friend of mine who thinks a lot about these things. You wouldn’t know him.”
“I differ from him absolutely. You are still clinging to the old notion of something incalculable and mystic which can defeat reason. You are wrong, for reason is the only power. Every day we are rationalising life, and what we cannot rationalise we can isolate and nullify. You young people are relics of the Middle Ages.”
“But so is human nature.” It was Barbara who spoke.
“Do not misunderstand me. We allow for the spasmodic impulses of human nature. But we analyse them and evaluate them, and by understanding them we can use them. Liberty, for example. That ancient instinct can be worked out to four places of decimals, and can consequently be used by reason. Is the human intelligence to submit docilely to be governed and thwarted by blind reactions which mankind shares with the brutes?”
“You are very clever, Excellency, but I think that there is always an unknown x which will defeat you. You are too clever, for you would make science and reason rule over a dimension to which they don’t apply. Humility may be the more scientific than arrogance.”
The guest laughed pleasantly. “I think you also are quoting. Whom, may I ask?”
“A friend. Sir Archie’s friend.”
Had anyone been observing Archie closely, he would have noticed that he had looked at his watch, and then made a movement towards the electric button behind his elbow. The act seemed to afford him some satisfaction, for he gave a sigh of relief and lit a cigarette.
The Gobernador had turned to catch Barbara’s reply.
“I should like to meet your friend,” he said, and then suddenly he flung his head back and listened. The throb of the propeller was felt through the vessel, and the ear caught the swish of moving water.
“You will soon have that pleasure,” said Barbara, “for we are taking you to him.”
In an instant the guest was on his feet. “What nonsense is this?” he asked sharply. His tall figure towered menacingly above the others, who remained seated in their chairs.
“It is all right, sir,” said Archie. A change had come over the young man, for the diffidence, the lower-boy shyness, which had been noticeable all the evening, had gone. Now he seemed to be at his ease and to be enjoying himself.
“I know it is a bit of a liberty, and we apologise and all that sort of thing, but it had to be done. You see, we greatly admire you and we want you to be our leader… It is no use shouting for your bodyguard. I’m afraid we had to handle them a little roughly, and at this moment they are trussed up and adrift in a boat. The tide’s all right and they’ll be picked up to-morrow morning in the harbour… Please don’t do anything rash, sir. Our men are all about, and they carry guns. You see, we really mean business.”
The Gobernador had his face averted so the other three could not see his change of mood. But a change there was, for he flung himself down in his chair and refilled his pipe.
“I’m a busy man,” he said, “and you are doing more harm than you can realise. Also I am afraid you are making serious trouble for yourselves. But I suppose I must submit to this prank. I was right when I said you were still in the Middle Ages. You are a set of melodramatic children… I hope you don’t mean it to last long. By the way, where are you taking me?”
Janet clapped her hands. “I have won my bet. I knew you would take it well. I told you when we asked you to dinner that we were going to sit at your feet. That is true, you know. We want you to lead us.”
“We are going to help you to discover America,” said Barbara. “You will be our new Columbus.”
“You will meet the friend,” said Archie, “whom Miss Dasent and I have been quoting.”
“Perhaps you will now tell me his name,” said the Gobernador.
“We call him Sandy,” Archie said casually. “His name used to be Arbuthnot. Now it’s Clanroyden.”
The recovered urbanity of the Gobernador was suddenly broken. A cry escaped him, and he turned his face away to the racing seas, but not before Janet had seen his brows knit in a mood so dark that she unconsciously reached for Archie’s hand.
XII
When the Corinna was beginning to move out of the dusk harbour of Olifa, a wireless message was sent from it to an address in the Gran Seco. That message consisted of two words: Francis First. There had been various schemes agreed upon for the handling of the Gobernador, and the numeral was intended to signify the one which had been adopted. By a happy chance, the first and simplest had succeeded. The receipt of this brief message was like a spark to powder. The events of the next few days in the Gran Seco cannot be told in orderly history. They had the speed and apparent inconsequence of moving pictures, and can only be set forth as flashes of light in a fog of confusion.
At the Universum Mine the manager woke as usual, breakfasted on his veranda, read his mail, and was a little surprised that certain telephone calls, which he had expected, had not come through from Headquarters. He was about to ring for his secretary and bid him call up the Gran Seco city, when the chief engineer, a Texan named Varnay, appeared on the scene and accepted a cup of coffee and a cigar. The manager was a newcomer who had been specially chosen by the Gobernador, a highly efficient machine whose pragmatic soul dwelt mainly in graphs and statistics. The Texan was a lean, lanky, hollow-eyed man, whose ordinary costume was dirty duck trousers and shirt-sleeves. To-day he wore breeches and boots and a drill jacket, and in his belt was an ostentatious revolver. The manager opened his eyes at this magnificence and waited for Varnay to speak. He was itching to get at his secretary and start the day’s routine.
The Texan was in no hurry. He poured himself out a cup of coffee with extreme deliberation, lit his cigar, and blew smoke-rings.
“The new draft will be in by midday,” said the manager.
It was the day in the month when a batch of fresh labour arrived, and what Peters had called the “returned empties” began their melancholy journey to the pueblas.
“Yep,” said the Texan. “The outgoing batch went last night, and the new outfit arrived an hour ago.”
The manager jumped to his feet. “Who altered the schedule?” he cried angrily. “Who the hell has been monkeying with my plans? I’ve had the schedule fixed this last month, and the Universum Mine has got to be run according to it. I’ll flay the man that stuck his clumsy hoof into it.”
He was about to cross the veranda to the bell which would have brought his secretary when the quiet drawl of the other detained him. The Texan had stuck out his long legs, and was regarding with abstracted eyes a butterfly which had perched on his coffee-cup.
“Sit down, mister,” he said. “Things have been happening this morning in this outfit, and I got to put you wise about them. The Universum is closed down till further notice.”
“By whose order?” the manager barked.
“By the Gobernador’s.”
The manager cursed
