick as two pirates. 'Twas a nice corner
of the garden, all private and shady with palms and orange trees,
and they had a pail of champagne set by handy in the grass. I knew
then was the time for me to make my big hit in Art. So I raised the
machine up to the crack, and pressed the button. Just as I did so
them old boys shook hands on the deal--you see they took that way in
the picture."

Keogh put on his coat and hat.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked White.

"Me," said Keogh in