concerned.

A year passed--two of them, in fact--during
which time no news of any kind reached us of the
lighthouse. Mawkum kept the duplicate blue-print of
the elevation tacked on the wall over his desk to show
our clients the wide range of our business, and I would
now and then try to translate the newspapers which
Lawton sent by every mail. These would generally
refer to the dissatisfaction felt by many of the Moccadorians
over the present government, one editorial,
as near as I could make out, going so far as to hint
that a secret movement was on foot to oust the
"Usurper" Alvarez and restore the old government
under Paramba. No reference was ever made to the
lighthouse. We knew, of course, that it had arrived,
for the freight had been paid: this we learned from
the brokers who shipped it; but whether it was still
in storage at San Juan or was flashing red and white
--a credit to Onativia's energy and a godsend to incoming
shipping--was still a mystery.

Mawkum would often laugh whenever Garlicho's
or Onativia's name was mentioned, and once in a
while we would discuss the difficulties they must have
encountered in the erection of the structure in the
open sea. One part of the transaction we could never
understand, and that was why Garlicho had allowed
the matter to lapse if the lighthouse was needed so
badly, and what were his reasons for sending Onativia