“Where is Sandy?” she asked. “Archie saw him an hour ago, and he said he was hungry enough to eat an ox.”
“He is getting clean,” said Archie. “He looks as if he had been having a dusty time. He likes tea, Janet.”
“I know. I’ve got it for him. And Sobranye cigarettes in a china box. I remembered his tastes.”
To a stranger there would have appeared to be no formality or restraint about the little party. It might have been a company of friends breakfasting at some country farm.
The Gobernador made a hearty meal, and his watchful eyes seemed almost benevolent when they rested on Janet or Barbara. There was no reference to the hive of strange activities around them. The young Americans were recondite travellers and talked at large of odd places and odd friends. One of them, Eborall by name, whom the others called Jim, had been with Roosevelt on his Amazon expedition and had something to say of the uneasy life of the Brazilian forests. “We never struck a health-resort like this,” he said. “They don’t keep them on the east side of the Andes.” Grayne, who was something of a naturalist, had a discussion with Archie Roylance about a type of short-winged buzzard that he had seen that morning. The young men spoke deferentially, with an eye on the Gobernador, like subalterns breakfasting with their commanding officer. Janet chattered eagerly in her role of the untravelled, to whom every new thing was a marvel. Only Barbara was a little silent. Her eyes were always turning to the door.
Presently it opened and a man entered. At first glance he seemed about the same age as the others, for a fine-drawn face often acquires an absurd youthfulness when, after some days of indoor life, it is first exposed to the weather. The tiny wrinkles around his eyes did not show under the flush of sunburn. He entered like a guest who, having arrived late at a country-house, makes his first appearance at breakfast and knows that he will find friends.
“Sandy, at last!” Janet cried. All rose, and the young Americans turned curious eyes on the newcomer, as on someone who had been eagerly awaited.
“There’s a chair next to Barbara,” Janet said. “Excellency, I don’t think you have met Lord Clanroyden.”
The two men bowed, but the newcomer did not offer to shake hands. They smiled on each other with conventional politeness, but the eyes of the elder man dwelt longer on the newcomer’s face.
“What’s the news?” Janet asked with a casualness that was obviously assumed.
“None at present, except that everything goes well. I must feed first, for my last bite was fifteen hours ago. After that I’m going to turn in and sleep a round of the clock… How jolly it is to be up on this shelf again! I feel a new man already.”
Sandy fell heartily on his food. “China tea,” he murmured. “Janet, you saint! I haven’t tasted it for weeks.”
But the pleasant informality had deserted the company. Archie looked heavy with unspoken questions. The young Americans fell silent and kept their eyes furtively on Sandy as if they were trying to harmonise a preconceived figure of their imagination with this ravenous reality. Janet rose “I don’t see why we should behave as if we were at the Zoo, and watching the animals feed. Your cigarettes are over there, Sandy. We’ll leave you to finish your breakfast in peace.”
But the Gobernador did not leave the room with the others. He filled his pipe and pushed the Sobranye cigarettes towards Sandy’s plate. The latter, having finished the marmalade stage, began to peel an apple. “Please smoke,” he said. “I’ll join you in a second.”
Presently he swung himself round to face the other, and lit a cigarette. His face had lost the careless youthfulness which it had borne when he first arrived. It was the face of an older and a different man, hard, fine, and alert, and his eyes were as wary as the Gobernador’s. They seemed to be inviting a challenge.
The latter spoke first.
“I think you owe me an explanation, Lord Clanroyden,” he said. The tones of his voice were perfectly quiet and assured. The question seemed to spring not from anxiety but from a polite curiosity.
“I owe you many, but they will have to come bit by bit. Meanwhile I can give you news. The night before last we occupied without serious trouble the city of the Gran Seco. At this moment I think I can fairly say that the whole province is in our hands.”
“We! Our! What precisely do you mean?” There was an edge in the voice which proved that its possessor had been startled.
“It is a long story. But the name which the newspaper-readers of the world are associating with the revolt against the Olifa Government is your own, Excellency. You were the creator of the Gran Seco, and you are going to be its liberator.”
“Liberator? From what? Am I to destroy my own creation?”
“The copper industry will not suffer. The Vice-President of the Company will see to that. There will only be a suspension of business—how long will depend upon the Olifa Government.”
“Rosas? He is in this fool conspiracy?”
“Undoubtedly. You may call him the prime mover. You know him as Rosas the Mexican, but to his friends he s John Scantlebury Blenkiron—a patriotic citizen of the United States—”
The other cried out. “Blenkiron! But he is dead!”
“Only officially. He is an ancient friend of mine, and there is our good fortune, Excellency, that your paths never crossed till he joined you eighteen months ago. You need not blame your Intelligence service. Blenkiron has puzzled before this the most efficient Intelligence services. He had seen watching your doings for some time, and when he put his remarkable talents at your service it was with a purpose. The first part of that purpose has now been accomplished.” Sandy paused.
“Go on,” said the other. “I am deeply interested.”
Sandy laughed. “We have no secrets from our commander-in-chief. But why should I waste time telling you what you know already?”
“I am not sure that I do know. This purpose? You do not want to cripple a great industry? You have no special grievance, I take it, against the republic of Olifa? You are not fanatics about forms of government? Am I to take it that your efforts are directed principally against me?”
“You may put it that way if you like. But we have no personal animus against your Excellency. Blenkiron, who has worked with you for nearly two years, rather likes you. We are all prepared to give you devoted allegiance.”
“Provided I do what you want?”
“Provided you do what we want. We are anxious to prevent you making a fool of yourself.”
It was the elder man’s turn to laugh. “Then I suppose I should be grateful, and I am certainly flattered. But I should like to know just what you consider my capacities in the way of folly.”
“I hate to repeat platitudes,” said Sandy, “but, since you insist, you shall have them. You have created a great industry, but you are following what seems to us an unbusinesslike line. You are using up your human material too rapidly. I put aside the moral question, and ask you simply if that is good business. Of course it isn’t, and since you do not do things without a purpose, we had to discover that purpose. Well, we know perfectly well what it is. You are trying to make bad trouble in a world which has already too much trouble. We do you the justice to admit that this is not blind malevolence. You have an ideal behind you, a philosophy, a very serious philosophy. Well, to be frank, we don’t like your methods, and we don’t like your purpose, and we hate your philosophy like hell. Do we understand each other?”
The Gobernador shook out the ashes from his pipe. His eyes, under his level brows, looked steadily on his companion. There was now no smile on his face, and in his gaze there was a serious perplexity.
“Lord Clanroyden,”