The O.S.N.'s superintendent in Sulaco for the whole Costaguana section
of the service was very proud of his Company's standing. He resumed it
in a saying which was very often on his lips, "We never make mistakes."
To the Company's officers it took the form of a severe injunction, "We
must make no mistakes. I'll have no mistakes here, no matter what Smith
may do at his end."

Smith, on whom he had never set eyes in his life, was the other
superintendent of the service, quartered some fifteen hundred miles away
from Sulaco. "Don't talk to me of your Smith."

Then, calming down suddenly, he would dismiss the subject with studied
negligence.

"Smith knows no more of this continent than a baby."

"Our excellent Senor Mitchell" for the business and official world of
Sulaco; "Fussy Joe" for the commanders of the Company's ships, Captain
Joseph Mitchell prided himself on his profound knowledge of men and
things in the country--cosas de Costaguana. Amongst these last he
accounted as most unfavourable to the orderly working of his Company
the frequent changes of government brought about by revolutions of the
military type.

The political atmosphere of the Republic was generally stormy in these
days. The fugitive patriots of the defeated party had the knack of
turning up again on the coast with half a steamer's load of small arms
and ammunition. Such resourcefulness Captain Mitchell considered as
perfectly wonderful in view of their utter destitution at the time of
flight. He had observed that "they never seemed to have enough change