"Add another twenty! What do you think is up?
That Bunch of Garlic is working some funny business,
or he wouldn't have sent that brigand up here."

I ruminated for a moment, walked to the window
and took in the brick wall, the clerks and the clock
tower. Frankly, I did not know what Garlicho was
up to. It was the first time that any passenger by
the Tampico, or any other steamer, from any quarter
of the globe, had asked either Mawkum or myself to
add one penny to the cost of anything. The effort
heretofore had been to cut down each item to the last
cent. Was the ivory-tinted gentleman going to build
the lighthouse at his own expense out of loyalty to
President Alvarez, the saviour of his country, and
then donate it to the Government, using our estimate
to prove the extent of his generosity? Or was there
a trick somewhere? I decided to sound Senor Onativia
the next morning, and find out.

I had not long to wait. He arrived on the minute,
bobbed to Mawkum, drew a chair to my desk and
squared, or rather rounded, his body in front of me.

"I will now tell you what I omitted to say yesterday,"
he began. "When an order comes for this
lighthouse--and it will arrive by the next steamer--
it will not be signed by Senor Garlicho, but by me.
I have reasons for this which I cannot explain, and