a young Englishman--well, it is no affair of mine, but I am told she
loves him, yet is promised to another, an old man, too. _Santa Mae_!
That would not suit me if I were her age!"

This home-coming of Carmela was quite an important event in its way.
At first sight it bore the semblance of a mere disillusionment such as
any girl might experience under like circumstances. She had been taken
from Las Flores to occupy a palace at Rio de Janeiro, and was driven
from the palace to the hotel life of the Continent. During two years
she had not seen either father or lover; and lovers of the San
Benavides ilk are apt to console themselves during these prolonged
intervals. Yet Carmela's shattered romance was the pivot on which
rested the future of Brazil.

Had she gone straight to Iris on leaving her father, and made known the
astounding tidings that Verity and Bulmer were riding up the Moxoto
Valley barely three miles away, Iris would surely have devised some
means of acquainting Philip Hozier with the fact. In that event,
assuming that he awaited their arrival, the first march of an extended
reconnaissance which he thought desirable would necessarily be
postponed. And then--well, the recent history of Brazil would have to
be re-written, since there cannot be the slightest doubt that Dom
Corria De Sylva would never have occupied the Presidential chair a
second time.

It would be idle now to inquire too closely into the springs of
Philip's resolve to take service under a foreign flag. Perhaps the
irksome state of affairs at Las Flores, where there was no mean between
loafing and soldiering, was intolerable to a spirited youngster.
Perhaps San Benavides, constantly riding in from the front, irritated
him beyond endurance by his superior airs. Or it may be that a growing
belief in Iris's determination to sacrifice herself by redeeming her
bond made him careless as to what happened in the near future. The
outcome of one or all of these influences was that he sought, and was
readily given, a commission in the Army of Liberation. Like all
sailors, he preferred the mounted arm, and De Sylva, having the highest
opinion of his thoroughness, actually appointed him to command a branch
of the Intelligence Department.

Philip, trained to pin his faith in maps and charts, came to the
conclusion that Las Flores could be attacked from the rear, which lay
to the northwest. The Brazilians laughed at the notion. Where were
the tr