ne-room without the least hesitation. There
was no thought of demanding her surrender, or any quixotic nonsense of
that sort. In the first place, no man would act as herald, since he
would be shot or stabbed the instant his errand became known; in the
second, as Hozier had explained to Iris, the gunboat could slip her
cable very quickly, and Russo's artillerists might miss a moving object.

As it was, every gun scored, though the elevation was rather high. The
shells made a sad mess of the superstructure, but left the engines
intact. The sailors, on their part, knew exactly what had happened.
Every man who escaped death or serious injury from the bursting
missiles ran to his post. A wire hawser and mooring rope were severed
with axes, the screw revolved, and the _Andorinha_ was in motion.
Though winged, she still could fly. The second salvo of projectiles
was less damaging; again the gunners failed to reach the warship's
vitals. Her commander got his own armament into action, and managed to
demolish a warehouse and a grain elevator. Then he made off down the
coast toward Rio de Janeiro.

The sudden uproar stirred Maceio from roof to basement. Its
inhabitants poured into the Plaza. Every man vied with his neighbor in
yelling: "The revolution is here! _Viva Dom Corria_! _Abajo Sao
Paulo_!"

That last cry explained a good deal. The State of Sao Paulo had long
maintained a "corner" in Brazilian Presidents. De Sylva, a native of
Alagoas, was the first to break down the monopoly. Hence the cabal
against him; hence, too, the readiness of Maceio, together with many of
the smaller ports and the whole of the vast interior, to espouse his
cause.

For the purposes of this story, which is mainly concerned with the
lives and fortunes of a few insignificant people unknown to history, it
is not necessary to follow in detail the trumpetings, proclamations,
carousals, and arrests that followed Dom Corria's first success. It is
a truism that in events of international importance the very names of
the chief actors ofttimes go unrecorded. Future generations will ask,
perhaps:--Who blew up the _Maine_? Who persuaded the Tsar to break his
word anent Port Arthur? Who told Paul Kruger that the Continent of
Europe would support the Boers against Great Britain? Such instances
could be multiplied indefinitely, and the rule held good now in Brazil.

If any polite Pernambucano, Maceio-ite, or merchant of Bahia were
informe