out through San Francisco had lucidly exposed his point of view. "Let us
suppose that the mining affairs of Sulaco are taken in hand. There would
then be in it: first, the house of Holroyd, which is all right; then,
Mr. Charles Gould, a citizen of Costaguana, who is also all right; and,
lastly, the Government of the Republic. So far this resembles the first
start of the Atacama nitrate fields, where there was a financing house,
a gentleman of the name of Edwards, and--a Government; or, rather, two
Governments--two South American Governments. And you know what came of
it. War came of it; devastating and prolonged war came of it, Mr. Gould.
However, here we possess the advantage of having only one South
American Government hanging around for plunder out of the deal. It is an
advantage; but then there are degrees of badness, and that Government is
the Costaguana Government."

Thus spoke the considerable personage, the millionaire endower of
churches on a scale befitting the greatness of his native land--the same
to whom the doctors used the language of horrid and veiled menaces. He
was a big-limbed, deliberate man, whose quiet burliness lent to an ample
silk-faced frock-coat a superfine dignity. His hair was iron grey, his
eyebrows were still black, and his massive profile was the profile of
a Caesar's head on an old Roman coin. But his parentage was German and
Scotch and English, with remote strains of Danish and French blood,
giving him the temperament of a Puritan and an insatiable imagination
of conquest. He was completely unbending to his visitor, because of the
warm introduction the visitor had brought from Europe, and because of
an irrational liking for earnestness and determination wherever met, to
whatever end directed.

"The Costaguana Government shall play its hand for all it's worth--and
don't you forget it, Mr. Gould. Now, what is Costaguana? It is the