THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 UNIT. OF CALIF. LTBTUTlY. LOS ANGELES
 
 'Listen, old man" she cried, "is it not something to know 
 that you have to look for a live gringo instead 
 of a dead one:"
 
 THE COAST OF 
 OPPORTUNITY 
 
 BY 
 
 PAGE PHILIPS 
 
 AUTHOR o? "THE TRAIL OF THE WAVING PALM," "AT BAY." ./ 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM L. HOWES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE MACAULAY COMPANY
 
 COPYRIGHT. 1917, BY 
 THE MACAULAY COMPANY
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. MR. MARR KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT n 
 
 II. THE LANDS OF HAPPINESS ... 27 
 
 III. THE DISCOVERY 37 
 
 IV. A GAME OF CARDS 49 
 
 V. A SPORTING CHANCE 65 
 
 VI. A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL .... 79 
 
 VII. TREASON ........ 97 
 
 VIII. FARRAND CROWDS His LUCK . . 109 
 
 IX. THE TRAP . ....'.. . 127 
 
 X. CROSS CURRENTS . ... . . 135 
 
 XI. AN UNWILLING GUEST ... .144 
 
 XII. AT THE END OF THE STREET . . . 159 
 
 XIII. MARR HEARS ENOUGH . . . . 171 
 
 XIV. WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT . . . 182 
 XV. PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS .... 191 
 
 XVI. LOST IN THE BUSH 206 
 
 XVII. No MORE CHANCES 221 
 
 XVIII. WHAT DE BOER FOUND .... 232 
 
 XIX. ON THE OLD WOOD- ROAD . . . 243 
 
 XX. A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION . . . 255 
 
 XXI. To RIGHT THE WRONG .... 270 
 
 XXII. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS . . . 279 
 
 XXIII. HOMING 292 
 
 2132257
 
 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY
 
 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT 
 
 IT was early morning when Dick Bristow swung 
 himself into the saddle and set forth on his five- 
 hour ride to the railroad. White, cumulus 
 clouds rested upon the circle of the horizon, like 
 an enormous barrier of full-blown cotton-bolls 
 rolled up by some giant upon the rim of a huge 
 green dish. And as Dick set his horse into a 
 smart singlefoot it seemed to him almost as if 
 there were enchantment in the very air. The 
 quick movement of the hoofs beneath him, beat- 
 ing regularly upon the worn trail in a muffled 
 patter, brought him no nearer to that fleecy corral. 
 A few minutes later, as the rider approached 
 a fringe of palms that marked the course of a 
 waterway, his imaginative mood succumbed to the 
 
 ii
 
 1 2 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 reality of material things. Sending his mount 
 down the steep bank of the river, which at that 
 season of the year it was then mid-winter was 
 little more than a sluggish creek, Dick drew -his 
 feet out of his stirrups and held them high against 
 his pony's flanks as he splashed through the ford. 
 
 Dick Bristow noted with satisfaction the depth 
 of the humus as revealed on the opposite bank 
 where the swollen river had cut it. He knew that 
 that fertile, chocolate colored blanket was spread 
 thick over the tract of land that lay in front of 
 him. And it belonged to him acres upon acres 
 of it. That was the strangest part of it all. 
 
 "Easy, boy!" he cautioned, as the dun pony 
 floundered out of the water. Then a quick 
 scramble brought them to the top of the sharp 
 slope ; and the lord of the domain was on his own 
 soil. 
 
 But the place boasted no castle. There was 
 material, a-plenty, for its building, however. The 
 virgin forest crowded close to the river's edge. 
 And Bristow's eyes rested appraisingly upon huge 
 black trunks of mahogany and the gray of cedar. 
 There were other trees, too, for which there is 
 no English name. He knew that there were mil- 
 lions of feet of marketable timber on the prop-
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 13 
 
 erty. Had he not spent months in assuring him- 
 self that the miracle was real? 
 
 Already the tropics had set their mark on him. 
 His face was tanned to a red bronze, in con- 
 trast with which his forehead, when he removed 
 his hat, showed startlingly white. From the cor- 
 ners of his resolute blue eyes tiny lines radiated in 
 fan fashion the result of much squinting through 
 southern sunshine. Always lean, his face was now 
 a trifle drawn, like that of an athlete slightly over- 
 trained. But that was only the effect of the hot 
 climate. Dick's shoulders and arms and legs were 
 as powerfully muscled as they had been some five 
 years before, when he had stepped out of the win- 
 ning shell upon a float in the Thames and his name 
 had been inscribed on Harvard's honor roll of 
 famous oarsmen. 
 
 But of all the characteristics that stamped him 
 as different from themselves, his Mexican neigh- 
 bors had seized upon his chin as being the most 
 notable. A native, when speaking to another of 
 "Meester Breestow," invariably curled the palm 
 of his hand over his own chin, thereby making a 
 sort of Indian sign to designate the gringo who 
 had cast his lot among them. Dick's chin did, 
 indeed, dominate his whole face. Of astonishing
 
 i 4 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 strength, it bespoke for its owner an undoubted 
 ability to make his way through a world of tumult 
 and hard knocks. And as events developed in that 
 land of hot passions and easy morality it was just 
 as well for Dick Bristow that he was molded of 
 stern stuff. 
 
 On this morning, when Dick made his early 
 start from Jose Crispo's house, after a breakfast 
 consisting of a cup of muddy black coffee, and 
 nothing else, he felt that at last his months of ef- 
 fort were about to bear fruit. He had already 
 succeeded in interesting a company of American 
 promoters in his development scheme. Their final 
 decision hinged upon his ability to persuade the 
 South Eastern Railway Company of Mexico to 
 construct a spur leading from its main line to Las 
 Alegrias Dick's estate. He had made overtures 
 to the railway authorities ; and on that day he ex- 
 pected to learn their answer. Mr. Julian Marr, 
 the English president of the road, was then on a 
 tour of inspection of the South Eastern's prop- 
 erties and Dick had an appointment to meet the 
 famous transportation magnate at the railroad 
 town of Rio Chico, a good ten leagues' journey 
 from Las Alegrias. 
 
 The morning was half gone and the sun blister-
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 15 
 
 ing hot when he tied his sweating horse beneath 
 the shelter in front of a cross-roads country store. 
 There he breakfasted on the best that the store- 
 keeper could provide, for the big gringo had al- 
 ready made many friends among the natives. 
 They found him unexpectedly simpatico those 
 childlike Mexicans, who look with suspicion, if 
 not absolute distrust, upon most Northerners. But 
 Dick had won their hearts completely. Not only 
 had he picked up a working knowledge of their 
 language in a surprisingly short time; he had 
 slipped as easily into their ways. No countryman 
 could drink from a garafon with greater uncon- 
 cern than he and it is no simple feat for most 
 novices to lift one of those heavy earthenware 
 jugs and pour water into his gaping mouth from 
 its small spout, which in all politeness the lips must 
 never touch. 
 
 That was only one of Dick's newly acquired 
 accomplishments. He even ate the native dishes 
 with gusto, greasy as they often were. And now 
 he partook of fried pig and plantains also fried 
 with a good will that made him doubly welcome. 
 It did not matter to him that there was only one 
 spoon on the rude table, with which each filled 
 his plate when it was empty. And as for forks
 
 1 6 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 they simply did not exist in that wilderness. 
 Dick's fingers sufficed for all practical purposes, 
 while the dampened cloth that was passed around 
 the board at the conclusion of the meal took the 
 place of napkins and finger-bowls alike. 
 
 "Un muy buen muchachof" So Dick's friends 
 pronounced him a mighty good fellow, when he 
 had ridden on again. It was not the first time he 
 had taken pot-luck with them. 
 
 It is always pleasant to have friends. It is 
 doubly comforting in a foreign land to know that 
 there is no question of one's welcome. And as 
 Dick neared the end of his journey for Rio 
 Chico was now less than an hour's ride distant 
 he felt that whatever might be the decision of 
 Julian Marr, there were worse places to spend 
 one's life than Las Alegrias, those "happy lands" 
 which a trick of fortune had bestowed upon him. 
 
 At Rio Chico there was an unwonted stir. And 
 always Rio Chico was a busy place, with its great 
 sugar-factory, belonging to the railway interests. 
 The chief of that successful enterprise, Julian 
 Marr, had conceived the masterly plan not only 
 of constructing the railway, but of providing 
 freight for it to haul as well. At intervals along
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 17 
 
 the line were great structures, like that at Rio 
 Chico, which were operated day and night, Sun- 
 days and week-days alike, during the months of 
 the cane harvest the zafra, as the natives know 
 it. 
 
 The particular beauty of such an arrangement 
 lay in the fact that by its means the railroad was 
 not dependent upon outside patronage for its sup- 
 port, with the result that it might charge outsiders 
 whatever freight rates it pleased. They might 
 object they might even cease making shipments. 
 But the Company could go serenely on about its 
 business, secure in the comfortable knowledge that 
 abundant profits were assured. 
 
 On the day of Dick Bristow's appointment with 
 Marr there was even more bustle than ever upon 
 the Company's property. Men were hurriedly 
 putting the final touches of preparation to grass- 
 plots and flower-beds and walks, in anticipation of 
 the president's visit. Within the factory, mean- 
 while, machinists madly polished metal wherever 
 they could find it. And upon the siding a great 
 mogul locomotive kicked cane-cars back and forth. 
 Ordinarily the factory-manager, Farrand, was able 
 to secure only a decrepit relic for that purpose. 
 But now everybody was on his mettle. The man-
 
 1 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 ager of the road wished to impress his chief with 
 the excellent condition of its equipment. Dis- 
 creditable rolling-stock had been thoughtfully 
 shunted out of sight. 
 
 Even Wade Farrand himself, a protege of 
 Marr's whom that personage had placed in a 
 position ordinarily filled by a man at least ten 
 years older for Farrand was hardly turned thirty 
 even he was preparing the way for the arrival 
 of his patron. At the moment when his man- 
 servant announced Bristow's arrival Farrand was 
 engaged in shifting a small, framed motto upon 
 the walls of his sitting-room. It was one of those 
 illuminated legends which of late years have 
 crowded out the God-bless-our-homes of an earlier 
 and less calculating generation. Farrand let his 
 caller wait while he stood back and surveyed his 
 re-arrangement. He had tacked the inscription 
 it was a passage from Carlyle beneath a large 
 photograph of Julian Marr; and he smiled as he 
 read the sentiment. Placed in juxtaposition with 
 the portrait there could be no mistake as to the 
 compliment implied. "Know what thou canst 
 work at; and work at it, like a Hercules!" those 
 were the words on which Farrand depended to
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 19 
 
 suffuse the great Englishman with a gentle glow 
 of self-appreciation. The motto had lately hung 
 beneath another photograph that of Mr. Oliver 
 Harmon, Farrand's immediate superior, who had 
 oversight of all the sugar-estates of the Company. 
 Farrand only hoped that Harmon was not travel- 
 ing with Mr. Marr. 
 
 Dick Bristow had made Farrand's acquaintance 
 weeks before. He was obliged to admit to him- 
 self that he did not like the fellow, for there was a 
 certain craftiness in the manager's pale, roving 
 eyes, which seemed always to avoid Dick's own. 
 At the same time, Dick saw that he was a man 
 of ability. His position, certainly, was no sine- 
 cure. The oversight of any enterprise of the 
 size of that at Rio Chico must surely call for 
 qualities of tact, judgment and determination. 
 The labor element alone, made up as it was of 
 various races Mexicans, Indians, Jamaica nig- 
 gers, Gallegos (Spaniards from the Province of 
 Galicia), Canary Islanders, and here and there 
 a slant-eyed coolie was enough to discourage any 
 but the stout-hearted. But Wade Farrand had 
 risen to the requirements of his office. Even his 
 severest critics and there were many among his
 
 20 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 employees who liked to find fault with him 
 even they had to acknowledge the big chap's 
 capacity for administration. 
 
 "Hello, Bristow!" Farrand said, as he shook 
 hands with his caller. "I see you can't stay away 
 from civilization long. . . . How goes it on your 
 principality ?" He always appeared vastly amused 
 by Dick's affairs. 
 
 "Everything's fine, thanks I" Dick told him. 
 
 "Good! Not ready to quit yet, eh?" 
 
 "Not a thought of such a thing!" Dick assured 
 him with a grin. 
 
 Farrand put a cigarette between his lips. The 
 smallness of his mouth was accentuated by the 
 generous expanse of his fat face. But there was 
 nothing generous about the fellow's nature. He 
 pulled another cigarette out of his case and held 
 it grudgingly toward his visitor, with the air of 
 one conferring a favor upon an inferior being. 
 
 "No, thank you!" Dick said drily. "My own 
 are good enough." 
 
 "Oh very well!" Farrand rejoined, returning 
 the cigarette to his silver case. "Sit down, any- 
 how, and we'll have a drink." That was one 
 thing that Wade Farrand was always ready to 
 share with another. The merest glance at his
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 21 
 
 over-blown figure told one in what direction the 
 man's weakness lay. 
 
 But Dick shook his head. He was of no mind 
 to accept Farrand's hospitality. With him a drink 
 was something to be indulged in only with friends. 
 
 "I want to see Mr. Marr," he explained. "His 
 secretary wrote me that he would be here to- 
 day. . . . What time do you expect him?" 
 
 "He ought to be here within an hour," Far- 
 rand answered. "But I doubt if he can see you 
 this trip. It's only a flying visit, you know. He's 
 to have luncheon, go through the factory with me, 
 and then he leaves at once for Mexico City. . . . 
 You'd better try to get in touch with him some 
 other time." 
 
 Dick saw that he might expect no favors from 
 that quarter. But he had no intention of starting 
 back on the last half of his fifty-mile ride with- 
 out having accomplished the purpose of his 
 journey. 
 
 "I'll stick around," he said firmly. 
 
 "Oh, yes I'd advise you to," said Farrand. 
 "I'll see what I can do for you." 
 
 Over in the native settlement beyond the rail- 
 road tracks Dick hobnobbed with the storekeepers 
 while he waited the coming of Julian Marr's
 
 22 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 special train. He had consumed sundry cups of 
 black coffee andnumerous cigarettes before Marr's 
 private car was switched into a siding. And from 
 the platform of the railroad station he watched 
 Farrand welcome his benefactor and escort the 
 stocky figure to his house, along with a slender and 
 youthful vice-president who accompanied the great 
 man. 
 
 Dick went over to the Company's office then and 
 cooled his heels while the British lion regaled him- 
 self. 
 
 In an hour he saw the squat president of the 
 South Eastern Railway cross the mill-yard, flanked 
 closely upon either side by the two younger men, 
 like attendants upon royalty who stood ready to 
 repulse any mere mortal who might have the 
 temerity to approach. The three entered the fac- 
 tory, where they remained but a short time. 
 When he reappeared Marr went directly to his 
 private car. 
 
 The engine that hauled the special train hissed 
 portentously, as if both aware of the honor to 
 which it had been elevated and impatient to pro- 
 ceed triumphantly upon its way. And all this time 
 Dick had received no word from Farrand. 
 
 Mr. Bristow slipped out of the office then and
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 23 
 
 went over to the track where Marr's train stood. 
 Pausing for a moment at the side of the loco- 
 motive, he spoke a few brief and pointed words, 
 in English, to the engineer an American, by 
 the way, whom Dick's democracy had previously 
 gathered unto him as a friend. Behind the back 
 of his native fireman, who knew no language but 
 his own, the engineer winked at Dick mysteriously. 
 Whatever Dick had said, the two gringos seemed 
 to understand each other perfectly. 
 
 Dick went on and pushed past the Mexican con- 
 ductor, who stood upon the steps of the car. As 
 his spurs jangled down the aisle Farrand turned 
 his head and at once sprang up. 
 
 "It's just as I feared," he said, pausing directly 
 in Dick's path. "Mr. Marr hasn't time to discuss 
 your road now. He's leaving immediately." 
 
 Dick could not repress a grin as he said 
 easily 
 
 "Oh, no, he isn't! There's trouble in the en- 
 gine. He can't start for several minutes. And 
 what's more, I'm going to talk with him while 
 he's waiting here." Something more serious than 
 a smile came into his face; and Farrand, noting 
 it, stepped aside. 
 
 While the disturbed manager hurried forward
 
 24 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 to look into the cause of the delay, Dick quickly 
 introduced himself to the elderly, self-contained 
 man, who regarded him more with tolerance than 
 with interest. Seated, Julian Marr was an im- 
 pressive figure. His enormous bulk made him ap- 
 pear short as to legs, when he walked. But he 
 had a magnificent head and torso his was the 
 heroic type, which shows to best advantage on 
 horseback. His imposing personality did not, 
 however, disconcert Dick in the least. He looked 
 fairly into Marr's penetrating eyes, which bored 
 into his own from above massive, clean-shaven 
 jowls, and set forth his case clearly. 
 
 Julian Marr did not interrupt him. He nodded 
 now and then, as he followed Dick's argument. 
 He knew the men whom Dick had named as be- 
 ing ready to furnish capital for his operations. 
 They were Boston bankers of repute and Marr 
 had not the slightest objection to allowing them 
 to contribute to the profits of his railroad. 
 
 "We will build the road," he said shortly 
 he was a man of quick decisions. "But you must 
 stand part of the expense of its construction. 
 There's not enough traffic out your way to war- 
 rant our spending all that money. It will cost
 
 MR. MARK KEEPS APPOINTMENT 25 
 
 seven thousand dollars a mile to run a spur to 
 your tract." 
 
 "My backers stand ready to subscribe a reason- 
 able amount," Dick assured him. 
 
 "Very well! Make your proposal in writing 
 through the Company's London office," Marr 
 said. "I will write them about the matter to- 
 day. I see no objection to it provided you can 
 assure us that you mean business. We must have 
 a bond to protect us against any failure of your 
 project." 
 
 "We will do anything in reason," Dick said. 
 He was conscious of a sudden feeling of elation 
 over the happy turn of affairs. "There is just one 
 thing more that I want to speak about," he went 
 on, "and that is freight rates. Of course we can't 
 go ahead without a contract covering them." 
 
 At that Marr's composure slipped off him like 
 a cloak. He became, on the instant, pugnacious, 
 bullying, blustering. 
 
 "Oh, I never make contracts!" he blurted, with 
 an impatient gesture of his thick arms. "I never 
 make contracts !" 
 
 "All we ask is a businesslike deal " Dick 
 
 began. "We only want " 
 
 "No contracts!" snapped Marr. He shook his
 
 26 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 head vigorously upon his bull-neck. "Young 
 man," he said testily, "if you don't like our ways 
 of doing business, go back home. Don't come 
 down here and attempt to dictate to us." And 
 with an air of finality he turned his back upon 
 Dick and gazed out of the window, while he 
 drummed irritably upon the arm of his chair. 
 "Why the devil don't we pull out?" he growled 
 to his companion. 
 
 Dick managed to extract some slight consola- 
 tion, at least, from the situation. He knew that 
 the president of the South Eastern Railway Com- 
 pany was a prisoner upon his own siding, until 
 he should himself give the signal to the engineer 
 to start. Dropping off the steps, he strolled 
 leisurely forward, where Farrand was impatiently 
 questioning the engineer, who busily tapped bear- 
 ings with a hammer, to carry out the ruse Dick 
 had concocted. 
 
 At a nod from Dick imperceptible to any but 
 his fellow-conspirator the lanky, hatchet-faced 
 Yankee suddenly decided that he could proceed, 
 in safety. 
 
 Dick did not wait to see Mr. Julian Marr's 
 special train depart. The afternoon was already 
 a third gone and he had a long ride before him.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 YOUNG as he was, Dick Bristow had already 
 learned that adversity waits always around the 
 next corner, to waylay the least suspecting. He 
 had entered college a rich man's son. And before 
 his four years of mingled sport and study were 
 completed the crash had come. His father > 
 astute business man though he had been had lost 
 his once strong grip upon his affairs. Illness had 
 weakened him before any but the financial wolves 
 had discovered the change that had been wrought 
 in him. He had died a disappointed and broken- 
 hearted man, leaving his son and only heir 
 an estate that was remarkable only for the worth- 
 lessness of its securities. 
 
 When lawyers and creditors had departed Dick 
 found himself the possessor of a deed to some 
 twenty thousand r.cres of land in Mexico. That 
 was h'.s sole asset, aside from the resources within 
 him. He wondered, at first, that the receding 
 
 27
 
 28 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 tide of debt had left that much behind. But he 
 soon ceased to marvel. Investigation brought 
 forth the fact that the property to which he had 
 fallen heir lay fathoms deep under water. 
 
 He left college then, and went to work. Be- 
 cause his father had owned mining interests Dick 
 had undertaken the study of metallurgy, during 
 such intervals as athletics spared him. And now 
 he was glad enough to capitalize what knowledge 
 he had acquired. In the laboratories of the De 
 Boer Exploration Company he had gained rapid 
 promotion. But still Dick was not satisfied. He 
 was possessed of an inborn independence that for- 
 bade his taking orders gracefully from any man; 
 and he chafed under the conditions of his bondage. 
 He longed to be his own master. 
 
 His emancipation came through the most un- 
 expected agency. The United States Government 
 proved to be the good fairy that at last set him 
 free. The federal authorities suddenly evinced a 
 lively interest in the affairs of the Mexican De- 
 velopment Company, with the result that the 
 furtive, fox-like officials of that enterprising cor- 
 poration, scenting trouble, made haste to rectify 
 some of their mistakes, such as the sale of portions 
 of the sea-floor for perfectly good American dol-
 
 THE LANDS OF HAPPINESS 29 
 
 lars. They shrank from the prospect of an en- 
 forced sojourn at a certain well-known retreat at 
 Atlanta. 
 
 It was not difficult for them to persuade their 
 dupes to exchange deeds for areas of Father 
 Neptune's realm for others that conveyed more 
 accessible property. And Dick willingly sur- 
 rendered the instrument that had descended to 
 him, receiving in its stead another paper that 
 transferred to him a tract of land that one might 
 investigate without the aid of diving apparatus. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was a mere leap in the dark 
 so far as Dick was concerned. But he reflected 
 that the situation could scarcely be any worse. In 
 their anxiety to deliver tangible real estate to their 
 investors the Mexican Development Company had 
 indeed bought land blindly. But once he had as- 
 sured himself that his new holdings might actually 
 be located upon the map of Mexico, Dick Bristow 
 could no longer resist the impulse to set foot upon 
 his property. 
 
 His desire was of a two-fold nature. In justice 
 to his father's memory he wanted to prove to 
 himself and to the world that his inheritance 
 was, after all, far from negligible, that there was 
 still some substantial asset remaining out of the
 
 30 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 fortune that the elder Bristow had amassed 
 through years of hard work and self-denial. That 
 was one phase of the motives that stirred him. 
 
 The other was concerned with the lure of a 
 far-off land, which called to him insistently and 
 bade him shake off the conventions of city life and 
 the shackles of service in another man's pay. 
 
 He made up his mind quickly. And so de- 
 termined was he to put his fortune to the test 
 that not one of the inducements that the De Boer 
 Exploration Company held out to him caused him 
 to waver in his decision. 
 
 Las Alegrias the lands of mirth or gaiety 
 for so Dick's estate had been named by some old 
 Spanish grandee who doubtless never laid eyes on 
 his possessions, proved to be of surprising value. 
 Its only drawback and that was certainly a seri- 
 ous one consisted in its remoteness from any 
 means of transportation. At the same time its 
 isolation had insured its escape from exploitation 
 during the centuries that had elapsed since a long- 
 dead Spanish sovereign bestowed the tract upon 
 some court favorite. Except for a few huts scat- 
 tered here and there over the property, where na- 
 tive squatters lived in primitive fashion, the place 
 had never been tenanted. The few clearings that
 
 THE LANDS OF HAPPINESS 31 
 
 Dick discovered upon it were insignificant in so 
 large a hacienda. With the help of old Jose 
 Crispo, who owned a princely estate bordering 
 upon Dick's, and in whose thatched shack Dick 
 had been made welcome, the new owner estimated 
 that there was upwards of half a million dollars' 
 worth of hard wood standing upon Las Alegrias. 
 And once the place was cleared he would be the 
 owner of as fine agricultural land as could be 
 found on this planet. Through the ages the rank 
 tropic growths had been building up a wealth of 
 dark loam, the fertility of which had never been 
 sapped. Indeed, Jose Crispo assured Dick that 
 there was no fitter soil for sugar-cane in the 
 tierra caliente the hot land. 
 
 As soon as he realized the latent possibilities 
 of his property, with characteristic American en- 
 terprise Dick set to work to devise means for its 
 development. He was not content, like Jose 
 Crispo, to eke out a scanty existence by raising 
 a few cattle and pigs, and growing plantains. 
 
 But there were obstacles to be overcome. To 
 be sure, logs could be run down the river to the 
 East Coast, when the spring rains swelled the 
 stream one mahogany log lashed between two 
 of cedar, to support the heavy red sticks, which
 
 32 -THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 will not float alone. But Dick lacked the sub- 
 stantial capital necessary for such operations. 
 And there would be no sense in growing sugar- 
 cane with no mill to grind it, or no way of shipping 
 the cane to somebody else's mill. A railroad 
 that was what the place needed. Without a rail- 
 road Las Alegrias might almost as well lie beneath 
 the sapphire waters of the Spanish Main. 
 
 Old Jose Crispo had all along been skeptical as 
 to the outcome of his guest's negotiations with 
 the South Eastern Railway Company. No man 
 would have been better pleased than he to see 
 the railroad tap that section of the country. For 
 him it would mean riches. He could sell his land 
 for a fortune and take his family to Mexico City, 
 to live in luxury for the rest of his days. But 
 Jose knew something of the temper of the South 
 Eastern Railway Company. He had yet to be 
 convinced that Dick's plan would materialize. 
 
 "I have a cousin who owns a finca a farm a 
 league off the line," he told Dick. " 'La Jia,' the 
 place calls itself; and it is excellent for the rais- 
 ing of cattle. My cousin desires to grow sugar- 
 cane, and sell it to the Company's mill at Rio 
 Chico, which is not too far to haul la cana in 
 bull-carts.
 
 THE LANDS OF HAPPINESS 33 
 
 "Bueno! The Company wished to dam the 
 river, to provide water for its mill the river 
 that crosses the land of my cousin, further down 
 the stream. Now, the old deeds forbade the 
 building of a dam. My cousin, as you will recall, 
 owns many cattle and it is necessary that they 
 have water. It seemed quite simple to my cousin. 
 'Buy from me all the cane that I will raise,' he 
 said to the agents of the Company, 'and I will give 
 my consent to the building of the dam.' 
 
 "The agents agreed. My cousin signed the 
 paper that they brought to him. But alas! they 
 signed no paper for him. Always they tell him, 
 'Next year! We cannot grind your cane now. 
 The Company has too much of its own.' 
 
 "Caramba! What was he to do? Like you, 
 he sought an interview with Sefior Marr. And 
 when he met el Ingles, on the steps of his private 
 car, not a word could he say. 
 
 "Senor Marr shook the hand of my cousin. 'I 
 have much pleasure in knowing you,' the great man 
 told him. 'I have heard much about you. I hope 
 you are well. Good-day!' . . . That was all. 
 El presidente went inside his car. Some one closed 
 the door. And my cousin waited by the side of 
 the line. Soon the train started; and to this day
 
 34 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 he has never been able to sell a peso's worth of 
 cane to the Company. 
 
 "Now you go to see that crooked face your- 
 self," old Jose said to Dick. "Do you wonder that 
 I tell you it is useless?" 
 
 But Dick was not to be dissuaded by Don Jose's 
 story. The tale did not dishearten him in the 
 least. He had bade his doubting host a cheery 
 a Dios and hurried away, to cover as much 
 as he could of his long ride while the day was 
 still cool. 
 
 Back at Jose Crispo's shack, as they sat that 
 night on quaint chairs of a sixteenth century pat- 
 tern, covered with cow-skins with the hair still 
 on, Dick recounted the day's experiences. 
 
 "Ahl my friend it is as I expected," the old 
 man said. "It is useless to hope for anything else. 
 The Company is a robber. It comes here and 
 makes a fortune out of our fatherland, while we 
 who have always lived here look on, helpless. A 
 few of us it is true receive money from the 
 Company. But that is only because it needs our 
 labor. We Mexicans are its beasts of burden 
 nothing more." Don Jose stamped upon the dirt 
 floor in a sudden spasm of indignation. But he
 
 THE LANDS OF HAPPINESS 35 
 
 soon grew philosophical again. "I shall spend 
 the rest of my days in this place," he said. "After 
 all, it is a good life. . . ." 
 
 "A good life yes!" Dick agreed. After his 
 grueling day's work he had fortified himself with 
 an excellent meal of rice with chicken and he was 
 now smoking a fat cigar that he had bought at Rio 
 Chico. In the circumstances he was young enough 
 to feel optimistic. "But I haven't given up hope 
 of my railroad yet, Don Jose. As they say in los 
 Estados Unidos, there is more than one way to 
 remove the skin from a cat. If I can't trade with 
 the Company I must find some other means out 
 of the difficulty. ... I see nothing to do but build 
 a railroad of my own." 
 
 The old man shook his head. 
 "Impossible!" he said. 
 
 "Why?" Dick asked him. 
 
 "Senor Marr would never permit it," he de- 
 clared. 
 
 "Nonsense !" Dick exclaimed. "What would he 
 have to say about it?" 
 
 "Much!" was the laconic answer. "He would 
 fight you like three thousand demons." 
 
 Dick laughed. 
 
 "Then there's going to be some scrap around
 
 36 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 these parts, Don Jose. Nobody ever told me that 
 the Monroe Doctrine recognizes any right of a 
 bunch of blooming Britishers to plunder this coun- 
 try. If old Marr thinks so he's mightily mistaken. 
 I'm going to prove to him that he's dead wrong. 
 I'm going to add to his education." , 
 
 But Jose Crispo absorbed none of his guest's 
 enthusiasm. He had lived all his life under the 
 yoke of Mexican misrule. Perhaps he had come 
 to regard oppression as normal to existence. 
 There was simply a change of tyrants that was 
 all.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DISCOVERY 
 
 THERE were certain obstacles in the way of Dick's 
 rash resolve to construct a railroad independently 
 of Julian Marr. Though the eastern boundary of 
 Las Alegrias was scarcely more than six- miles 
 from salt water, there was no available port within 
 so easy a distance. A shallow sound stretched 
 for leagues along the East Coast, across which 
 it would be necessary to lighter cargoes to ves- 
 sels waiting in deep water beyond a barrier of 
 keys. Such a handicap made shipping by that 
 route anything but feasible. Dick's only hope 
 now that the South Eastern Railway no longer 
 figured in his calculations lay in reaching a good 
 harbor. And he knew that there was none nearer 
 than fifty miles. 
 
 He was aware, moreover, that the construction 
 of an independent railroad of that length, together 
 with the equipment required to operate it, would 
 
 37
 
 38 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 necessitate an outlay much greater than would 
 be justified by the volume of business involved. 
 
 He was not so foolish as to suggest such an 
 absurdity to his Northern friends. After his in- 
 terview with Marr, Dick spent days in riding 
 over his property. He cudgeled his brains to de- 
 vise some solution of his problem. The sight of 
 all that timber, ripe for the woodsman's ax, and 
 the knowledge that beneath it lay soil that only 
 waited the opportunity to turn back to the world 
 the energy stored up in it those things exas- 
 perated him. But he could not stay away from 
 Las Alegrias. To sit idly in Jose Crispo's house 
 and merely think, when all his faculties craved ac- 
 tion, was unbearable. 
 
 Now it happened that a corner of Dick's land 
 comprising about a quarter of its total area 
 consisted of a mountainous region. This not only 
 extended for a considerable distance into Jose 
 Crispo's property, but also encroached upon the 
 estate that flanked them both upon the west. 
 
 "It is useless the mountain !" Crispo had often 
 told Dick. And other natives had said the same. 
 Soil that would produce nothing more than light 
 grass and a sparse scattering of stunted trees was 
 manifestly well-nigh sterile. "Look up!" Crispo
 
 THE DISCOVERY 39 
 
 had said. "If you wish to know whether the land 
 be fat, look up not down ! And if you see great 
 trees growing thick about you, by that sign you 
 may know that the earth contains strength to 
 grow the cane. But the mountain puff It is the 
 playground of the devil fit for nothing, unless 
 there be enough forage upon it for cattle. . . . 
 No one ever puts a plow to it." 
 
 Taking his cue from old Crispo, Dick paid 
 scant attention to his uplands. He had looked 
 upon them as being a necessary evil. But at last 
 an impulse seized him one day to see what man- 
 ner of soil underlay the surface of that unfruit- 
 ful eminence. Making a trip to Rio Chico with 
 a led-horse, he returned in due course with the 
 animal laden with picks, shovels, and dynamite. 
 And then, with the assistance of two country- 
 men whom he hired, he set about his investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 In a short time they had blasted a dozen big 
 holes. In his enthusiasm Dick seized a shovel 
 himself and proceeded to make the yawning pits 
 deeper. He had dug only a few minutes before 
 he completely forgot the fact that he was swelter- 
 ing under the tropical sun. The sweat trickled 
 into his eyes and made them smart; but he was
 
 40 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 scarcely aware of the discomfort. He was too 
 intent upon the clay and gravel that he had un- 
 covered. The stuff varied from yellow and brown 
 to a darker shade that was almost black. . 
 
 Not until he had torn half a hundred holes 
 in the surface of the hills did he cease his gopher- 
 like operations. Then he filled a bag with that 
 interesting dirt and rode back to show old Jose 
 what he had found. 
 
 "Look here!" Dick said. He had dumped his 
 treasure upon the floor. "What do you think 
 this is, Don Jose?" 
 
 Jose Crispo looked carelessly at the dirt. He 
 did not deign even to touch it. 
 
 "It is gold?" he said with a smile; and there 
 was a sly twinkle in his eye. 
 
 Dick was too serious to realize that his host 
 was having a small joke at his expense. 
 
 "No not gold!" he exclaimed. "But I'll tell 
 you what I think it is. I think it's iron. It never 
 occurred to you did it that there might be any- 
 thing like that on your despised mountain ? About 
 all the mining one would have to do would be to 
 scoop the stuff up with steam-shovels and drag-
 
 41 
 
 line machines. Such operations are more like 
 railroad grading than anything else. 
 
 "Here's where I leave you for a few days, 
 Senor Millionaire. I'm going to take a sample of 
 this pretty dirt over to the San Cristobal mine 
 and see if they won't let me analyze it in their 
 laboratory. Then we'll know exactly what's 
 what." 
 
 "This is very poor soil," said Don Jose dis- 
 paragingly. "It contains no food for the cane 
 none at all!" 
 
 "Naturally!" Dick agreed cheerfully. "You 
 wouldn't expect to raise crops in an iron mine, 
 would you?" 
 
 The old man merely shrugged his shoulders. 
 He was far from convinced. He had lived all 
 his life in that place and he had always regarded 
 those uplands as an eyesore an excrescence upon 
 the fruitful plain. It was no wonder, then, that 
 Dick's tentative theory lay so far inside the pale 
 of fancy that he could not credit it with even 
 the slightest element of probability. He shook 
 his head; and he looked at Dick somewhat curi- 
 ously. He was aware that men's minds some- 
 times give way under disappointment. He had
 
 42 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 himself known of a Chinese coolie in a neighbor- 
 ing hamlet who collected pods from the alga-oba 
 trees, imagining that they were money. That 
 was after he had risked all his savings in the 
 lottery and lost. Don Jose wondered whether 
 his guest had not taken Marr's decree too much 
 to heart. 
 
 He was not less mystified when Dick set out 
 the very next day for Rio Chico and the rail- 
 road. Natives of the land of manana do not 
 readily understand.such sudden moves; and the old 
 man was inclined to consider his guest a bit loco 
 along with all other gringos, whereas he had 
 previously believed him to be an exception to the 
 rule. And to fill his saddle-bags with earth from 
 that miserable mountain! That, surely, was the 
 act of a madman 1 
 
 Five days later there were two crazy gringos 
 housed in Jose Crispo's palm-thatched hut, for 
 Dick had brought an engineer back with him from 
 the San Cristobal mine. Before sending his re- 
 port north he wanted to be positive that he was 
 not mistaken. He intended to back up his letter 
 with the opinion of a creditable mining engineer.
 
 THE DISCOVERY 43 
 
 In his own mind, however, there remained virtu- 
 ally no doubt as to the extent of the deposit, or 
 its richness. The samples that he had assayed 
 at the mine showed over forty-seven per cent, of 
 iron. And so far as Dick's investigation had gone, 
 he judged the deposit to cover some twenty-five 
 to thirty square miles, extending over his own 
 and Crispo's properties, as well as that other 
 that lay to the south of theirs. 
 
 When Russel, the mining expert, substantially 
 verified Dick's estimate of the situation, adding 
 to it his opinion that the ore reached an average 
 depth approximating seventeen feet, old Jose be- 
 came almost loco himself. Skeptical as he had 
 been, nevertheless he had hovered about while 
 they made their examination of the uplands. And 
 in the end he was convinced. 
 
 "I will sell my land to your company," he told 
 Dick. "Pay me a fair price that is all I ask." 
 And he immediately resolved to ride to Rio Chico 
 "manana" and buy a new, soft-padded saddle 
 on the strength of his prospects. 
 
 Under the circumstances Dick thought it the 
 part of wisdom to swear the old fellow to secrecy. 
 
 Jose assured him that even the point of a knife
 
 44 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 at his throat would not make him disclose their 
 secret. "Yes yes!" he promised. "Naturally I 
 will say nothing. I will tell no one no one." 
 
 "What about that tract next us?" Dick asked 
 him. "Who owns it? It's become valuable, you 
 know." Hitherto he had paid scant attention to 
 that neighboring section. Don Jose had told him 
 when he first rode over his own property that it 
 contained much savannah unfertile, sparsely 
 wooded plain. 
 
 Jose Crispo looked a bit crestfallen. The 
 question apparently troubled him. 
 
 "That," he said apologetically, "that is the land 
 of Senor Marr and another gentleman who lived 
 in Nueva York. He has died, it is now two or 
 three years since that other I have been told." 
 
 "Thunder!" exclaimed Dick, turning to Russel, 
 whom he had come to know well. "That com- 
 plicates things, doesn't it?" He was not at all 
 pleased at the news. "I don't want any Marr 
 mixed up in this deal," he commented. 
 
 Pressed for details, Don Jose related how a 
 smooth-tongued Yankee had inveigled Marr into 
 buying the place it had been an old cattle-ranch, 
 known as "Aguacate." 
 
 "That was before Senor Marr knew much of
 
 THE DISCOVERY 45 
 
 Mexico," Crispo explained. "The Yankee told 
 him it was an excellent property. And for once 
 he made a bad bargain. There is too much savan- 
 nah on the finca and of cane land, almost none. 
 
 ''But Serior Marr, as you may guess, is no man 
 to keep a bad bargain to himself. He invited a 
 party of rich Americans to visit Mexico with him. 
 And before they left, one of them had become a 
 half-owner of Aguacate. The gentleman never 
 saw the property. But it was, naturally, an op- 
 portunity such as comes to one but once in a life- 
 time to enter into a partnership with a great man 
 like Senor Marr." Jose Crispo laughed grimly. 
 "I have often wished that I could find a rich 
 Yanqui to buy half of my finca," he said. 
 
 "You're lucky you never got your wish," Dick 
 told him. "I'm going to put this proposition up 
 to the De Boer people I used to work for them. 
 It's the sort of thing they're always on the look- 
 out for. And I know they'll want the whole mine, 
 if they want any of it. ... They can have my 
 holdings; and I'll take shares in their company." 
 
 "I want no shares," Jose Crispo said. "Gold 
 is better for me. I wish to have no worries. If 
 they will buy my land I shall go to Mexico City 
 to live."
 
 46 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Three weeks of feverish uncertainty served to 
 set even Dick's usually steady nerves on edge. For 
 several days he had waited at Rio Chico, where 
 he haunted the postoffice after the arrival of each 
 train. 
 
 And at last the letter came. 
 
 "Get an option on Marr's property, as well as 
 on your Mexican friend's" it was Thomas De 
 Boer himself who had dictated the answer to 
 Dick's proposal. "We are placing funds to your 
 order in the Territorial Bank in Mexico City. . . . 
 Once you have things sewed up, let us know and 
 we will get busy at this end. . . ." 
 
 After all, it was no wonder that the letter caused 
 Dick no small amount of gratification. The knowl- 
 edge that his old employer placed such implicit 
 confidence in him went far to erase from Dick's 
 memory the discontent of those restless years he 
 had spent in the service of the De Boer Explora- 
 tion Company. 
 
 "An option on Marr's property!" Dick laughed 
 aloud as he re-read his letter. That ought to be 
 easy, he thought, since the old boy has always 
 considered himself stung. 
 
 That night Mr. Richard Bristow boarded the 
 train for San Miguel, the capital of the State,
 
 THE DISCOVERY 4 ? 
 
 where Julian Marr's land commissioner lived. 
 His business with the polite Castilian lawyer 
 caused that worthy gentleman some difficulty in 
 restraining a smile, when Dick explained his er- 
 rand. 
 
 So the senor desired to add to his estate? 
 Estd bien! Aguacate was an excellent farm. 
 Senor Cisneros (that was the land commissioner's 
 name) was not at all sure that Senor Marr would 
 wish to sell. However, one could never foretell 
 those things. He would write el presidente about 
 the matter. And having stipulated what he con- 
 sidered an exorbitant price for the property, Senor 
 Cisneros bowed Dick out of his office with much 
 ceremony. 
 
 More waiting followed for Dick. But in the 
 course of time he found himself in possession of 
 a formidable looking document which bore the 
 signatures of Julian Marr and one Janet Ashley. 
 The contract provided that in consideration of one 
 thousand dollars, American money, duly paid in 
 hand, "the said Richard Bristow" was granted, 
 for one year, the option of purchasing the tract 
 known as Aguacate for the further sum of sixty- 
 nine thousand dollars. 
 
 Dick looked curiously at the angular feminine
 
 48 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 signature beneath Marr's uncompromising auto- 
 graph. He imagined Janet Ashley to be the 
 widow of Jose Crispo's "gentleman from Nueva 
 York," whom Marr's friendship had cost the tidy 
 little sum of twenty-five thousand dollars accord- 
 ing to creditable rumor. Well ! the widow was to 
 reap a profit on the transaction at last though 
 such an outcome had been far from Marr's 
 thoughts when he unloaded half of his supposedly 
 worthless tract upon an unsuspecting guest. 
 
 That day Dick sent a cable message to the De 
 Boer Exploration Company. He was discreet 
 enough to phrase it in cipher, since all telegrams 
 necessarily passed through the hands of Marr's 
 railroad despatchers. Translated, the message 
 conveyed this news: 
 
 "Have year's option on both properties. 
 Awaiting further instructions." 
 
 The reply that his cablegram elicited caused Mr. 
 Bristow unlimited satisfaction: 
 
 "Party for preliminary survey leaves the 
 twentieth. Meet me Vera Cruz, Hotel Sevilla, 
 Saturday week. 
 
 "T. De Boer."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 
 
 AMONG the various invitations that the morning's 
 mail brought to her, there was one, bearing an 
 English postmark, that held forth to Janet Ashley 
 the unusual charm of novelty. She had been 
 obliged, of late, to confess to herself that now that 
 she was three seasons past the debutante age there 
 had come to be an inevitable sameness about all 
 society functions. The cut and dried regularity of 
 dinners and dances had long since palled upon her. 
 She longed for the time when some one should 
 say something original, or daring or at least not 
 absolutely correct. 
 
 The afternoon before, a traffic policeman brow- 
 beating a truculent cabby had given her a glimpse 
 of the primitive that made her wish more than 
 ever to escape to some place where the conven- 
 tionalities had not throttled the more sturdy at- 
 tributes that she missed in the men she knew. They 
 
 49
 
 50 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 were gentlemen it is true but were they virile ? 
 Perhaps Janet's answer to the question might be 
 sufficiently deduced from her persistence in re- 
 maining a maiden. 
 
 There was an appeal in the letter she was read- 
 ing that made her decide instantly to accept the 
 invitation it contained: 
 
 "WINCHESTER, HANTS. 
 "Dear Janet: 
 
 "It is an age since I have seen you. But 
 at last I am coming to your delightful 
 America again. Father has consented (after 
 much urging) to take me to New York with 
 him. We are going thence to Mexico, and 
 he has told me that I may invite any guests 
 I please to have a holiday with us. Of 
 course I've never thought of any one but you. 
 You and your aunt must join us. We shall 
 leave New York late next month and I am 
 counting on having you with me. 
 
 "As ever, cordially yours, 
 
 "SYLVIA MARK." 
 
 It was two years since Janet and Julian Marr's 
 attractive daughter had spent a month together
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 51 
 
 on the Riviera. Mr. Ashley, through his banking 
 operations, had become well acquainted with the 
 famous Englishman; and when the two girls 
 chanced to meet they had at once struck up a close 
 friendship. 
 
 Not only did Janet look forward to seeing 
 Sylvia Marr again. To one in her frame of mind 
 the thought of a trip to Mexico was alluring, to 
 say the least. Sylvia had told her something of 
 the wildness of that country, for the English girl 
 had seen many things there that escape the casual 
 tourist. Janet knew that Mexico boasted its 
 bandits and its revolutions; she remembered that 
 men went armed there outside the cities and 
 that it was, in effect, a pioneer's country. She 
 was sure that she wanted to go there. 
 
 It was not difficult for Janet to persuade her 
 aunt to her way of thinking. Miss Anne Browning 
 was ever an indulgent relation. There was noth- 
 ing she would not do for her niece, bereft as she 
 was of both parents. 
 
 "I'll be glad to go with you, my dear," the good 
 lady said. "Your poor father once went to Mexico 
 with Mr. Marr, you remember." 
 
 "Yes, Aunt !" Janet replied. "And they bought 
 some land together. Mr. Marr and I own it
 
 5 2 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 jointly now so Mr. Miles tells me. He brought 
 me some sort of paper regarding it which I had 
 to sign not long ago. . . ." 
 
 When the doughty president of the South East- 
 ern Railway Company reached New York he 
 suddenly changed his plans. His daughter to- 
 gether with Janet Ashley and her aunt he packed 
 unceremoniously aboard a steamer, under the care 
 of his valet. As for himself, he expected to go 
 to Washington. He had heard an interesting 
 rumor to the effect that a project for a new rail- 
 road was under way a railroad intended to en- 
 croach upon what he had come to consider much 
 in the nature of his own private preserves. 
 
 Now, Julian Marr had certain plans stored 
 away in the back of his head concerning the ul- 
 timate expansion of the South Eastern Railway, 
 and he was of no mind to look on idly while 
 some one else filched good concessions from under 
 his very nose. There was, as he well knew, more 
 than one way to spike a gun of that sort. The 
 thing could be accomplished, often, by enlisting 
 for a consideration the services of certain Mexi- 
 can legislators. There was, at the same time, the 
 cheaper (and possibly surer) method of protest-
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 53 
 
 ing to the government at Washington, which, in 
 its exercise of an assumed friendship for its turbu- 
 lent neighbor to the southward, had on occasion 
 caused Julian Marr's way to be made smooth for 
 him. It had been a shrewd business stroke of 
 Marr's to persuade various Wall Street gentlemen 
 to invest in his Mexican securities. Their inter- 
 ests as he always pointed out to the Washington 
 authorities must be jealously safeguarded. 
 
 "I'll join you before a great while," he told the 
 ladies. "Meantime do anything you like ; go any- 
 where you please where it's safe. I cabled Far- 
 rand to-day he's my manager at Rio Chico to 
 meet you when you land. Make him show you 
 about. The beggar's getting fat. He needs 
 work." 
 
 "Work !" Sylvia Marr exclaimed with mock dis- 
 pleasure. "Will you never learn to be compli- 
 mentary, Father? Most men would consider it 
 a pleasure, I'm sure, to take charge of our party 
 especially with Janet a member of it." 
 
 "Oh ! You'll both do, I dare say," he admitted, 
 as he kissed his daughter good-by. Secretly he 
 was immensely proud of her, as he had good rea- 
 son to be. Perhaps he even wondered, some- 
 times, as did so many others, how the fair, tall
 
 54 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 girl, with the hands and feet of a patrician and 
 the thin, high-bridged Norman nose, could have 
 sprung from so burly a sire as he. 
 
 Marr did not tarry until sailing-time. He was 
 not of the type that waits gracefully for anything. 
 Before an hour had passed, when the ship swung 
 slowly out of her berth, he was already on his 
 way to Washington. 
 
 Wade Farrand was not at all averse to playing 
 courier to a party that numbered two pretty girls 
 among its members. The lack of feminine so- 
 ciety was one of the drawbacks of a life such as 
 he led. To be sure, in his own discreet way he 
 found compensations for the absence of womanly 
 companionship. At Rio Chico there was a certain 
 dark eyed muchacha Rosita by name but Far- 
 rand's position, as manager, made such diversions 
 a bit difficult. An official of his authority had to 
 make a pretense of preserving the conventions. 
 
 Farrand had previously become acquainted with 
 Sylvia Marr, during former visits of hers to 
 Mexico. He had found her both attractive and in- 
 telligent. But he was not insensible of the social 
 gap that separated them. Julian Marr's daughter 
 would some day marry a title, and a desirable one,
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 55 
 
 too no shoddy, broken-down fortune-hunter such 
 as seek American brides with rich papas. It hap- 
 pened as a matter of course that Wade Farrand's 
 attitude toward her always remained both defer- 
 ential and wary. He never forgot that her father 
 had made him what he was; nor that it lay in 
 Marr's power to set him down again among the 
 common herd of clerks whence the great man had 
 rescued him. 
 
 But Farrand was able to meet Miss Marr's 
 friend upon an entirely different footing. As a 
 New York girl, Janet Ashley need not necessarily 
 regard him as an inferior. Indeed, she knew 
 plenty of men who had risen from no loftier be- 
 ginnings than Farrand's. 
 
 It was natural, then, that Farrand's manner 
 toward the two girls should be nicely adjusted to 
 suit different requirements. He was quite ready 
 to embark upon a flirtation with Miss Janet 
 Ashley, and to continue the pleasant voyage just 
 as far as that young lady should permit. But only 
 a flirtation. Farrand was deep enough in Julian 
 Marr's confidence to know that the Ashley fortune 
 was of decidedly modest proportions that Janet's 
 father had made none too wise investments with 
 the inheritance which his great-grandfather had
 
 5 6 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 founded by the judicious purchase of Manhattan 
 real estate. And Wade Farrand was a practical 
 man. Regarding marriage as a burdensome tie 
 that no man can decently escape forever, he was 
 resolved when the fatal bells rang for him that 
 his bride should bring him a compensation worth 
 while. What he knew concerning the deceased 
 Ashley's venture in Mexican lands was enough 
 to make him sufficiently cautious in playing with 
 his daughter. But that was no reason why Far- 
 rand should not amuse himself. 
 
 Dick Bristow was on his way back to Rio Chico. 
 A slap on the shoulder roused him from the 
 book he was reading a handbook on iron ores 
 which Mr. De Boer had given him the previous 
 day in Vera Cruz. 
 
 "Hello, old man!" somebody said. 
 
 Dick was not overpleased when he looked up 
 and saw Wade Farrand leaning over the back of 
 his seat. 
 
 "I'm looking for some one to make up a table 
 at bridge," Farrand told him. "You're just the 
 man. I know you play." It was not everybody 
 whom he could introduce to Julian Marr's 
 daughter. In fact, as he walked through the train
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 57 
 
 he had already passed over several of his ac- 
 quaintances as unsuited to his present require- 
 ments. But Bristow was in every way eligible. 
 Farrand knew he was a gentleman. 
 
 When Farrand explained the situation Dick 
 could not decently refuse him, though he had no 
 desire to meet another member of the Marr fam- 
 ily. One experience had been enough for him. 
 However, he faced his martyrdom cheerfully. 
 
 His courtesy was not without its reward. If 
 he was agreeably surprised in Julian Marr's 
 daughter, whom he had pictured to himself as a 
 dumpy spinster of uncertain age, he found in her 
 companion, Miss Ashley, a girl after his own 
 heart. For one thing, she was an American; and 
 he was loyal enough to his native land to think 
 its women the finest in the world. Moreover, 
 Janet was uncommonly attractive. The black of 
 her trim suit served to give added accent to the 
 suggestion of red in her hair, holding aloof from 
 it as if that mass of color belonged to a gay world 
 of its own into which it was forbidden that any- 
 thing else except glints of sunshine should enter. 
 To Dick, long accustomed to Mexican swarthiness, 
 her skin seemed unbelievably white, save for the 
 rose of her cheeks. It is true, her slightly up-
 
 5 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 turned nose might have caused the captious to con- 
 sider that her features fell short of the promise of 
 her coloring. But Dick was at once of the opinion 
 that she would most decidedly "do." And the 
 more he looked into her dancing clue eyes the 
 surer he was that her like was not to be found, ex- 
 cept by accident, outside her natural habitat the 
 States. It did him a world of good to meet a 
 lively American girl again. 
 
 The noble pastime of bridge progressed fa- 
 mously. And after they had played enough rub- 
 bers to satisfy even the two feminine devotees of 
 the game Dick still lingered there. He forgot 
 his dislike of Farrand in his enjoyment of that 
 taste of civilization. 
 
 "This has been a real treat for me," he said, 
 when he felt that he could not decently remain with 
 the party any longer. 
 
 They protested against his going. 
 
 "We shall hope to see you again," Sylvia Marr 
 told him cordially. 
 
 "Oh, yes!" Janet echoed. "You and I really 
 ought to know each other better, Mr. Bristow. 
 You're not the only one present who owns a Mex- 
 ican plantation. I have one or part of one 
 myself." Janet's notion of her property was de-
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 59 
 
 cidedly hazy. All details of her business affairs 
 she left to the attention of Mr. Miles, the man- 
 ager of her estate. 
 
 Wade Farrand smiled quizzically. 
 
 "You two ought to become better acquainted, to 
 be sure," he said. "You're neighbors and never 
 knew it. ... That land, Miss Ashley yours and 
 Mr. Marr's lies right alongside Mr. Bristow's." 
 
 Janet was not the only one whom Farrand' s 
 statement surprised. So obsessed had Dick been 
 by his preconception of the joint owner, with 
 Marr, of the land on which he had an option, that 
 he had never once suspected Miss Ashley's iden- 
 tity. He had, indeed, almost forgotten that other 
 signature upon the contract he held, overshadowed 
 as it had been by Marr's pervasive personality. 
 ... So this was the Janet Ashley who was a half- 
 owner of Aguacate ! He murmured something in- 
 tended to convey his pleasure over the circum- 
 stance. And so he left them. 
 
 The news set a new aspect upon the situation. 
 Dick did not pick up his book again when he 
 reached his seat a few cars ahead. There was 
 something that troubled him something that had 
 not hitherto entered his mind. He knew that the 
 land that he purposed buying for the De Boer Ex-
 
 60 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 ploration Company was worth vastly more than 
 the sum agreed upon. The thought of getting the 
 better of Julian Marr had never bothered his con- 
 science. And as for that unknown Janet Ashley, 
 the co-signer with Marr, so far as Dick consid- 
 ered her interests at all, it had merely impressed 
 him in a hazy way that the supposititious widow 
 was at last to recover what her husband had sunk 
 in the property, with the addition of a very fair 
 profit on the investment. 
 
 But now all that was altered. Dick saw the 
 transaction in an entirely different light. It was 
 not that he had experienced any change of heart 
 concerning Marr. He had no misgivings regard- 
 ing that latter-day buccaneer, who had been ready 
 enough to make him walk the plank in a finan- 
 cial sense. But now Dick shrank from including 
 Miss Ashley in what seemed to him so far as it 
 affected her a particularly raw deal. This was a 
 contingency he had not expected. And he could 
 not see any decent way out of it that would not 
 be ruinous to the whole enterprise on which he 
 had embarked. 
 
 For a long time he sat there, looking out of 
 the window. But his unseeing eyes took little heed 
 of the scenes that flickered past his vision, like pic-
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 6*' 
 
 tures upon a screen. Canefields, piles of great 
 logs hauled up to some siding where they awaited 
 shipment, cattle browsing on a savannah Dick 
 saw nothing of such sights. 
 
 He knew that he was no angel. But there were 
 some things he did not care to do. This project 
 of his had all at once assumed a phase that he did 
 not like at all. Robbing an unprotected girl was 
 a little more than he had bargained for. It 
 savored too much of chicanery to suit Dick's no^ 
 tions of right and wrong. ... It was too much 
 like stealing pennies out of a blind beggar's hat. 
 
 "My dear boy," Thomas De Boer said when 
 Dick explained his dilemma, "we are committed to 
 this thing, lock, stock, and barrel. There's abso- 
 lutely nothing to do but go ahead." 
 
 Dick had reappeared in Vera Cruz a few days 
 after that momentous bridge party upon the train, 
 to tell his predicament to "the chief," who still re- 
 mained in the Mexican port in the interest of his 
 railroad lobby. 
 
 "I don't like it, nevertheless," Dick told him 
 gloomily. 
 
 "Of course you don't," De Boer said. "But 
 you've got to see the thing through, just the same.
 
 62 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 If it's any consolation to you, I don't mind telling 
 you that I've run across pleasanter situations my- 
 self. But business is business. You can't mix it 
 with sentiment and be successful. Look here !" he 
 cried suddenly. "How much would this young 
 lady ever have realized from her holdings if it 
 hadn't been for you? If you hadn't been enter- 
 prising enough to tear a few holes in that moun- 
 tain she would probably have died of senility be- 
 fore anybody else ever discovered iron on her 
 property. . . . Come ! You ought to take a prac- 
 tical view of the case. Here we are with our stage 
 all set for our show ! You don't intend to ring the 
 final curtain down on the prologue, I hope?" 
 
 Torn between two conflicting obligations for 
 so he regarded his duty to the De Boer Company 
 and to Janet Dick could not help casting about 
 for some compromise that would give the girl 
 what he considered to be her just due, and at the 
 same time would work no hardship for his old 
 employers. There he sat, silent, steadfastly star- 
 ing at the older man with enigmatic eyes. 
 
 Meanwhile Thomas De Boer grew more uneasy 
 than ever as he waited for Dick to speak. He 
 sprang up from his chair and began pacing the 
 floor of his hotel room.
 
 A GAME OF CARDS 63 
 
 "Look here, Dick!" he said earnestly, "do you 
 fully realize what's involved in the undertaking? 
 What with making a survey, hiring title experts, 
 as well as other Mexican lawyers to get our fran- 
 chise jammed through to say nothing of my own 
 time and our option money we've already blown 
 in a good many thousand dollars on this deal. 
 Now, I want to know what you intend to do. I 
 want you to promise " 
 
 "Wait a moment, Mr. De Boer!" Dick inter- 
 rupted, galvanized into speech at last. "Did you 
 ever know me to go back on my word?" 
 
 Thomas De Boer paused in his nervous quick- 
 step and leaned upon the table. 
 
 "No!" he cried. "No! And that's just what 
 puzzles me when you begin to back water on this 
 scheme." 
 
 "I'm not backing water!" Dick replied indig- 
 nantly. "All I want to do is to play fair. I don't 
 want to make my fortune by robbing a woman." 
 
 "Nonsense!" the other cried. "Be sensible! I 
 tell you, we're doing this lady a good turn. We're 
 going to put pin-money into her pocket to the 
 extent of thirty-five thousand dollars. It's the 
 same as finding it in the gutter, for her." He 
 gripped Dick's sturdy shoulder with his own mus-
 
 64 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 cular hand. "I want you to forget this foolish- 
 ness, boy!" he pleaded. 
 
 "Oh! I'll stick!" Dick said ruefully. "You 
 ought to know me well enough not to doubt that." 
 
 De Boer gave him a resounding slap on the back 
 then. 
 
 "That's the stuff !" he exclaimed, with manifest 
 relief. "But you had me worried for fair. . . . 
 Now you get back on the job at once and quit 
 mulling this thing over. The South Eastern Rail- 
 way crowd haven't thoroughly tumbled to our 
 game yet. But they're bound to sooner or later. 
 And when they do there'll be the devil to pay. 
 They'll fight our franchise tooth and nail." 
 
 So Dick went back to Las Alegrias. But he was 
 still far from satisfied. To be sure, he intended 
 to stand by the De Boer outfit to the last ditch. 
 But the thought of Janet Ashley still filled him 
 with misgivings. He felt that in some way he 
 must square himself with her and with his con- 
 science.
 
 CHAPTER ^ 
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 
 
 JANET had found the Mexico she had dreamed 
 of. Outside the great mill, bull-teams hauled 
 enormous, primitive, two-wheeled carts laden with 
 sugar-cane, while here and there big-hatted na- 
 tives were usually to be seen, with revolver and 
 machete swinging at their sides, mounted on 
 rangy, soft-gaited horses of unmistakable Barb an- 
 cestry. And on every side stretched fields of wav- 
 ing cane, which stopped abruptly before the un- 
 subdued tangle of the forest. At night wild dogs 
 came prowling out of the bush and yapped a sav- 
 age chorus. Tales of wealthy planters being kid- 
 naped and held for ransom were not infrequent. 
 And it was a dull week that did not furnish its 
 stabbing affray or its shooting. To Janet the 
 day's happenings seemed like some drama of en- 
 chantment, destined to be enacted forever upon 
 the same light-flooded stage, with only the intcr- 
 
 65
 
 66 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 lude of a balmy, star-studded night to draw a cur- 
 tain over the romance that the morrow always 
 continued. 
 
 On horseback, with Sylvia Marr and Farrand, 
 Janet explored the country for miles around, some- 
 times in the cool of dawn, or again in the late 
 afternoon, when the sun was low. And it never 
 bored her to sit quietly under the shade of Far- 
 rand's piazza and look out upon the royal palms, 
 the great fronds of which were forever moving in 
 fascinating undulations under the mild winds that 
 continually swept inland from the sea. 
 
 Sylvia Marr and her guests had been at Rio 
 Chico for some three weeks, and her father had 
 not yet joined them. She was expecting him daily. 
 But during the time that had elapsed since he bade 
 his daughter good-by upon the steamer Marr had 
 acquired certain information that caused him to 
 delay still further his departure from the States. 
 
 One day Janet received a letter from Mr. Miles, 
 who had charge of her business affairs, which 
 though she did not know it had resulted directly 
 from Julian Marr's investigations. Janet read 
 the communication with greater interest than she 
 was wont, in the past, to display toward Mr. 
 (Miles' letters:
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 67 
 
 "My dear Miss Ashley: 
 
 "Since your departure from town I have 
 been honored by a call from Mr. Julian 
 Marr, who came to consult me regarding 
 that Mexican land that you and he own 
 jointly. It appears that the option on it that 
 we granted some time ago was obtained by 
 promoters who intended building a railroad 
 through the section where your land lies. It 
 has apparently been the intention of those 
 promoters not to exercise their option until 
 they obtained the franchise for their railroad. 
 I will say that Mr. Marr has given me most 
 creditable assurance that the road will never 
 be built. It will follow, therefore, that the 
 holder of the option will permit it to lapse, 
 and we should then be in exactly the same 
 predicament as before, regarding the tract. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Marr is kind enough to offer 
 to take over your interest in the property at 
 the figure your father paid for it. He says 
 that inasmuch as his own railroad develop- 
 ment has taken place in a direction other than 
 that contemplated at the time your father ac- 
 quired his half of the tract he naturally feels 
 that it is only right that he should relieve you
 
 68 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 of the burden of carrying it any longer. In 
 view of the circumstances I strongly advise 
 you to accept Mr. Marr's generous offer. 
 Will you therefore kindly sign the enclosed 
 document in order that I may complete the 
 transaction ? 
 
 "Awaiting your early reply, with enclosure, 
 I am, 
 
 "Respectfully yours, 
 "JOHN RANDOLPH MILES." 
 
 A few weeks earlier Janet would have set her 
 signature without hesitation upon any legal instru- 
 ment that Mr. Miles might have asked her to 
 execute. But now a change had come over her. 
 Her stay, brief as it had been, in the midst of all 
 that bustling enterprise, where the clank of the 
 mill's rollers scarcely ever ceased, had awakened 
 in her a desire to be something more than a mere 
 puppet in the management of her own business 
 affairs. In New York she had hardly given a 
 thought to her Mexican holdings. She had 
 scarcely known that she had granted any one an 
 option on the place. But now her interest in it 
 was roused. She had even wished to visit that 
 estate called Aguacate, which not even her father
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 69 
 
 had ever seen. But Wade Farrand had told her 
 that the journey was impracticable for a woman. 
 
 Janet re-read her letter. She was not at all 
 sure that she wished to relinquish her claim upon 
 a single square foot of that alluring land of 
 promise. She wished passionately that she were a 
 man. Then she might have jumped upon a horse 
 and ridden away to join Bristow, and investigate 
 Aguacate herself. But she was a mere woman 
 she sighed over the disappointing fact. There 
 was one consolation, however. She felt that pos- 
 sibly Bristow's advice was worth having; and if 
 Mahomet could not go to the mountain, the moun- 
 tain, fortunately, could come to Mahomet. 
 
 Shortly afterward Mr. Bristow accepted an in- 
 vitation to spend a holiday at Rio Chico. And 
 meanwhile Janet put her letter carefully away. 
 She decided to let Mr. Miles wait for his answer 
 until she should have had an opportunity to talk 
 with Dick Bristow. She thought that as the owner 
 of land adjoining hers he could no doubt give her 
 information worth listening to. 
 
 In a foreign land fellow-countrymen form rapid 
 friendships. And during his short visit at Rio 
 Chico Bristow and Janet soon arrived at a basis
 
 70 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 of acquaintance that would have been possible, in 
 New York, only after the lapse of many months. 
 
 As luck had it, a breakdown in the factory on 
 the day following Dick's arrival kept Farrand 
 busy. It was then that Janet suggested a ride to 
 the guest. Sylvia Marr pleaded some excuse for 
 not joining them. Women are more subtle than 
 men in such matters, and Sylvia divined the fact 
 that Janet wished to be alone with Mr. Bristow. 
 
 As for Dick himself, no one would have been 
 more astonished than he to know that Miss Ashley 
 was maneuvering to have a talk with him pri- 
 vately. Unsuspecting, he rode off with her, on a 
 trail that led them along the river and far away 
 from any but some countryman who might be 
 passing on his way to or from the town. 
 
 "Tell me," Janet said at last, u tell me what 
 you know about Aguacate. It's near you, you 
 remember. Mr. Farrand told us that in the 
 train." 
 
 "What I know about it!" Dick echoed, with 
 sudden misgiving. 
 
 She nodded vigorously and smiled encourage- 
 ment at him. 
 
 "Yes ! All you know about it !" 
 
 Poor Dick upbraided himself for having put
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 71 
 
 himself into so uncomfortable a position. All he 
 knew about that iron-laden mountain ! That was 
 the last thing in the world that he wanted to or 
 could talk about. 
 
 "Why why " he stammered, "I've never 
 
 ridden over the whole property. It's not unlike 
 most other big tracts, in some respects. There's 
 some good and some poor land upon it." 
 
 "Is it worth my while to keep my interest in it?" 
 she asked him, quite oblivious of the consterna- 
 tion she had created in her companion. 
 
 "Keep it?" Dick said. "How can you? You've 
 signed away an option on the property, along with 
 Mr. Marr." 
 
 "Oh! You know about that, then?" she said 
 quickly. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "Well, I'm told that Aguacate will never be sold 
 in that way," she said. "Here's a letter," she 
 continued, holding an envelope out to Dick. "I 
 wish you would read it and tell me just what you 
 think." 
 
 He could not decently refuse to take the letter 
 from her. 
 
 "I ought not to open this," he objected. 
 "Really, I I'd much rather not. I don't want to
 
 72 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 be disobliging, but I'm not sure you ought to let me 
 see this," he said. 
 
 "Why not?" Janet demanded. "You're an 
 honest man, I'm sure and my friend." 
 
 "Yes, I'm both I hope," Dick said. "But be- 
 fore I look at this letter I want to ask you a ques- 
 tion. . . . Do you know who I am?" 
 
 Miss Ashley gave a merry laugh at that. 
 
 "Why, yes!" she exclaimed. "You're Mr. 
 Richard Bristow famous crew-man, gentleman- 
 adventurer, succorer of ladies in distress, gal- 
 lant " 
 
 "No, no!" Dick interrupted. "Be serious, 
 please!" 
 
 "Oh ! I suppose, then, that you're an escaped 
 moving-picture actor, perhaps; or maybe you're 
 searching for buried treasure. They tell me 
 there's pirate gold hidden over much of this lo- 
 cality." 
 
 "I'm sorry to disappoint you," Dick told her, 
 experiencing another qualm when she spoke of 
 buried treasure. That was a random shot that 
 came too close to the mark. "I'm sorry," he said, 
 "but I'm neither the one thing nor the other. . . . 
 I didn't mean to make a man of mystery of myself 
 when I asked you that question. ... I say, Miss
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 73 
 
 Ashley! Do you know who holds the option on 
 that property of yours?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "Behold the guilty man !" Dick said gloomily. 
 
 "How delightful !" Janet laughed. "To tell the 
 truth, I'm sure I never read the paper that Mr. 
 Miles he's my lawyer asked me to sign. Why, 
 it seems to me you're the very best person in the 
 world for me to consult about that letter. . . ^ 
 Read it, Sir Knight! I command thee!" 
 
 Dick scanned the letter then. The thing was 
 as clear as day to him. Marr intended to divert 
 ten thousand dollars from Miss Ashley's pocket 
 into his own. After buying her interest, he ex- 
 pected to sell the whole property to Dick and clear 
 twenty thousand dollars on the deal. And after 
 that he purposed blocking Dick's plans for a rail- 
 road. News of Marr's counter move had, as a 
 matter of fact, already reached Dick through De 
 Boer's agents. 
 
 "Why did you want me to read this?" he asked 
 her when he had finished. 
 
 "Because I wish to know if I ought to sell now," 
 she explained. "Of course, you understand that I 
 trust Mr. Miles absolutely. It's simply that I don't 
 like being led about by the nose, just because I'm
 
 74 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 a woman. I don't care to sign a paper merely 
 because some man makes a pencil cross at the end 
 of a document and writes 'Sign here !' beside it. 
 I want you to tell me what I had better do," she 
 added, since he still remained silent. 
 
 "I can't advise you," Dick said shortly. "I can 
 Only say that I intend to buy Aguacate, notwith- 
 standing the prophecy Mr. Marr has made to your 
 attorney. My plans do hinge upon a railroad be- 
 ing built I won't deny that. And I don't doubt 
 that Mr. Marr intends to block the new road. He 
 doesn't think we can ever put it through and I 
 do! It's a fight, you see. 
 
 "Now, that's all I can say. You know the facts 
 so far as I am able to tell them. And if you 
 insist on taking the matter out of your lawyer's 
 hands you ought to base your decision on what- 
 ever you think is likely to happen. It's Mr. 
 Marr's judgment against mine. And I warn you 
 that ninety-nine people out of a hundred would 
 back Julian Marr. He has a reputation, you 
 know. And I haven't." 
 
 Janet had listened eagerly to Dick's terse re- 
 cital. The situation electrified her. She per- 
 ceived, in a flash of understanding, the fight that 
 was imminent between her new friend and Sylvia's
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 75 
 
 father the struggle for mastery which always 
 attends any great undertaking. And the thought 
 that her own interests were involved in that con- 
 test fired her with a passionate desire to stay as 
 near the scrimmage as she could get. 
 
 "It's what you would call a sporting chance, isn't 
 it?" she asked breathlessly. 
 
 Dick nodded grimly. 
 
 Instinctively her sympathy went out to him. She 
 knew that Julian Marr was one of the world's 
 great geniuses. He was a sort of superman, with 
 a quality of mind such as the gods bestow only 
 upon two or three in a generation. He seemed to 
 have all information stored in his big brain, ready 
 for instant use ; he had acquired vast wealth ; and 
 he possessed the faculty of persuading other men 
 of immense fortunes to share his colossal ven- 
 tures; he was a man of imagination his stu- 
 pendous, world-wide accomplishments testified to 
 that fact; and he had the invaluable asset of being 
 able to harness initiative and action to his imagi- 
 native traits. It was no wonder that men fell un- 
 der his spell. Janet was not surprised that her 
 own father had been swayed by his powerful per- 
 sonality. 
 
 And yet she sympathized with Dick with
 
 76 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Dick, whose wings were as yet virtually untested. 
 Perhaps her sympathy was of the under-dog vari- 
 ety the sort that goes out from noble hearts to 
 the valiant weak battling against the strong. At 
 all events, Janet knew that she wanted Dick to 
 win. 
 
 "It's a sporting chancel" she repeated. 
 
 "A hundred-to-one shot !" Dick said. 
 
 She looked at him, almost tenderly, with eyes 
 that changed from softness to a blue blaze as she 
 cried passionately : 
 
 "I'll not sell! I believe you're going to win! 
 . . . You must win !" she told him fiercely. 
 
 Dick grasped the hand she held out to him. 
 There was no mawkish sentimentality in the ac- 
 tion. It was simply that their young hearts 
 reached out to each other in a fleeting moment of 
 mutual understanding. 
 
 "Thank you!" he said. And there was grati- 
 tude in his voice and more than that ; for he felt 
 guiltier than ever. And again he promised him- 
 self that he would make restitution to her for 
 every penny that he had schemed albeit unknow- 
 ingly to filch from her. 
 
 A week later Mr. John Randolph Miles, seated
 
 A SPORTING CHANCE 77 
 
 at his desk in his Broad Street office in New York, 
 experienced a decided shock as he read Miss Ash- 
 ley's reply to his letter. He was not of the swear- 
 ing sort, being a gentleman of the most exemplary 
 habits, so he confined his manifestation of aston- 
 ishment to a mere lifting of his bushy gray eye- 
 brows. But he was none the less nonplussed. 
 ... A chit of a girl, to take the bit in her teeth 
 like that! . . . Mr. Miles shook his head sadly. 
 He foresaw endless difficulties, now, with what 
 had promised to be a most amenable client. . . . 
 Julian Marr, when he received Mr. Miles' re- 
 port upon his kind offer to purchase Miss Ashley's 
 interest in their jointly owned property, displayed 
 his feelings somewhat more energetically. He was 
 a widely traveled man. He had, in fact, been 
 everywhere. And he had long since learned, 
 where Mexican affairs were concerned, to do as 
 Mexicans did. Fortunately, Marr's knowledge 
 of Spanish, though extremely limited, was suffi- 
 cient unto his present needs. He always claimed 
 that a man might exist well enough in a foreign 
 country by pointing to his mouth when he was 
 hungry, and by laying his head upon his hand in 
 feigned sleep when he wanted a bed. A few vig-
 
 7 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 orous expletives, however, Julian Marr deemed 
 to be essential. Of such he had acquired a small 
 but choice assortment. And of these he now 
 made excellent use.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 
 
 MR. JULIAN MARK had left Washington in ex- 
 cellent spirits. While there he had convinced a 
 certain powerful personage of the expediency of 
 nipping the budding ambitions of the De Boer Ex- 
 ploration Company. And he had received every 
 assurance that at the opportune moment the ad- 
 ministration would bring pressure to bear upon 
 the Mexican Government which would prevent the 
 granting of a franchise for the projected railroad. 
 It would be very embarrassing if those gentlemen 
 in Wall Street who held large blocks of stock 
 and bonds as well of the South Eastern Railway 
 Company of Mexico should for any reason with- 
 hold their customary campaign contributions. Of 
 course, Marr was not so indiscreet as to mention 
 any such contingency. But he contrived, in a deli- 
 cate way, to make the situation sufficiently clear. 
 What pleased him particularly was this: the 
 
 79
 
 80 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Washington official with whom he held his confer- 
 ences had agreed to accept Mr. Marr's expert 
 judgment as to when the psychological moment to 
 act should have arrived. Accordingly, Marr hur- 
 ried back to New York to make his philanthropic 
 offer to Janet's lawyer. Although his ten-thou- 
 sand-pound salary as president of the South East- 
 ern Railway was only a small part of his enor- 
 mous income, Julian Marr was not above exerting 
 himself to divert a paltry ten thousand dollars to 
 the right side of his bank account. Being of an 
 acquisitive nature, it always pleased him when he 
 was able to add an extra feather to his nest. 
 
 Although he had been piqued, Marr had not 
 been seriously disappointed by Miles' report of 
 Janet's unexpected decision. He did not doubt 
 his ability to convince her of the advisability of 
 selling her share in Aguacate to him, once he 
 could talk to her himself. So he had proceeded to 
 Mexico quite confident as to the outcome of his 
 little plan. 
 
 Janet Ashley listened attentively to what Mr. 
 Marr was saying. 
 
 "You see, my dear young lady," he explained, 
 "this is an opportunity that you cannot afford to
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 81 
 
 neglect. It is only just, too, that I should take 
 the property off your hands. I influenced your 
 father to put his money into it at the time I con- 
 sidered it to be an excellent investment. . . . But 
 we all make mistakes. That was one of mine. 
 And now I stand ready to make amends. For five 
 years I have hoped that we might be able to swing 
 a branch line near the tract. But circumstances 
 have never been right for such a move. They are 
 not right now. I doubt if they will be for years 
 to come. So why should you let your good money 
 lie idle indefinitely?" 
 
 Janet startled Sylvia's father then. 
 
 "But isn't there to be a railroad built out that 
 way soon?" she inquired "by some one else, I 
 mean?" 
 
 Marr snorted his ridicule of such an event. 
 
 "All tommy-rot!" he exclaimed. "It's just an- 
 other of those wild schemes that are always agi- 
 tated in a developing country and never materi- 
 alize. I promise you there'll be no road built there 
 until I build it myself." 
 
 "Mr. Bristow thinks differently," Janet ob- 
 jected, thereby exploding another bomb under her 
 elderly friend. 
 
 "Mr. Bristow? Pooh ! pooh !" he scoff ed. "A
 
 82 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 mere boy! . . . What does he know of such 
 things? And where, pray, did you happen to meet 
 him?" 
 
 "Mr. Farrand introduced him to us, on the 
 train, coming from Vera Cruz," Janet told him. 
 "And later he spent a day or two with us here." 
 
 "He did, eh?" said Marr. "And he talked to 
 you, did he, about his ambitions?" He resolved 
 thereupon to give Farrand a piece of his mind for 
 being so indiscreet. 
 
 "Oh! I asked him to tell me about Aguacate," 
 Janet hastened to explain. "He wouldn't have 
 mentioned the matter to me, otherwise, I'm sure. 
 He doesn't seem to be a person who talks much 
 about his business affairs." 
 
 Marr smiled knowingly at that. 
 
 "I thought as much," he said. "His affairs, I 
 imagine, are not the sort to bear an airing. . . . 
 Mexico's full of his like," he declared. "This 
 country's a Mecca for ne'er-do-wells chaps who 
 for one reason or another find the climate more 
 healthful than the one they've been living in. 
 Sometimes they aren't wanted at home, and their 
 families ship them down here and pay 'em to stay 
 away. And then, on the other hand, sometimes 
 they are wanted by the police."
 
 83 
 
 But Julian Marr's insinuations did not influence 
 Janet in the least. 
 
 "You're very kind," she said. "Don't think, 
 please, that I don't appreciate your offer. But 
 I've managed thus far to get along very well with- 
 out the money that Father invested in your land. 
 And I am unbusinesslike enough to prefer to let 
 it remain where he put it unless, of course, Mr. 
 Bristow decides to buy the property. . . . I'm 
 committed to that option, I know. But I'm not 
 sure I should have signed it if I had known what 
 it meant." 
 
 Marr was at some difficulty to keep his temper. 
 But he managed a plausible imitation of good- 
 natured indulgence as he said: 
 
 "Oh! you needn't worry on that score. That 
 option is bound to lapse. I'll guarantee that Bris- 
 tow will never buy Aguacate. In the first place, 
 I don't think he has a penny to buy it with. And 
 in the second, I'll wager that more land is the 
 last thing he wants. 
 
 "You see, Miss Janet, I have had some experi- 
 ence with these fellows. Bristow is mixed up in 
 some wildcat land swindle. It's an old game, but 
 it still works. It's played this way : you buy some 
 worthless tract for about a dollar and a half an
 
 84 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 acre. Then you get an option on more land, to 
 convince people that it's a big scheme, you know. 
 And in this case I don't doubt that my name ap- 
 pears in Bristow's advertising 'literature,' as they 
 call it ha ! ha ! No doubt he considered it worth 
 spending a thousand dollars just to be able to drag 
 my name in, merely to say that he had an option on 
 my land. 
 
 "As for his railway that's a bluff, pure and 
 simple. Even 'if he gets a franchise, he'll never 
 build his road. He'll use the bare franchise to 
 convince the public that the road is coming through 
 the property. He will even take prospective pur- 
 chasers of 'homesteads,' or 'plantations,' or 
 'orange-groves,' or whatever he calls his bait 
 he'll even take them out to the tract and show 
 them blazes on trees, to mark the right of way of 
 the line." Julian Marr laughed heartily. "That's 
 how the thing's done!" he resumed. "Of course, 
 it's only the careful ones who'll ever see the place 
 before buying. For the most part, Bristow will 
 sell twenty-acre plots to poor clergymen and wid- 
 ows with growing families, and discouraged 
 Northern farmers. I've seen the thing done many 
 times. Haven't I seen shiploads of those unfor- 
 tunate dupes, coming to this 'coast of opportunity,'
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 85 
 
 as the rogues' prospectus calls it?" Marr shook 
 his head in righteous indignation. "Those that 
 have money enough to get home again are lucky," 
 he added. "Why I've given dozens of 'em free 
 transportation to help 'em reach a port where they 
 could get cheap passage back to the States on some 
 old hulk." 
 
 He paused then and looked at Janet expect- 
 antly. He had been irritated by his failure to 
 sway her. And now he had gone decidedly out 
 of his way to win his point. He had often used 
 fewer words to persuade some capitalist to invest 
 a million in his enterprises. 
 
 But Janet was adamant. 
 
 "I don't believe Mr. Bristow is that sort of 
 man," she said. "I'll just wait, anyhow, and see 
 what happens. All this is so interesting, Mr. 
 Marr ! I feel as if I were in a play or a romantic 
 novel a minor character, you know, who stands 
 in the background and looks on." And she smiled 
 sweetly at him. 
 
 The president of the South Eastern Railway 
 Company grunted. He was a hard fighter. But 
 he never wasted much of his valuable time jousting 
 against windmills. 
 
 "Well, well!" he said quickly. "Of course it
 
 86 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 doesn't matter to me. I only thought I was doing 
 you a kindness. I thought perhaps Miles hadn't 
 made the thing clear to you." 
 
 "I think I understand the situation perfectly," 
 Janet said, with an unwarranted assurance that 
 made the full-blooded Marr grow a bit red in the 
 neck. He began to feel that he had been near to 
 letting that slip of a girl make a fool of him. 
 And yet he hardly gave her credit for fathoming 
 his motives. He did not believe that she was so 
 astute as all that. But she had a better head on 
 her shoulders than her father had had he was 
 sure of that ! 
 
 "Well, well ! Well, well !" he repeated jerkily. 
 And tapering off the conversation with another 
 grunt, he withdrew to his own room. There was 
 a bottle of uncommonly fine Scotch in his bulky 
 English kit-bag, and talking always made Julian 
 Marr's throat feel dry. 
 
 Balked as he was in his attempt to inveigle 
 Janet into selling him her land holdings, Marr saw 
 nothing to do except wait until the De Boer Ex- 
 ploration Company should have obtained its fran- 
 chise. He was confident that with their plans
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 87 
 
 advanced to that extent the De Boers would no 
 longer delay exercising their option to buy Agua- 
 cate. And then he would realize a respectable 
 profit on his land venture though to be sure it 
 would be only half what he had hoped for. 
 
 Now, Marr had unbounded faith in the ability 
 of Washington to quash the franchise, even after 
 it had been duly ratified by the Mexican Govern- 
 ment. He waited, accordingly, busying himself 
 meanwhile with matters pertaining to his own 
 South Eastern Railway. He was not in the least 
 apprehensive. Indeed, the whole proceeding 
 aside from the phase that concerned Janet was 
 entirely to his liking. For Julian Marr was ever a 
 cheerful gambler especially with a stacked deck 
 of cards. 
 
 Then came a rumor that almost disconcerted 
 him, for the moment. An acquaintance of his, 
 whom he met one day in Mexico City, mentioned 
 to him casually that he understood the De Boers 
 were about to develop a new iron mine in the 
 tierra caliente. 
 
 Marr preserved an unruffled front as he lis- 
 tened. But he cut short his stay in the capital. 
 And with him that night, as his special train went
 
 88 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 reeling southward over the uneven road-bed, there 
 traveled an engineering party that he had com- 
 mandeered from a convenient mine. 
 
 Four days later the rumor had become a cer- 
 tainty. And almost coincident with the report of 
 Marr's engineers, when they returned to Rio 
 Chico, saddle-sore and dirty from their prospect- 
 ing trip, there came a telegram from Mexico City 
 announcing the passage of the bill relating to the 
 new railroad. The De Boer franchise had been 
 jammed through in record time. 
 
 Marr swore roundly at the untoward turn of 
 events. And immediately he bestirred himself to 
 take a hand in the proceedings. Matters had 
 reached such a stage that he must not only act, 
 but act quickly. And he no longer wanted to dis- 
 pose of Aguacate. 
 
 That day the cables carried a terse and guarded 
 message to a certain gentleman in Washington. 
 
 Wade Farrand and Marr were alone in the 
 manager's private office. 
 
 "Look here, Farrand!" Marr was saying. 
 "You seem to be on good terms with this young 
 friend of my daughter's. Now, I'd like you to 
 talk with her. You know that land that her fa-
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 89 
 
 ther invested in with me? . . . Well, I want to 
 buy it her share. Never mind why. I want it. 
 That's reason enough. 
 
 "That fellow Bristow has an option on it. But 
 I'll fix things so he'll never make use of it. I gave 
 you the devil the" other day for having him around 
 here. But maybe you weren't so much to blame, 
 after all. Don't ask him here again, though. So 
 far as we're concerned, he's a swindler a con- 
 fidence-man. 
 
 "See that you make that much clear to the girl. 
 And tell her hell ! tell her I'm hurt and disap- 
 pointed that she won't let me buy that land. I 
 feel I owe it to her, for her father's sake our 
 friendship that sort of stuff, you know. 
 
 "You do this work well and you won't be the 
 loser. . . . You understand?" 
 
 Farrand nodded. He had a mighty curiosity to 
 know why Mr. Marr was so keen about obtaining 
 sole control of that mediocre tract which had lain 
 fallow all those years. . . . He decided, at 
 length, that his chief contemplated running a 
 branch line near the place. 
 
 "I'll do what I can," he told his patron. "Miss 
 Ashley and I are pretty good friends. I think 
 she'll listen to me."
 
 90 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Good!" said Marr. "Don't lose any time, 
 now. And if you succeed well, I won't say just 
 what I'll do for you. . . . Something worth while 
 you know that !" 
 
 "I'll talk with her to-night!" Farrand prom- 
 ised. 
 
 "I'm afraid Mr. Marr's rather done up," Far- 
 rand remarked to Janet after that personage had 
 retired at what was, for him, an unusually early 
 hour. Marr had complained of a headache; and 
 he had yielded to Sylvia's solicitude to the extent 
 of letting her read to him until he should fall 
 asleep. Having thus successfully cleared the 
 decks for action, as he left the room he had shot a 
 significant glance at Farrand, as if to say that 
 England expected every man to do his duty. 
 
 "I never saw such a man for work," Farrand 
 observed. "He doesn't know what it is to spare 
 himself. And the curious part of it is that he's al- 
 ways exerting himself for somebody else's benefit. 
 You'd think that at his age, and with his fortune, 
 he'd be content to play for the rest of his life. 
 He's already accomplished the labors of a dozen 
 competent men. But he won't consider retiring. 
 He holds that just as long as he lives he owes a
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 91 
 
 duty to those who have invested in his enterprises. 
 So he sticks to his last, while the other fellow 
 reaps the reward." 
 
 "He's wonderful, isn't he?" said Janet. 
 
 "A marvelous man 1" Farrand exclaimed. "He 
 puts every ounce of his energy into whatever he 
 happens to be doing. If he's fighting an enemy > 
 a man in his position is bound to have enemies 
 he fights terrifically. And if he's doing a favor 
 for a friend he can't do enough for him. ... I 
 can vouch for that. There isn't a kinder man in 
 the world. 
 
 "Your father and he were great friends," Far- 
 rand observed, after a pause. 
 
 "Yes !" Janet said. "At least, I know Father 
 admired Mr. Marr very much." 
 
 "That land deal that your father went 
 into " he spoke reminiscently. "It has wor- 
 ried Mr. Marr," he confided to her. "He has 
 always been greatly disappointed that it turned out 
 as it has. I happen to know that it has weighed 
 heavily on his conscience the thought that he may 
 have influenced your father to invest his money in 
 a venture that was not successful. 
 
 "This is confidential, of course. Perhaps I 
 ought not to tell you all this. But haven't I seen
 
 92 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Mr. Marr wince whenever Aguacate was men- 
 tioned to him? It's a very sore subject for him 
 not that he cares about his own pocketbook; but 
 he can't bear to see a friend lose a penny through 
 him." 
 
 "I know he's kind," Janet agreed. "Why, he's 
 even offered to buy my share in the property." 
 
 "The deuce he has!" said Farrand. "Well, if 
 that isn't just like him ! I call it mighty white of 
 him don't you?" 
 
 "It's certainly a generous thing to do," said 
 Janet. 
 
 "All of that !" Farrand agreed. "But I'll wager 
 Mr. Marr doesn't look at the thing in any such 
 light. He probably thinks you are doing him a 
 favor by letting him take the land off your hands. 
 No doubt he reckons himself the gainer in the 
 transaction because of the peace of mind it will 
 bring him." 
 
 "Do you think so?" Janet asked. She had not 
 thought of that. And she looked somewhat trou- 
 bled as she said, "But I'm not going to accept his 
 offer." 
 
 "What 1" Farrand cried. "You've turned down 
 his offer? You don't mean to say you're going to 
 hang onto that pig-in-a-poke, Aguacate?" He
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 93 
 
 stared at her in well- feigned astonishment. "My 
 dear Miss Ashley, you mustn't do that !" he said. 
 "You owe it to yourself to your father to get 
 rid of that land." 
 
 "But I expect to sell it, some day," Janet ex- 
 plained. "Mr. Bristow holds an option on it, you 
 know." 
 
 "Bristow! Ha, ha!" Farrand was quite un- 
 able to conceal his amusement at the idea of Dick 
 Bristow's buying anything. "Bless your heart!" 
 he said, "that chap's just a four-flusher. Old Cis- 
 neros he's Mr. Marr's land commissioner fell 
 for his little game of bluff. But no one else does. 
 He'll be down and out before you know it. That's 
 the way with fellows like him. They never last 
 long. As soon as their bank-roll is gone and I 
 suppose Bristow had some sort of stake as soon 
 as it's slipped through their fingers they're done 
 for. 
 
 "I'm glad you told me about this. It would 
 have been a pity for you to miss a good thing, Miss 
 Ashley. If you refused Mr. Marr's offer I'm 
 afraid he would be so disappointed and hurt and 
 chagrined that he'd never want to mention the 
 subject to you again. And there you'd be stuck 
 with that worthless land!"
 
 94 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "You don't think much of my land, I'm afraid," 
 Janet observed. 
 
 "How can I, when I know exactly what it is?" 
 he retorted. 
 
 "Well, I can't accept Mr. Marr's offer, any- 
 how," she announced. 
 
 "Can't? Why not?" 
 
 "I've promised Mr. Bristow I wouldn't." 
 
 "Well, I'm " He caught himself in time. 
 
 "I'm astounded!" he said, though that was not 
 precisely the word that had leaped to his lips. 
 "What on earth possessed you to do a thing like 
 that? I'm sorry I ever introduced Bristow to you. 
 It's all my fault. But I'd no idea the fellow would 
 have the effrontery to approach you with his land 
 schemes." 
 
 "You do Mr. Bristow an injustice," Janet said 
 quietly. "It was I who did the approaching 
 not he!" 
 
 "Why, Miss Ashley I You amaze me!" For 
 once, at least, during that conversation, Farrand 
 told the truth. "If you wanted advice, why didn't 
 you come to me?" 
 
 "Frankly, because I thought Mr. Bristow knew 
 more about my land than you did," she told him. 
 
 "Yes yes! But surely you should have be-
 
 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL 95 
 
 lieved me more trustworthy than a mere chance 
 acquaintance like him," he protested. 
 
 "You introduced him to me," she reminded 
 him. 
 
 "Ah, yes ! But only because we needed a fourth 
 hand at bridge. ... I should have warned you 
 against confiding in strangers in this country." 
 
 "He seems straightforward," Janet remarked 
 thoughtfully. It was hard for her to believe that 
 Bristow was a rascal. 
 
 "They all do!" Farrand said with an air of 
 great conviction. 
 
 Still Janet was not persuaded. 
 
 "I hope you're mistaken in him you and Mr. 
 Marr," she told Farrand wistfully. "Anyhow, I 
 must do as I said I was going to do." 
 
 "What ! You don't mean that you're going to 
 be influenced now by what Bristow said to you?" 
 Farrand protested. 
 
 "Really, I see no reason why I should break my 
 word, just because you think Mr. Bristow is not 
 an honorable man. Surely you don't think I could 
 do that?" 
 
 Wade Farrand's eyes shifted uncomfortably 
 under her steady gaze.
 
 96 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "That's not exactly a fair way to put the 
 case " he began. 
 
 "Oh then you don't approve of me any more 
 than you do of Mr. Bristow!" she said quickly. 
 
 "Now, now! My dear " He caught at 
 
 her hand. 
 
 "Please don't!" she said quietly, drawing away. 
 "I suppose you think me a fool not to do as you 
 advise. But there is really no use of your urging 
 me. My mind is quite made up. ... I think 
 Mr. Marr understands that. ."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TREASON 
 
 IN view of the failure of his mission, Farrand 
 dreaded to face Marr the following morning. But 
 he knew that he must breakfast with him, for 
 Marr habitually rose early. His working day 
 comprised some eighteen hours, or in other words, 
 all the time he was awake. No matter what he 
 was about, his big brain never ceased its planning. 
 
 "Well?" Julian Marr said inquiringly, as Far- 
 rand seated himself opposite his chief. 
 
 There was no mistaking the purport of Marr's 
 blunt interrogation. Farrand wished vainly that 
 the women were there. Then he could have en- 
 joyed his meal in peace. But he knew that Sylvia 
 Marr and her guests would not appear for an- 
 other two hours. 
 
 "The young lady has a mind of her own," Far- 
 rand began. 
 
 "Then you failed?" said Marr quickly. 
 
 97
 
 98 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "I wasn't going to put it in just that way," 
 Farrand corrected him. 
 
 "No use beating about the bush!" Man* told 
 him gruffly. 
 
 "I've not finished with her yet. I always ex- 
 pect to accomplish whatever I attempt," Farrand 
 explained as cheerfully as he could. 
 
 "A most laudable attitude for a young man!" 
 his mentor told him. But Farrand was not de- 
 ceived by Marr's commendation. There was a 
 sarcastic note in his voice that Farrand knew, and 
 dreaded. "In the words of the great Yankee gen- 
 eral," Marr continued, "you expect to win, if it 
 takes you all summer eh?" 
 
 "Exactly!" Farrand replied uneasily. 
 
 "Humph! The difficulty this time lies in the 
 fact that you haven't all summer at your disposal. 
 It's now or never! . . . I'm going to Mexico 
 City to-day," Marr announced abruptly. "And 
 I'll give you just one more chance to make good 
 on this deal. . . . Don't disappoint me !" 
 
 His bright eyes glittered a warning which was 
 the more disconcerting because it was unspoken. 
 It is always the unnamed danger that is the most 
 feared. And in his discomfiture Wade Farrand 
 splashed coffee upon his fresh, white linen suit as
 
 TREASON 99 
 
 he cringed under the whip of Marr's displeasure. 
 He was glad when Marr left the house and 
 Rio Chico. Among subordinates Farrand showed 
 a blustering front that impressed many as a proof 
 of his aggressiveness. But in Julian Marr's pres- 
 ence there was nothing but humility in his atti- 
 tude. When his master commanded, he leaped 
 to do his bidding. And as certainly as he basked 
 in the warmth of Marr's approval, he fawned 
 upon him or cowered from him when the great 
 man was displeased with him. Small wonder, 
 then, that he breathed more freely in Marr's ab- 
 sence. And gradually he recovered once more the 
 slightly pompous manner he was wont to assume 
 when he was the undisputed cock of the walk. 
 
 If any one had told Farrand that before the day 
 was done he should play the traitor to Marr he 
 could not have believed it. Treason against his, 
 master ! He would have scoffed at such a thought 
 . . . Nevertheless, the impossible happened. 
 That very morning something occurred to cause 
 a sudden shift in Farrand's plans. His secretary, 
 a native named Lopez, was the unknowing instru- 
 ment that led to his disaffection. 
 
 "Have you heard the news, Mr. Farrand?"
 
 ioo THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Lopez asked him, as he laid some letters upon 
 Farrand's desk. 
 
 "What news?" Farrand inquired. 
 
 "The news of the iron !" 
 
 "Iron!" Farrand repeated mechanically, as he 
 started to read a letter. 
 
 "Yes the iron!" Lopez said once more. 
 
 "Don't know what you're talking about!" Far- 
 rand told him. "What iron? What about it, 
 anyhow?" 
 
 "The country people are much excited," his sec- 
 retary explained. "Many of them are buying 
 dynamite. It will be a wonder if half of them do 
 not blow their brains out the poor fools !" 
 
 "Dynamite for what?" 
 
 "They will blast holes in the land, expecting to 
 find iron. They say the whole State is full of it 
 and no one ever discovered it until Mr. Bristow 
 came the gringo with the big chin." 
 
 Farrand wheeled suddenly in his chair. The 
 paper that he held fell unheeded upon his desk. 
 
 "What the hell do you mean?" he demanded. 
 
 "The gringo has found an iron mine," Ricardo 
 Lopez announced. "And now la gente have gone 
 mad over night. They say old Jose Crispo has 
 become as rich as Senor Marr himself."
 
 TREASON 101 
 
 Questions fell sharp and fast from Farrand's 
 lips. And having soon drained his secretary dry 
 of all the information he possessed on the sub- 
 ject, Farrand clapped his wide-brimmed Panama 
 upon his head and hurried over to the cluster of 
 low, gay-colored buildings where Spanish mer- 
 chants haggled with their customers. Under the 
 wooden canopy that projected over the sidewalk 
 in front of one of the shops, dignified by the name 
 of La Gran Senora The Great Lady Farrand 
 came upon the very man to furnish him with an 
 accurate account of the sensation that had fired 
 the community. 
 
 Colonel Martinez was delighted to see 
 "Meester" Farrand. Better still, he was ready 
 to tell Farrand everything he knew. Between el 
 Coronet and the South Eastern Railway Company 
 there existed a bond cemented by the interchange 
 of certain favors. During the troublous time 
 of the revolutions the Colonel had more than 
 once thrown his troops about some threatened 
 property of the Company such as a railroad sta- 
 tion or a bridge. Marr had been duly grateful 
 for such services. And in one way and another he 
 had made Martinez feel that he was recompensed. 
 For instance, the Colonel was permitted to sell
 
 102 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 sugar-cane to the Rio Chico mill a courtesy that 
 had been denied Jose Crispo's cousin, along with 
 many of his neighbors. It was, as a matter of fact, 
 only a favored few who enjoyed that opportunity 
 of marketing a profitable crop. 
 
 Yes ! The Company was grateful. The Com- 
 pany was kind to Colonel Martinez. Not only did 
 it buy his cane. It weighed it for him as well. 
 Perhaps el Coronet would not have been so en- 
 thusiastic a friend of Senor Marr's had he known 
 that ten per cent, was regularly deducted from 
 the weight of his cane shipments. But that was a 
 detail that never came to his attention. 
 
 It was, truly, a wonderfully perfect system of 
 accounting that Marr's experts had installed. 
 
 Closeted in Farrand's office, Colonel Martinez 
 substantially verified the wild tales that the secre- 
 tary, Lopez, had related. 
 
 "And that land of Senor Marr's " Farrand 
 
 asked him. "Is it a fact, then, that that carries 
 rich ore too?" 
 
 "It is, of a certainty, true," el Coronet declared. 
 "Have not my own eyes beheld specimens of the 
 deposit? Jose Crispo's cousin that rascal whose 
 river the Company dammed up he has shown me 
 a bagful. Now that old Crispo finds himself rich,
 
 TREASON 103 
 
 his relations are flocking about him by the dozen, 
 the beggars I" The grizzled old veteran laughed. 
 And then he said, growing serious again, "It is a 
 matter of wonder to me that you do not know all 
 this before me, senor." 
 
 "Oh, I knew all about it," Farrand lied easily. 
 "I merely wanted to learn what had leaked out." 
 
 "Assuredly! Senor Marr is too old a fox to be 
 caught napping no?" 
 
 Farrand nodded wisely. He could vouch for 
 that statement with a clear conscience. 
 
 "His engineers have already examined the prop- 
 erty is it not so?" Martinez inquired. 
 
 "You know too much, my Colonel!" Farrand 
 laughed. And at the same time he was cursing 
 himself for his own stupidity. He had never 
 guessed what brought those mining men from the 
 north. This was the answer! And Marr knew 
 all. . . . Wade Farrand flushed with annoyance. 
 It was no wonder that Marr's fingers itched to 
 obtain possession of the whole tract. But Far- 
 rand resented the fact that he had been left in 
 ignorance. It made him angry when he reflected 
 that his patron had set him to work in the dark 
 to get Janet's share of the mine away from her. 
 And by the time he had bade Colonel Martinez
 
 io 4 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 good-by he had formulated a plan not strictly in 
 accordance with Marr's instructions. 
 
 It had occurred to Farrand that so long as she 
 retained her interest in Aguacate, Janet was rich. 
 And she was, as yet, unaware of that circumstance. 
 Moreover, it was a situation that appealed 
 strongly to Farrand. And so interested did he 
 become in its possibilities that his late intention of 
 inducing Janet to part with her holdings vanished 
 completely from his mind. 
 
 Jajjet and Farrand had just returned from the 
 tennis court. They had played hard. And when 
 they reached the house they found the piazza de- 
 serted. Janet promptly dropped into a hammock, 
 while Farrand drew a comfortable chair close be- 
 side her, and sipped a highball and smoked. 
 
 As he looked at the girl facing him he reflected 
 that he would be a lucky man indeed if his plans 
 succeeded. It was not every substantial fortune 
 that could boast so charming a mistress. 
 
 "That was good fun the tennis!" Farrand re- 
 marked. "But this is better." He leaned lazily 
 back in his chair and watched her through the 
 smoke with frankly appraising eyes. 
 
 "Do you think so?" Janet asked innocently.
 
 TREASON 105 
 
 "I'm afraid you don't like to exert yourself." 
 
 "Oh, you don't know me," he countered. 
 "Now, when I want a thing badly enough you've 
 no idea how hard I'll work for it." And he gave 
 her a look that was intended to express his ad- 
 miration for her. 
 
 "I noticed that you went to some trouble to 
 pull the cork out of that bottle," Janet observed 
 wickedly. She knew perfectly well what Farrand 
 meant. 
 
 "You insist upon misinterpreting my prettiest 
 remarks. . . . It's quite apparent to me that you 
 haven't a bit of confidence in me. You don't take 
 anything I say as being serious." 
 
 "I'm afraid you're piqued because I didn't ask 
 your advice about my land," she told him. 
 
 "I piqued?" he exclaimed. "My dear Miss 
 Janet I couldn't take exception to anything you 
 might do." 
 
 She laughed at that. 
 
 "Really, for a man you have remarkable faith 
 in woman-kind. I never know myself what I'm 
 going to do next." 
 
 "Well, you haven't decided to sell your land to 
 Mr. Marr, have you?" he asked. 
 
 Janet shook her head emphatically.
 
 io6 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "No!" she said. "That's one thing, at least, 
 that I'm sure about." 
 
 "Bully for you ! I like to see people true to 
 their convictions. I knew there was no use argu- 
 ing with you on that subject. I even wished, after 
 our talk last night, that I had kept my advice to 
 myself. There's no sense in butting into other 
 people's affairs. I hope you'll forgive my seem- 
 ing officiousness. My zeal was well meant, I as- 
 sure you. You'll understand that, I hope ?" 
 
 "Of course!" Janet rejoined. She was relieved 
 to know that Farrand was reconciled to her stand 
 and that he was not going to renew their discus- 
 sion. "No doubt time will prove my judgment to 
 be terribly bad. And then you can say, 'I told 
 you so !' ' 
 
 "Never!" he declared. "And I hope for your 
 sake that things will turn out to your advantage. 
 If they do, I'm sure Mr. Marr will be as pleased 
 as any of us." 
 
 "It's kind of you to say that," Janet told him 
 gratefully, "especially when you're convinced I'm 
 acting unwisely. I suppose Mr. Miles thinks so 
 too. Probably he's worrying this very minute for 
 fear I'll make ducks and drakes out of what little 
 money I have now that I've asserted myself in
 
 TREASON 107 
 
 this business. On the other hand, imagine how 
 surprised he'll be if I make an extra ten thousand 
 dollars for myself!" 
 
 "Here's hoping you will!" And Wade Far- 
 rand drained his glass to the toast. "I want 
 things to turn out right for you. You deserve to 
 win, anyhow, as a reward for keeping your prom- 
 ise to Bristow. No doubt you didn't understand 
 how I could suggest your ignoring that phase of 
 the affair. You see, men become somewhat callous 
 in such matters. I'm glad, now, that you've stood 
 by your guns. ... It only makes me admire you 
 all the more." 
 
 So Farrand paved the way for what developed 
 all at once into a whirlwind wooing. His vigorous 
 courtship surprised Janet. She had thought, pre- 
 viously, that he was merely amusing himself, and 
 incidentally entertaining her. And she had ac- 
 cepted his attentions as a matter of course. They 
 were the sort of homage that she had come to re- 
 gard, in New York, as due every girl. But now 
 she could no longer ignore the fact that Farrand 
 was in earnest. And what troubled and perplexed 
 her now was her uncertainty as to her own senti- 
 ments towards him. 
 
 Propinquity had not been without its effect upon
 
 108 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 her. There was much in Farrand to impress an 
 imaginative girl. He was both alert and forceful, 
 and when Marr was not at hand he displayed 
 the sort of poise that goes with executive ability. 
 On the whole he appeared to be leading a life 
 much more worth while than did the wealthy 
 young dawdlers whom Janet was accustomed to 
 meeting at home. 
 
 Add to such attributes a certain personal at- 
 tractiveness for in spite of Farrand's undue con- 
 sumption of highballs, he was still a fine figure of 
 a man add that and there resulted a combination 
 of qualities that would have made many a girl 
 hesitate before she told him "No!" 
 
 Meanwhile Farrand lost no opportunity to be 
 alone with Janet. He felt that there was no time 
 to be wasted. Once she learned what he already 
 knew about Aguacate his intentions might be open 
 to suspicion. It was essential that he should com- 
 mit himself and her before that inevitable 
 denouement. 
 
 And in the meantime he trusted implicitly in 
 Marr's ability to block De Boer's railroad project 
 and so render Dick's option ineffective.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 
 
 U !T will be necessary for you to see Senor Marr 
 himself," Cisneros told his caller. 
 
 It struck Dick Bristow that Marr's land com- 
 missioner was in a somewhat peevish frame of 
 mind. Certainly he displayed none of the oily 
 urbanity that he had evinced on the occasion of 
 Dick's former visit to San Miguel, when he had 
 made his tentative proposal to buy Aguacate. 
 
 Had Dick known to what extent Marr had emp- 
 tied the vials of his wrath upon the head of the 
 luckless Cisneros he would not have wondered at 
 that gentleman's change of front. It is discon- 
 certing, to say the least, to win caustic criticism 
 where one has expected only praise. And Senor 
 Cisneros was surfeited with gall and wormwood. 
 He would have liked to slip a knife under the 
 gringo's shoulder-blade, and so avenge himself 
 upon the instrument of his unhappiness. But that 
 
 109
 
 no THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 was too crude a way for an educated lawyer of 
 pure Castilian blood to pay his debts of dis- 
 pleasure. He trusted to settle the score in some 
 more subtle fashion, later. 
 
 "I can do nothing for you," he returned in an- 
 swer to Dick's persistence. 
 
 "But I want to buy that land," Dick repeated. 
 "I have the money, and the option, too. I don't 
 see why you object to dealing with me." And he 
 showed the lawyer his contract, as well as a check. 
 
 "The matter has passed out of my hands," Cis- 
 neros said. And he spread his open palms before 
 his caller in conclusive verification of his state- 
 ment. 
 
 Dick perceived that he could accomplish nothing 
 there. So he left Senor Cisneros with a polite 
 a Dios and stepped into the narrow street, where 
 his coach waited for him. And then he bumped 
 away over the uneven cobblestones, to the accom- 
 paniment of the driver's bell, which clanged a 
 warning to unwary pedestrians. His next step was 
 to make a short call upon his friend Macdonald 
 at the Territorial Bank. 
 
 Back to the hotel he went, then. There was 
 nothing for him to do but stay there until the fol- 
 lowing morning, for the afternoon train for Rio
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK nt 
 
 Chico had left a good hour earlier. Dick alighted, 
 dismissed his cochero, and went inside the Hotel 
 Inglaterra. He wondered if some German had 
 not christened the hostelry. No one else, he 
 thought, could have cast such a slur upon the 
 British. 
 
 Picking his steps with care, he made his way 
 along the littered pavement of the open corridor 
 that encircled the courtyard. Once inside his box- 
 stall of a room he cast coat and hat aside; and 
 pulling out pipe and tobacco, he stretched himself 
 gingerly upon the rickety bed, for the three-fold 
 purpose of resting, smoking, and composing his 
 mind. 
 
 He had not liked the land commissioner's atti- 
 tude. He wondered whether Marr had not in- 
 structed Cisneros to turn a cold shoulder to him. 
 Dick knew that news of the iron discovery had be- 
 gun to leak out. If Marr had learned the secret 
 he did not doubt that that wily financier would 
 prove as slippery as an eel. Pinning him to the 
 terms of the option might prove a difficult and 
 lengthy task. 
 
 It was delightfully cool inside the hotel, for the 
 heat could not penetrate its thick walls. Dick had 
 been traveling since daybreak; and he soon grew
 
 H2 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 drowsy. And he had not lain long upon the de- 
 crepit bed before he was sound asleep. 
 
 It was night when Dick awoke. For a few 
 minutes he lay still, not yet fully aroused to his 
 senses. Subdued voices were speaking Spanish in 
 the room next his. And over the low partition, 
 which stopped less than halfway to the raftered 
 roof, for the better circulation of air, a soft glow 
 of lamp-light lit his own room dimly. 
 
 As soon as he realized where he was he sprang 
 up and lighted an evil-smelling lamp which stood 
 upon a small table. Looking at his watch he saw 
 that it was nearly eight o'clock. He had slept 
 almost four hours. 
 
 In the large, blue-painted room which faced the 
 street through high-arched doors and served alike 
 as office, dining-room and lounge, Dick found a 
 few belated travelers still dining. The proprietor 
 of the Inglaterra, a small, animated native with a 
 black mustache several sizes too large for him, 
 started with surprise when he saw his American 
 guest emerge from the darkness of the patio. 
 
 "I thought you had not returned 1" he exclaimed. 
 
 "I fell asleep," Dick told him. "Nearly missed 
 my dinner, too!"
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 113 
 
 His host pulled out a chair for him with a 
 flourish. And soon Dick set about satisfying the 
 inner man. His waiter was an engaging chap. He 
 both smoked and sang as he served his employer's 
 patrons. One could easily forgive so cheerful a 
 servitor if his attendance lacked some of the nice- 
 ties which fastidious persons consider essential to 
 a good meal. One could even overlook the greasi- 
 ness of the cocinero's cooking, when introduced to 
 it by that fascinating, light-hearted go-between. 
 
 Then followed a couple of hours of time kill- 
 ing. Lacking other diversion, Dick went for a 
 stroll through the quaint town. After an aimless 
 ramble he found himself at last in an out-of-the- 
 way plaza, where he sat down upon a bench under 
 the stars and smoked. Far below him the waters 
 of the harbor shimmered in the moonlight. And 
 the weird wail of some would-be merrymakers, 
 singing in unison after the Mexican fashion, pro- 
 vided incidental music for the tableau. 
 
 When the discordant bell in the church-tower 
 nearby sounded ten o'clock Dick quitted his bench 
 and walked down the hill to the Hotel Inglaterra. 
 There he found a gay party playing cards upon 
 the table at which he had lately dined. But their
 
 noisy chatter, which resounded throughout the 
 house, did not long keep him awake. 
 
 The next time Mr. Bristow awoke in the Hotel 
 Inglaterra it was with the uncomfortable convic- 
 tion that he was not the sole occupant of his bed. 
 He had, in fact, excellent reasons for believing it 
 to be tenanted by multitudinous fleas and worse. 
 And to add to the unpleasantness of the situation, 
 a pair of lusty roosters in the courtyard outside 
 his window vied with each other in tearing the 
 night silence into tatters. Though it was only 
 two o'clock, it required but a short attempt to 
 convince Dick that further sleep, in that place, was 
 impossible. 
 
 So he dressed noiselessly. And then he tiptoed 
 through the deserted hotel, unbarred one of the 
 great doors, and let himself into the street. The 
 air outside, though cool, was surprisingly free 
 from that penetrating chill that usually attends the 
 tropic night. And it occurred to Dick that it would 
 be a pleasant thing to do to walk down to the 
 harbor, where he could get closer to that tang of 
 salt that was in his nostrils. 
 
 The rest of the night he spent stretched upon 
 the plank flooring of the pier. The water lapping
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 115 
 
 against the piles was as restful music in his ears. 
 And the sunrise which at last lit the world again 
 with its red-gold radiance made him glad that 
 he had forsaken the wretched inn. He lingered 
 for a time, to watch the pelicans as they snatched 
 their breakfast out of the harbor. It was fas- 
 cinating to see them drop like plummets upon the 
 water, disappear with a terrific splash the noise 
 of which might be heard a half-mile away and 
 then rise with the inevitable fish in their bills. 
 Watching those early breakfasters soon made 
 Dick feel hungry himself. So he went back to the 
 Inglaterra then, in the hope of finding the cook 
 astir. 
 
 The first thing that he encountered when he 
 revisited his room was the contents of his big 
 saddle-bags dumped upon the floor. Some one 
 had invaded his quarters during his absence and 
 made free with his belongings. 
 
 A quick inventory assured him that nothing had 
 been stolen. There was, in truth, little of value to 
 interest a thief; and it was evident that the ma- 
 rauder had been disappointed. 
 
 The proprietor of the Hotel Inglaterra dis- 
 played much incredulity when Dick reported the 
 incident to him. It was impossible, he declared.
 
 1 1 6 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 No such outrage had ever occurred in his virtuous 
 establishment. The senor must have stumbled 
 over the bags in the dark, himself. 
 
 "Who had the rooms on either side of mine?" 
 Dick asked him. "The lock was not forced. 
 Some one must have climbed over the partition." 
 
 The little man asserted that the neighboring 
 rooms had not been tenanted all-night. 
 
 "There were people talking in one of them, just 
 before I had my dinner last night," Dick told him. 
 
 "Ah! That is true. It was the judge of the 
 district, who retired there for a private conversa- 
 tion with his clerk. They left on horseback as 
 soon as the moon rose. . . . No! It is not pos- 
 sible, senor. I am an honest man. This" and he 
 beat upon his puny chest with his two fists "this 
 is a hotel of the most excellent reputation." 
 
 "All right!" said Dick. "But if I'd happened 
 to come in and surprise my caller I'm afraid that 
 excellent reputation might have been smirched by 
 a murder. . . . I'm glad I didn't catch the rascal, 
 however. There's no harm done. And I'm not 
 crazy to shoot anybody." 
 
 By the middle of the afternoon Dick dropped 
 off the train at Rio Chico. Not finding Farrand
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 117 
 
 in his office, he sought him at his house, for Dick 
 was anxious to learn Julian Marr's whereabouts. 
 
 Farrand's man-servant admitted the caller, ask- 
 ing him to wait upstairs in the library. 
 
 "I do not know where Meester ees," the man 
 said. "But I es-search for heem." 
 
 Dick strolled into the library, to find it empty. 
 He had hardly seated himself before he heard 
 voices from some quarter. At first he was not 
 quite sure where they came from. But soon it was 
 evident that people were upon the upper balcony, 
 which encompassed the whole house, and that they 
 were just out of range of the open windows of the 
 room. 
 
 As he sat there, Dick could distinguish the rum- 
 ble of Farrand's bass, and now and then the lighter 
 tones of a woman, whom he took to be Miss 
 Ashley. He had waited but a few minutes when 
 Farrand's servant reappeared in the doorway and 
 held up a supplicating hand. 
 
 "Un momenta one moment!" he, entreated; 
 then vanished to regions below. 
 
 Dick waited patiently. He did not know that 
 as soon as the man had approached his master 
 Farrand had sent him away with a peremptory 
 wave of the hand, before the fellow could tell
 
 n8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 him of his caller. Felipe that was the servant's 
 name Felipe knew better than to interrupt his 
 master after that impatient gesture. 
 
 As the voices droned on, Dick's ears gradually 
 became adjusted to their subdued pitch. And 
 soon he began to feel decidedly ill at ease. It was 
 clear that he had become an unintentional eaves- 
 dropper to a conversation of the utmost intimacy 
 to a proposal of marriage, to be exact. 
 
 As Farrand's declaration increased in fervor, 
 his words and the girl's too became, if not 
 louder, at least crisper and more distinct. 
 
 "Surely you must have guessed all this long 
 ago," Farrand was saying. 
 
 "You're mistaken," Dick heard Janet object. 
 "I never dreamed, until a few days ago, that you 
 thought of me in such a way." 
 
 "I can't help that," Farrand replied. "The 
 fact remains that I love you. I tell you, I can't 
 exist without you. This God-forsaken hole has 
 been heaven since you came. And before, it was 
 just a place in which to work and eat and sleep. 
 I was not unhappy, because I never knew what I 
 was missing. But after you're gone it will be 
 yes, a hell of loneliness." 
 
 "You'd soon forget me," she told him.
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 119 
 
 "Never!" he declared. "Even if I wanted to, 
 I could never get the music of your voice out of 
 my ears. I'd feel the witchery of your eyes upon 
 me always. All your little, pretty mannerisms 
 that have become dear to me, the look of you when 
 you're on a horse, with the glow upon your cheeks 
 and your hair blown back from your temples 
 oh ! there are a thousand ways I'll remember you 1" 
 
 "Really, Mr. Farrand, I wish you wouldn't say 
 these things to me," Janet protested "I I don't 
 think you've a right to." 
 
 "Right I" he cried. "My dear, I've every right 
 in the world, I should think. It is too late for 
 you to say that. You should have let me know 
 before, if my attentions have been distasteful to 
 you." 
 
 "Surely you don't think I encouraged you?" she 
 asked quickly. 
 
 "Oh, I suppose not," he answered. "But you 
 were willing to spend as much time with me as I 
 could spare from my work. Tell me do all those 
 happy hours mean nothing to you? Or were you 
 merely amusing yourself passing the time away 
 with me for want of some better companion? . . . 
 No! I'll not believe that! There's something 
 else something you don't want to tell me. Don't
 
 120 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 spare my feelings, please ! I want the truth. I'll 
 try to bear it, no matter what it may be. ... 
 Truth's the best thing in the world, after you." 
 
 Uncomfortable as he was, Dick could not re- 
 press a smile as he heard Farrand's impassioned 
 panegyric on truth. If he knew anything of men, 
 Wade Farrand was a slippery customer. No man 
 could serve Julian Marr satisfactorily and remain 
 a little tin saint. 
 
 "Surely you'll hold out some hope for me," 
 Farrand continued. "Tell me that I have a 
 chance. There's no one else, is there?" 
 
 "No !" she admitted. "There's no one else." 
 
 "Ah! Then I shall win you!" he exclaimed. 
 "I would win you anyhow. And I must have my 
 answer soon. Don't keep me waiting long! It 
 will seem eternity to me, while I'm hoping." 
 
 There was a brief interval of silence. And 
 then Janet's voice exclaimed, with a note of 
 dismay : 
 
 "Please, Mr. Farrand! Oh, please!" 
 
 The board floor of the gallery gave forth a 
 noise as of some one rising hurriedly. And Dick 
 heard Farrand laugh. 
 
 "Damn !" said Mr. Bristow to himself. "This is 
 too much for me." He was sorry, on Miss Ash-
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 121 
 
 ley's account, that he had heard what he had. It 
 was evident that both she and Farrand had been 
 too engrossed to heed the fact that their voices 
 must penetrate inside the library where he was 
 waiting. 
 
 Dick made his way downstairs forthwith. He 
 wished that he had left the library before. 
 
 In the lower hall he met Felipe. 
 
 "See here 1" he said, as a sudden suspicion 
 dawned upon him. "Did you tell Mr. Farrand I 
 wanted to see him?" 
 
 "Again I go,", said Felipe nervously, starting 
 for the stairs. 
 
 "Yes so I observe. But does Mr. Farrand 
 know I'm waiting?" 
 
 "He vairy busy," Felipe murmured. "I tell 
 heem one time more, so to don't forget." 
 
 Dick knew that he had guessed the truth. The 
 beggar had never told Farrand at all. 
 
 Presently Wade Farrand descended. Dick 
 thought that he appeared even more pleased with 
 himself than ever. 
 
 "Hello! What's up?" Farrand inquired. 
 
 "I came to find out where Mr. Marr is," Dick 
 informed him. 
 
 "You want to see him?"
 
 122 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Yes!" said Dick, though he considered that to 
 be none of Farrand's business. 
 
 "He isn't here," Farrand said. "He's in Mex- 
 ico City." 
 
 "When is he coming back?" 
 
 "In a day a week a month," was the enig- 
 matic answer. "I never know." And Wade Far- 
 rand gave him a smile of superiority. "What do 
 you want to see him about? Anything I can do 
 for you?" 
 
 "Thank you, no!" said Dick, ignoring the first 
 question. 
 
 "Sorry I can't help you out!" Farrand assured 
 him. "I'd ask you to bunk here, until Mr. Marr 
 returns; but I've only one extra room now, and 
 his things are in there and he's just as likely to 
 arrive to-night as any other time." 
 
 "Oh, I'll find a place over in the pueblo where 
 I can stretch a hammock, at least," Dick an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Come in a minute !" Farrand led the way into 
 his sitting-room, where, to Dick's surprise, he pro- 
 duced a box of cigars. "You want to talk with 
 Mr. Marr about buying that land, I know," he 
 announced. 
 
 "Well?" Dick queried.
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 123 
 
 r 
 
 "Forget it!" Farrand advised him. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "For the best of reasons," Farrand said. "I 
 tell you this as a friend. An outsider and by 
 that I mean any one not connected with this Com- 
 pany an outsider cannot be successful in any 
 large undertaking in this part of Mexico." 
 
 "That's interesting," Dick remarked. "On what 
 do you base your assertion, if I may ask?" 
 
 "Why the reason's self-evident, I should sup- 
 pose. This organization is too powerful to be 
 fought successfully." 
 
 "But I'm not fighting anybody," Dick rejoined 
 innocently. 
 
 "You're antagonizing Mr. Marr's plans," Far- 
 rand said bluntly. 
 
 Dick smiled. 
 
 "What should I know about his plans?" he 
 asked. "I'm going ahead about my own business. 
 If Marr sees fit to antagonize me, that's not my 
 fault." 
 
 Farrand shook his head. 
 
 "Be reasonable, now!" he urged. "Take a bit 
 of friendly advice and you won't be the loser. 
 Now, this is confidential, you understand. . . . 
 I'm not acting for anybody else. I'm just giving
 
 124 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 you a disinterested tip. . . . What sense is there 
 in butting your head against a stone wall ? I know 
 what your game is. And just as sure as shooting 
 you're due for a cropper. Why not play safe? 
 Why not come over to Mr. Marr's camp?" 
 
 Dick laughed outright at that. 
 
 "Marr and I would get on together for about 
 six minutes," he said. "But just what do you 
 mean, anyhow?" 
 
 "I mean that if you're wise you'll drop that 
 railroad dream of yours," Farrand explained. 
 "There's no use of my mincing matters. Every- 
 body knows what you're up to. Forget that; and 
 pool your interests with Mr. Marr's." 
 
 "What is Marr's interest? I don't believe I 
 get you." 
 
 "Why you both own mining property " 
 
 Farrand began. 
 
 "But he has contracted to sell his to me," Dick 
 objected. 
 
 "What good would that do you, with no rail- 
 road? You can't ship iron by airship." 
 
 "That railroad is going to be built," Dick said 
 with emphasis. 
 
 "So you think!" Farrand smiled. "Do you 
 know how many similar attempts have failed? . . .
 
 FARRAND CROWDS HIS LUCK 125, 
 
 Three, to my knowledge, in the last half-dozen 
 years!" 
 
 "I'm much obliged for your advice," Dick told 
 him. "But I haven't the slightest intention of 
 changing my plans. I don't mind telling you that 
 I'm "prepared to buy Aguacate now. That's why 
 I want to see Mr. Marr." 
 
 "You'll be tossing away your money," Farrand 
 declared. "Come ! I hate to see a young chap like 
 you make a mess of things, when it would be so 
 easy to get in right." 
 
 "My dear fellow," Dick replied, "you and I 
 might argue this thing all night and we'd end just 
 where we started." He had risen to go, when the 
 incomparable servant Felipe entered with a tele- 
 gram. Farrand glanced at the message. 
 
 "Don't be hasty," he pleaded, stuffing the paper 
 into his pocket. "Think over what I've said. . . . 
 You say you have the option with you?" 
 
 "I've the option, all right," Dick said. 
 
 "Well, see him if you must. But don't be in 
 too big a hurry to close your deal. I wouldn't talk 
 this way to everybody, Bristow. But I've taken a 
 liking to you and I want to see you successful." 
 
 "You're very kind, I'm sure," Dick said drily. 
 And with that he departed. He was amused by
 
 126 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Wade Farrand's protestations of friendship. And 
 his sudden solicitude regarding his affairs Dick 
 accepted for just as much as it was worth and 
 no more. The suggestion that Dick should join 
 forces with Marr struck Mr. Bristow as being 
 particularly humorous. He had no intention of 
 playing the canary to Marr's cat.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE TRAP 
 
 NOT long after Farrand's caller had left the house 
 a stable-boy brought three horses to the gate. And 
 soon Sylvia Marr and her guest came out, with 
 Wade Farrand, mounted and rode away in the 
 direction of the squat village. There they dis- 
 covered Mr. Bristow, seated at a round table in a 
 cafe known as El Iris. 
 
 "We want you to come for a ride with us," 
 Farrand called from the street, while his two 
 companions bowed and smiled at Dick. 
 
 Dick was inclined to suspect that Farrand 
 wanted him as an attendant for Sylvia, so that he 
 might ride with Janet himself. But Dick did not 
 mind that. 
 
 It was only a stone's throw to the shed where 
 his horse was stabled. And in a few minutes they 
 were clattering through the narrow streets, on 
 their way toward open country. 
 
 127
 
 128 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Dick's surmise proved correct. Farrand de- 
 voted himself assiduously to Miss Ashley. And so 
 pleased was he with his little ruse that he extended 
 his invitation to include dinner as well. 
 
 "Do come!" Julian Marr's daughter urged 
 Dick, when Farrand was out of earshot. "Mr. 
 Farrand has eyes only for Janet these days. Come 
 and rescue her for an evening, at least." 
 
 "Affairs of the heart are out of my line," Mr. 
 Bristow said. 
 
 "Well come and keep me company, then," she 
 said. 
 
 Dick agreed to that. And when they all dis- 
 mounted in front of Farrand's house, at the end 
 of their ride, he let Farrand send his horse to the 
 Company's stable, along with the others. That 
 was more convenient than returning him to the 
 shed in the village. 
 
 The following day Dick learned from Wade 
 Farrand that Marr was expected to reach Rio 
 Chico during the afternoon. So he waited. 
 
 He grew impatient, at last, as the day wore on 
 and no Marr appeared. It was almost four 
 o'clock when Farrand sent a boy to find him and 
 bring him to the Company's office.
 
 THE TRAP 129 
 
 "I'm sorry," Farrand said, as Dick entered his 
 private office, "I'm sorry but I've just had word 
 from Mr. Marr saying that he's not coming to- 
 day, after all. And that leaves you more in the 
 dark than ever, for he hasn't told me when he 
 does expect to arrive." Farrand handed Dick a 
 telegram that confirmed the news. "Oh! here's 
 a note for you ! I almost forgot it," he added, as 
 he gave Dick a folded scrap of paper which had 
 been lying on his desk. "A peon rode up here 
 with it a little while ago." 
 
 Dick glanced at the scrawl. 
 
 "Jose Crispo desires you to return to his house 
 as soon as possible," he read. 
 
 "Well!" Dick said. "There's not much use in 
 my waiting around here indefinitely. I see I'm 
 wanted at home, too. So I'll be on my way. . . . 
 I'm much obliged to you, Farrand, anyhow." 
 
 Dick left the office then and made for the Com- 
 pany's stable, where his horse had waited for him 
 since the previous evening. He walked along at a 
 brisk pace for that climate for the stable was a 
 quarter of a mile away and there was no time to 
 lose. He knew that he would have to send his 
 horse along at a good clip in order to reach
 
 130 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Crispo's house by nightfall. But his mount was 
 fresh and he anticipated no delay. 
 
 As the stable-man led his horse out of his 
 stall, to be saddled, Dick noticed at once that the 
 animal limped badly. He quickly discovered that 
 a front shoe had been torn half off and that it 
 was bent out of shape in such a fashion as to 
 make it difficult for the willing brute to walk at 
 all. 
 
 "He must have cast himself in the night," Dick 
 remarked. Evidently a hind foot had caught one 
 of the projecting tips of the shoe and when the 
 brute struggled he had ripped and twisted it into 
 its present shape. There was nothing to do but 
 take the shoe off, straighten it, and nail it in 
 place again. 
 
 To Dick's annoyance the Company's blacksmith 
 shop was closed, and no one seemed to know 
 where the smith had gone. Since there was no 
 other smithy in Rio Chico Dick had to spend 
 a half hour in locating the missing horse-shoer. 
 Then there was the forge fire to be started before 
 he could work the twisted shoe into shape again. 
 
 Thanks to this series of delays Dick left Rio 
 Chico a good hour and a half later than he had 
 intended when he bade Farrand good-by. He
 
 THE TRAP 131 
 
 was sure that it would be dark long before he 
 reached the end of his journey; but he had ridden 
 over the trail many times, and the moon would 
 have risen by nine o'clock. If necessary he could 
 wait for a time at the house of some native until 
 the pall of the early darkness should have lifted. 
 
 For two hours Dick pushed on. He had not 
 eaten since midday, for he had left Rio Chico too 
 hurriedly to pause for so much as a mouthful 
 of supper. When he felt hungry he pulled his 
 belt a notch tighter and lighted another cigarette. 
 
 Around eight o'clock he drew rein at a shack 
 not far removed from the road. It had grown 
 so dark that he dared not trust his knowledge 
 of the trail any longer. 
 
 There was a blackened coffee pot simmering 
 over the charcoal fire inside the hut. And Dick 
 drank of the muddy mixture while the women-folk 
 bestirred themselves to prepare food for him. 
 
 "Some people passed here an hour ago," the 
 head of the family told Dick. "Two men rode 
 up and inquired the way to Jose Crispo's house. 
 It is possible that they are friends of yours?" 
 
 "Mexicans?" Dick queried. 
 
 "Si! Both Mexicans! And my woman said 
 that there were three others who waited in the
 
 132 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 camino the road. I did not see those others, 
 myself. My eyes are not as sharp as they were 
 when I fought under Don Porfirio." 
 
 "I haven't the least idea who they were," Dick 
 said. "Fellows looking for work, most likely I 
 They seem to think over in Rio Chico that we 
 must have jobs for the whole world Jose Crispo 
 and I ! But operations have hardly begun yet.'* 
 
 While Dick talked with his host and ate the 
 frijoles and jerked beef which the slatternly 
 women had stewed for him, the moon came up. 
 And by the time he had finished his meal he was 
 ready to start on again. 
 
 Dick politely declined an urgent invitation to 
 spend the night. He wanted to get back to Jose 
 Crispo's house. That mysterious message filled 
 him, if not with uneasiness, at least with curiosity. 
 He did not think that Jose Crispo would have 
 sent a messenger all that distance for any trifling 
 reason. Possibly there was trouble ahead of him. 
 But he could not for the life of him think of any- 
 thing that could have happened, unless Don Jose 
 should have been taken ill, perhaps. But the old 
 fellow was tough as nails. That did not seem a 
 likely contingency. 
 
 As he turned his horse into the main trail from
 
 THE TRAP 133 
 
 the bypath which led from the hut among the 
 palms he wondered, for a moment, whether the 
 strangers who had preceded him might be con- 
 cerned in any way with Jose Crispo's note. But 
 there was nothing on which to base such a sup- 
 position. And Dick promptly dismissed those 
 night-riders from his mind. 
 
 The trail wound its way through a wilderness 
 of savannah. But occasionally it cut across a 
 narrow neck of bush. In those dark aisles, where 
 the moon's rays only faintly penetrated, Dick 
 had to guard carefully against the low-hanging 
 vines and sharp-thorned briers with which the 
 rebellious forest strives to protect itself against 
 man's encroachment. At such times he let his 
 horse pick the path, for he could not see it him- 
 self. 
 
 It was when he was emerging from one of 
 those half-choked lanes that his horse suddenly 
 stumbled. Had he been moving faster than the 
 flat-footed walk to which Dick had held him he 
 must certainly have fallen. As it was, Dick had 
 difficulty in keeping him on his feet. 
 
 The sudden pitch had almost unseated Dick. 
 He had grown to trust that dun pony, which had 
 proved himself to be unusually sure-footed. But
 
 i 3 4 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 now he floundered for a moment as if in serious 
 trouble, coming at last to a dead halt. 
 
 Dick looked down, but he could see nothing. 
 He wondered whether that blacksmith had not set 
 the shoe badly. And he was just about to slip 
 out of the saddle to investigate when a faint swish 
 caught his ear. The next instant something 
 flopped against the back of his neck and knocked 
 off his hat. And before he could guess what had 
 happened he felt his arms pulled tight against 
 his sides and a tremendous jerk dragged him 
 bodily from his seat and flung him headlong upon 
 the ground.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 CROSS CURRENTS 
 
 JULIAN MARR had returned to Rio Chico in a 
 most vicious humor. The help he had so con- 
 fidently expected from Washington had failed 
 him. What the situation required was a force- 
 ful, uncompromising note, backed up by the op- 
 portune presence of a battleship off Vera Cruz. 
 He knew enough of the native temperament to 
 be convinced that an argument of that sort was 
 all that was necessary to bring the de facto ad- 
 ministration to its senses. But the mild protest 
 of the United States Government did no good at 
 all. Indeed, the timid diplomacy of the Yankees 
 only served to arouse contempt. Conscious of 
 Uncle Sam's notoriously weak foreign policy, 
 Carranza seized the opportunity to defy Wash- 
 ington. Mexico's concessions were its own, to be 
 granted to whomsoever Mexico's proud statesmen 
 should deem fit. Amid enthusiastic applause an 
 
 135
 
 136 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 impassioned orator in the capital launched a bitter 
 attack upon "Yankee meddlers," while the Car- 
 ranzista newspapers, emboldened by the trend of 
 public sentiment, fed their readers daily with 
 scurrilous tirades against Yankeedom. And 
 through it all, Washington gave no sign that it 
 heard. . . . Perhaps it was too proud to hear. 
 
 Under the circumstances it was no wonder that 
 Julian Marr was enraged. For the first time in 
 his life, almost, luck seemed to be breaking 
 against him. And Marr was not one to brook de- 
 feat calmly. Opposition only stirred him to 
 greater effort. He was furious to think that he 
 had trusted so much to his Washington ally. 
 But at dhMHHI t " lie he felt a certain fierce satis- 
 faction 1ft fflMMlfcB * n at he must fight alone. 
 
 As soon as fie realized the trend of events he 
 bestirred himself to take matters into his own 
 hands. Appreciating the necessity for quick ac- 
 tion, he at once set off the first guns of the im- 
 pending conflict, in the shape of two telegrams 
 couched in cipher. One of these was addressed 
 to his land commissioner, Cisneros, and the other 
 to Wade Farrand. 
 
 Seated in Farrand's sitting-room, with a bottle
 
 CROSS CURRENTS 137 
 
 of Scotch within easy reach, and the gay chatter of 
 his daughter and her friend Miss Ashley to divert 
 him, Julian Marr had contrived to attain a some- 
 what more agreeable state of mind. He had even 
 laughed once or twice a thing he had not done 
 for days. And when Wade Farrand came into 
 the room he was astonished to find Marr with 
 a broad smile upon his face. 
 
 Farrand had dreaded meeting his chief. In 
 fact, he had purposely avoided him until Marr 
 should have settled himself among the ladies. 
 And Farrand was glad to see that he had turned 
 to Scotch and soda. Its benign effect was already 
 visible. 
 
 "Good evening, good people!" Farrand said. 
 And when he had shaken hands with Marr he 
 added, "I've a bit of news for you. Our friend 
 Bristow has disappeared." 
 
 "Disappeared!" both girls echoed. 
 
 "Yes ! It seems that after he left here he never 
 showed up at that old Mexican's house, where 
 he's been living." 
 
 "Why that was almost a week ago!" Janet 
 exclaimed. 
 
 "Was it? . . . I guess you're right," Farrand 
 said.
 
 138 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "What could have become of him?" Sylvia 
 Marr asked. 
 
 Farrand poured himself a drink as he an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Old Crispo that's the name of Bristow's pal 
 thinks he was kidnaped. He says so, anyhow. 
 . . . He had a good bit of money on him, I un- 
 derstand, to pay off the men they've had working 
 for them. ... If you want my opinion, I'll bet 
 he's made his getaway while the going was good." 
 
 Marr made no comment on the news. But he 
 nodded sagely, as if he cordially endorsed Far- 
 rand's judgment. 
 
 "You don't think he's " Janet began. But 
 
 she stopped abruptly. Somehow, she did not 
 like to put the thing into bald words. It was 
 not what she had expected from Dick Bristow. 
 
 "Vamoosed lit out!" Farrand finished for 
 her. 
 
 "He means he's run away," Janet explained 
 regretfully to Sylvia Marr, whose knowledge of 
 American slang was too slender to catch Farrand's 
 meaning. 
 
 Miss Marr turned to Farrand wonderingly. 
 
 "Why do you think that, pray?" she inquired. 
 
 "They all beat it, sooner or later those land
 
 CROSS CURRENTS , 139 
 
 sharks," Farrand told her with a confident smile. 
 "He was just trying to put over a get-rich-quick 
 scheme. And he saw it tumbling." 
 
 Marr looked at Janet significantly. 
 
 "It's come even sooner than I expected," he 
 observed. 
 
 "He might have been kidnaped. You don't 
 know," Janet objected. 
 
 Julian Marr bent toward her with an indulgent 
 twinkle in his eye. 
 
 "Bandits, my dear young lady," he declared, 
 "bandits do not spirit a man away for the mere 
 pleasure of hiding him in some isolated spot< 
 where they are under the necessity of both guard 
 ing him and feeding him. On the contrary, the) 
 hold their captives in order to extract ransom 
 from their families or their friends. . . . Hai 
 any demand for ransom money been made in thip. 
 case?" he asked Farrand. 
 
 Farrand shook his head. 
 
 "None at all !" he replied. 
 
 "You see!" Marr told Janet conclusively. 
 
 But she was still far from convinced. It seemed 
 to her that it was scarcely fair for them to con- 
 demn Bristow, untried and unheard, and brand 
 him as a quitter, if not as a thief.
 
 140 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "He he may have been killed and robbed 
 and his body hidden in the bush," she said 
 slowly. 
 
 Sylvia Marr shuddered as Janet put forth her 
 gruesome theory. But it had little effect, ap- 
 parently, upon either Farrand or the older man. 
 
 "Are they not searching for him?" Janet asked 
 them. 
 
 "Old Crispo claims to be," Farrand said lightly. 
 
 "But the Company " she persisted. 
 
 "Surely you have men whom you could spare." 
 
 Marr came to Farrand's assistance then. 
 
 "If we assumed guardianship over every 
 scalawag who comes to this country we would 
 make mighty little sugar," he told her. "Don't 
 worry over that chap. He may be in Havana 
 by this timer or on his way to South America, 
 more likely. It's harder to find people there." 
 
 But still Janet could not get Dick Bristow out 
 of her mind. That night she even dreamed of 
 him as lying in the darkness of a dense thicket. 
 She had seen a horde of buzzards the afternoon 
 before, while riding with Farrand. They had 
 gathered about a decrepit mule which some one 
 had turned adrift to shift for himself. It was 
 evident that the poor animal had not much longer
 
 CROSS CURRENTS 141 
 
 to live. And those disgusting scavengers were 
 waiting until they could begin their ghoulish work. 
 In her dream they came back again to haunt her- 
 She tried frantically to keep them away from that 
 thicket. But as fast as she frightened them off 
 a myriad of others dropped down from the sky. 
 . . . Janet awoke sobbing. 
 
 After the feminine contingency had retired, 
 Julian Marr turned to Farrand. 
 
 "This is a pretty good time for Miss Ashley 
 to sell out to me, eh?" he remarked. 
 
 But his companion did not agree with him. 
 
 "Wild horses couldn't drag that land out of 
 her clutches," Farrand declared. "She'll cling to 
 it like grim death, until that option expires. . . . 
 What's your hurry? Why not wait a bit? In a 
 little more than five months the option will be 
 void. And then Miss Janet may feel more like 
 disposing of her share of the property." Far- 
 rand was resolved to do what he could to prevent 
 Marr from renewing his offer to Janet. 
 
 But Julian Marr was no procrastinator. 
 
 "There's no time like the present," he growled. 
 
 "Yes! yes!" Farrand hastened to agree. "But 
 don't you see that the girl is disturbed over Bris-
 
 i 4 2 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 tow's disappearance? It strikes me she feels that 
 she owes it to Bristow to hang on to her rights 
 until she disposes of them to him. I don't under- 
 stand her attitude at all. She has some peculiar 
 notion in her head. You know how foggy women 
 are about most business transactions?" 
 
 "You know almost too much about women, 
 Wade," Marr observed with a sarcastic smile. 
 "I bow to your superior intelligence. The mat- 
 ter shall wait." 
 
 Although Farrand had little fear that Marr 
 could induce Janet to reconsider her decision, 
 nevertheless he was relieved to know that he 
 would not have to worry on that score. Before 
 Marr should renew his offer to Janet, Farrand 
 hoped, as her husband, to have the management 
 of her business affairs in his own hands. Then, 
 perhaps, he would sell Julian Marr what he 
 wanted so much but at a figure commensurate 
 with the true worth of the property. 
 
 To be sure, Janet had not yet given Farrand 
 her answer. But she had not rejected him. And 
 he still had high hopes. No news was good news 
 in his estimation. 
 
 Janet was, in all truth, in a quandary. She 
 had found Farrand both interesting and attractive
 
 CROSS CURRENTS 143 
 
 in many ways. But she hardly thought that she 
 loved him. Perhaps she did not know what love 
 is, she told herself. But it seemed to her that 
 before marrying a man a girl should be moved 
 by some stronger emotion than she had yet ex- 
 perienced. Would it come to her, if she waited? 
 That was the question that perplexed her. And 
 meanwhile, since Farrand preferred no answer at 
 all rather than an adverse one, she delayed her 
 decision in the hope that some influence, as yet 
 unfelt, would eventually determine the matter for 
 her in no uncertain way.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 
 
 IT was not the dun pony's fault that he had 
 stumbled. In the narrow path lay the noose of 
 a lariat, cunningly stretched upon twigs stuck into 
 the ground, where the shadow of a great tree con- 
 cealed the trap. That noose had proved the 
 pony's and his rider's undoing. 
 
 As they came to an abrupt halt an indistinct 
 form had slipped out from behind the big tree. 
 Dick had not seen that lurking figure. The 
 ominous swish, followed by the thump of another 
 lariat falling about his shoulders, had given him 
 his first hint of peril. 
 
 After his fall from his horse he had tried to 
 regain his feet. But other men sprang out of 
 the night as if by magic. And following the ex- 
 ample of the skilful roper, they threw themselves 
 upon Dick's prostrate form and effectually 
 knocked out of him what little breath his tumble 
 
 144
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 145 
 
 had spared him. Amid a chorus of fierce Span- 
 ish oaths they bound their captive's hands behind 
 him; and picking him up bodily, they set him 
 astride his horse again. Then some one tied a 
 rope to one of Dick's ankles, passing the end of 
 it under his mount's belly to another member of 
 the band who completed the operation of secur- 
 ing it to Dick's other leg. From a neighboring 
 thicket the gang then produced their own horses. 
 
 It was a gruesome procession that started off 
 across the savannah in the moonlight. Two of 
 Dick's captors led the way, with their prisoner 
 and another rider following them closely, while 
 the remaining pair of bandits formed a rear- 
 guard. 
 
 For some time they proceeded in silence 
 through the level, park-like barren. Countless 
 cabbage-palms stretched away from them in every 
 direction. And so confused was Dick from the 
 effects of his mauling and the suddenness of the 
 attack that he had not the slightest notion of the 
 direction in which they were traveling. Of one 
 thing, however, he was soon convinced. They 
 had left the trail that led to Jose Crispo's house. 
 
 On and on they rode. Dick could only make a 
 vague guess as to the distance they covered. They
 
 i 4 6 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 must, at least, have spent nearly three hours in 
 the saddle, he decided for the moon had shifted 
 far over in the cloudless heavens. 
 
 For some time they had been following a 
 bridle-path through a dense forest. Without a 
 hand to ward off unseen branch or vine, Dick 
 bent low over his horse's withers. And he was 
 not sorry when they emerged at last into a siza- 
 ble clearing. That hole cut in the heart of the 
 bush appeared to Dick to be a brava~one of 
 those concealed retreats upon which one occa- 
 sionally stumbles, which have served in time of 
 war to hide women and children. 
 
 In the center of the clearing stood a few 
 thatched huts huddled together; and in frqnt of 
 one of these the party dismounted. A light glim- 
 mered from the doorway of the shack and a man 
 carrying a lantern came out and spoke to them. 
 He walked up to Dick, whose hobbled legs effect- 
 ually prevented his stirring from his horse, and 
 holding up the lantern so that its rays fell full 
 upon Dick's face the feilow laughed as if hugely 
 amused at the prisoner's plight. 
 
 "Welcome!" he said in Spanish, and his fat 
 face was wreathed in smiles. "I have been ex- 
 pecting you, senor, for some time. Are you not
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 147 
 
 going to alight?" The fellow grinned at his 
 pleasantry. "Pray enter!" he added. "This is 
 your house. I am your servant," he said, with 
 mock hospitality. 
 
 Dick thanked him. 
 
 "I'll come in," he answered, "as soon as you 
 take this lariat off my legs. Your friends here 
 were kind enough to tie me to my horse. I sup- 
 pose they feared I might fall asleep and tumble 
 off." 
 
 "Ah! they are indeed kind these boys! Such 
 good fellows!" the other chuckled. "Here, 
 Ramon! Help me with our guest! Where are 
 your manners, hombre?" 
 
 One of the horsemen sprang to the assistance 
 of his fat comrade. And between them they soon 
 freed Dick's legs and pulled him off his horse. 
 His hands they still left securely tied. 
 
 "Why all this hospitality, if I may ask?" said 
 Dick, as the rest of the gang returned from 
 tethering their horses to the fence in front of 
 the house and gathered about him. 
 
 The only answer he received was a brutal kick 
 from one of his captors he who had ridden in 
 the lead and guided the party to that remote 
 clearing.
 
 i 4 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Shut up!" he growled. "And do as you are 
 told, or it will be the worse for you." 
 
 "Have a care, Pepe!" the fat man said in play- 
 ful reproof. "What a way to treat a guest! . . . 
 Or were you trying to help him to the palace?" 
 He inclined his head in the direction of the dilapi- 
 dated hut. 
 
 But the other seemed little given to humor. 
 
 "Vamos!" he said. "Come on! I, for one, am 
 hungry as a pig." And with that he started for 
 the house, leaving the others to follow. 
 
 It struck Dick that there was something 
 vaguely familiar about the man they called Pepe. 
 His voice, too, haunted Dick with the feeling that 
 he had heard it before. And once inside the hut 
 he solved the mystery promptly. In the flickering 
 light of the lantern Dick recognized him at once. 
 He was a lean mestizo whom he knew as the sole 
 barber that Rio Chico boasted. He had cut 
 Dick's hair on several occasions, and had even 
 shaved him, too, though the suspicion attached to 
 the chap hardly tended to make one feel any too 
 comfortable as the barber's razor lingered over 
 one's throat. Rumor identified the ill-favored 
 Pepe as the former right-hand man of the noto- 
 rious bandit Fernandez, who had. so terrorized
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 149 
 
 three states as to make his name a household bug- 
 aboo. 
 
 The fellow scowled as he saw that Dick recog- 
 nized him. 
 
 "You're a long way from home," Dick re- 
 marked to him. 
 
 "I can still use a razor," the ruffian vouch- 
 safed. "Take care that I don't have to draw one 
 across your windpipe, senor." 
 
 It was apparent that the fat man had, indeed, 
 expected them. On a bench-like structure in the 
 center of the main room coffee boiled merrily over 
 a charcoal fire and a steaming pot threw off an 
 agreeable odor. Their rotund host produced tin 
 plates and spoons; and immediately his guests 
 turned to and helped themselves liberally to the 
 savory mess from the pot. Meanwhile he of the 
 moon face and the engaging smile untied Dick's 
 hands and set out a generous share of the refresh- 
 ments for him. 
 
 Though the kidnapers had taken away his re- 
 volver when they first waylaid him, two of them 
 took the precaution of examining Dick's clothes 
 once more for concealed weapons. They found 
 nothing, however. And after chafing his be- 
 numbed wrists for a few minutes until he could
 
 150 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 manage his spoon, Dick ate the bacalao codfish, 
 cooked with rice which the Mexicans esteem so 
 highly. 
 
 "Now," said the mestizo, Pepe, as he finished 
 sucking up his coffee, "now we shall see what the 
 Yanqui pig carries in his pockets." And he or- 
 dered Dick to strip off his clothes. 
 
 Mr. Bristow politely obliged. Under the urg- 
 ing of the versatile barber he divested himself of 
 every stitch he had on, not even excepting shoes 
 and stockings. And then he waited in the state 
 of nature, shivering from the cold, while the 
 bandit Pepe emptied every pocket and carefully 
 examined every garment to make sure that he 
 overlooked nothing. 
 
 Dick's watch and money the fellow promptly 
 transferred to his own keeping, paying scant heed 
 to the protesting murmur of his companions, who 
 seemed to think that they, too, should share in 
 the spoils. 
 
 "There's nothing here," he said shortly, toss- 
 ing Dick's garments back to him. "Bring in his 
 saddle-bags!" he commanded one of his lieuten- 
 ants. And soon he had dumped the contents of 
 the bags upon the dirt floor. 
 
 At the sight of the two canvas money-sacks
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 151 
 
 which contained the coin and bills Dick had 
 brought for the purpose of paying off his labor- 
 ers, the remaining five of his captors momentarily 
 forgot their prisoner. They crowded together, 
 chattering excitedly. 
 
 "It must be divided equally," the fat man de- 
 clared, who alone of the party seemed to stand in 
 no awe of the leader. 
 
 "You'll all get your share," the mestizo said 
 sourly. 
 
 "It is well," the other replied. He turned and 
 beamed upon Dick. "I am sure our friend here 
 would wish each of us to share the good fortune 
 no?" 
 
 "By all means!" Dick told him. 
 
 It did not please the others at all when Pepe 
 threw the sacks into a corner, with the remark 
 that they would divide the booty after they had 
 slept. And after some wrangling he yielded. It 
 was when the fat man added his protestation to 
 that of the others that Pepe let them have their 
 way. 
 
 After each had counted his portion of the 
 money and stowed it carefully away the high- 
 waymen began to yawn. And soon, with the con- 
 sent of the surly Pepe, two of them disappeared
 
 152 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 into the boxlike sleeping-room at the rear of the 
 house. Two others Pepe ordered to remain, to 
 guard the prisoner. And since Dick saw no rea- 
 son why he should lose any more of his beauty 
 sleep, he stretched himself upon a makeshift 
 bench, constructed of two boards split from the 
 trunk of a palm and supported at either end by a 
 cubical kerosene can. For warmth he had donned 
 his slicker, which one of the men had unfastened 
 from his saddle. And soon he was fast asleep. 
 
 As for Pepe the barber and his fat companion, 
 hey lighted another lantern and went out into 
 the night. It was dark outside, for the moon 
 had set. But they did not go far. They merely 
 pushed into another of the long-deserted huts; 
 and there they proceeded to discuss the night's 
 work. 
 
 After a conversation which would have af- 
 forded their captive no end of interest, had he 
 heard it, they stretched their hammocks, rolled 
 themselves in their blankets, with heads com- 
 pletely covered and legs sticking out for so the 
 country Mexican disposes himself for the night 
 and proceeded to lose themselves in the deep 
 slumber which blesses those whose consciences are 
 untroubled.
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 153 
 
 The sun was streaming through the doorway 
 when Dick awoke, to discover that his guard had 
 been changed while he slept. Only one of the 
 band watched him now. It was with some dif- 
 ficulty that he rose from his improvised bed, for 
 the spring of the palm-boards was a negligible 
 quantity. What with his fall from his horse when 
 he was roped and thrown, the rough handling he 
 had received, and the damp cold of the tropical 
 night, he had not needed the assistance of so 
 hard a couch to make him sore in every muscle. 
 The Mexican grinned as Dick stretched himself 
 gingerly. 
 
 "Good-morning!" the guard said. "You have 
 slept well, no?" 
 
 "One could wish for a better bed," Dick told 
 him. 
 
 "You will get used to that," the rascal observed 
 pleasantly, "that is, if you do not displease Pepe 
 Moreno too much. And in that case you will not 
 need to worry about such a thing as a bed. In 
 fact, you will not need to worry about anything 
 in this world." 
 
 The insinuation did not trouble Dick greatly. 
 But he did not relish the thought of spending
 
 154 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 much time as a prisoner in that hidden pocket in 
 the jungle. 
 
 "Where's Senor Gordo Mr. Fat Man?" Dick 
 asked. 
 
 "Fernandez, you mean?" the fellow inquired. 
 "He and Pepe have ridden away and left the 
 four of us to keep you company." 
 
 "Fernandez!" Dick exclaimed. "That little, 
 
 round ball of a man is not the er " He did 
 
 not know exactly how to say what was on the tip 
 of his tongue. But his guard had no such deli- 
 cacy of feeling. His sensibilities were not so re- 
 fined as to prevent his calling a spade by its cus- 
 tomary name. 
 
 "He is, indeed, the famous bandit," he said, 
 with what seemed an air of pride. 
 
 Dick looked at him in silence for a few mo- 
 ments. He had not dreamed that that smiling, 
 unctuous roly-poly was the most notorious brigand 
 in the whole tierra caliente. 
 
 "And you ?" he inquired. "Are you, also, some 
 celebrated personage?" 
 
 The man smiled good-naturedly enough. 
 
 "I am just a poor hombre," he said, shaking 
 his head, "a poor man who tries to pick up a
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 155 
 
 penny when he can, by doing Fernandez a good 
 turn now and then. He is a kind soul Fernan- 
 dez ! He is ready always to share everything 
 with his friends. . . . Quite different from that 
 dog of a Pepe," he added with a whine. 
 
 "What's the game?" Dick asked him suddenly, 
 lowering his voice. "Am I to be held for ransom? 
 Tell me! I promise you shalJ not be the loser 
 by it!" 
 
 The other waved a finger at him to indicate 
 that he had no information to divulge. 
 
 "You must know," Dick persisted. 
 
 "No, my friend! I only follow orders. We 
 four are to stay here with you until the others re- 
 turn. That is all I can say, for it is all I know." 
 And that was all Dick could extract from him. 
 
 The prospect, even viewed optimistically, was 
 far from alluring. If hearsay went for any- 
 thing, Dick knew that Fernandez deserved his un- 
 savory reputation. Although the number of men 
 he had killed had doubtless not decreased in the 
 telling, he certainly would not stop at murder 
 when it served his purpose. And when ransom 
 money was slow in forthcoming he had a most 
 unpleasant habit of despatching an ear to a pris-
 
 156 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 oner's relations, in order to hurry matters along. 
 If they still delayed payment, a second ear gen- 
 erally followed. That usually did the business, 
 for events had proved further procrastination to 
 be most unwise. Indeed, unless he were ran- 
 somed at once, at that stage of the proceedings, 
 the owner of the ears seldom returned to claim 
 his property at all. 
 
 Under the circumstances it was only natural 
 that Dick's thoughts should turn toward escape, 
 despite the overwhelming odds against him. 
 There was, at least, some slight consolation in the 
 fact that the absence of Fernandez and the mes- 
 tizo Pepe had reduced his captors a third in num- 
 bers. Dick reflected, too, that doubtless the re- 
 moval of those two seasoned bandits must sub- 
 stantially affect the fighting morale of the men 
 who were left. But even so, the prospect of at- 
 tacking his four armed guards while he was him- 
 self weaponless was by no means attractive. Still 
 Dick could not help turning the matter over in his 
 mind. 
 
 "Where are your three friends?" he asked his 
 solitary guard. 
 
 "All asleep!" the fellow said, jerking a thumb
 
 AN UNWILLING GUEST 157 
 
 toward the rear room. It was clear that in the 
 absence of the two chieftains the others had re- 
 laxed their vigilance. 
 
 Dick knew, from experience, that those pens 
 which serve the country people for bedrooms were 
 invariably without any opening except the one 
 door which connected with the main room, for 
 your rural Mexican prefers his sleeping quarters 
 to be as nearly hermetically sealed as may be pos- 
 sible. And in this instance the door was shut. 
 Dick's heart leaped within him. 
 
 He cast a cautious and searching glance about 
 the room. But he saw nothing that he could pos- 
 sibly use as an improvised weapon. His com- 
 panion, on the other hand, was well armed. 
 Through the slit of his nondescript upper gar- 
 ment, which combined shirt and coat, the stock of 
 a heavy revolver protruded near his right hip. 
 At the left a machete hung, swordlike. And 
 through the thin brown linen Dick could easily 
 make out the bulge of a sheathed knife attached 
 to his belt in the middle of his back. 
 
 Dick realized that his only chance in coping 
 with that walking arsenal lay in his disabling the 
 ruffian before he could bring any of his weapons 
 into play. He weighed the risk hurriedly in his
 
 I 5 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 mind. One swift, crushing blow, landed in the 
 right spot, would put him in possession of the 
 revolver. But if he failed well ! one had always 
 to take chances in life. . . . 
 
 "Who's that?" he asked the Greaser suddenly, 
 pointing through the open doorway. 
 
 Caught off his guard for a moment, the fellow 
 jumped to his feet and peered out. 
 
 And then Dick leaped towards him. 
 
 As he sprang, the man wheeled and snatched 
 at his revolver. He did not attempt to draw the 
 gun. The leather about the trigger and the end 
 of the barrel as well was cut away. And pointing 
 holster and all at Dick he tired point-blank at him.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 AT THE END OF THE STREET 
 
 JOSE CRISPO was genuinely alarmed. Pay-day 
 came and went; and still Dick did not return with 
 the money. Old Jose did not hesitate long. Tak- 
 ing one of his numerous sons with him a tall, 
 upstanding young fellow he set out for Rio 
 Chico to learn what he could of the whereabouts 
 of the missing gringo. 
 
 At every house along the way they paused to 
 make inquiry a precaution which delayed them 
 little, so sparsely was the whole region settled. 
 They had been less than two hours on their jour- 
 ney when they reached the hut where Dick had 
 waited until the moon should rise. 
 
 The story that Jose Crispo heard there left no 
 doubt in his mind that Dick had been waylaid and 
 robbed. Where he was whether he was at that 
 moment even alive were questions which he was 
 utterly at a loss to solve. 
 
 Turning back then, Crispo and his son rode 
 159
 
 homeward again. But look as sharply as they 
 would, they could discover no trace of the man 
 they sought. 
 
 Among his nearest neighbors the old man or- 
 ganized such assistance as he was able. And 
 mounting as many of his own sons and De Boer's 
 laborers as he could supply with horses, he con- 
 ducted a fairly systematic search for Dick. But 
 not a single sign did they find that even faintly 
 suggested the manner of his disappearance. The 
 gringo with the big chin had vanished as com- 
 pletely as if the forest had opened and hugged 
 him to its breast. 
 
 It was then that Jose Crispo rode to Rio Chico 
 with his news. He had hoped, vainly, to find that 
 some forgotten business detail had led Dick to 
 return there. But once in the village he remained 
 as mystified as ever. He then sent the first tele- 
 gram of his life. And as soon as Thomas De 
 Boer received it he took the first train south- 
 ward. 
 
 De Boer arrived at Rio Chico the following 
 day, armed with a letter from the generalissimo 
 of the Constitutionalist army which was addressed 
 to the captain of the detachment of rural guards 
 stationed at Julian Marr's town.
 
 AT THE END OF THE STREET 161 
 
 He went straight to the barracks to deliver his 
 note. 
 
 El capitdn read the stilted epistle with interest. 
 Since it had long ago become a matter of course 
 to attribute all depredations in that section of the 
 country to the bandit Fernandez, the general had 
 at once jumped at the conclusion that that pre- 
 cious rascal was at the bottom of the present 
 trouble. And besides, there was a rumor cur- 
 rent (which had reached Mexico City) to the 
 effect that people had lately seen Fernandez in 
 that locality. He had therefore sent instructions 
 to his captain to renew the periodic hunt for 
 Fernandez, to take him, in short, dead or alive. 
 And incidentally he reminded his officer of the 
 price which the government had set upon Fernan- 
 dez's head. 
 
 But that was not why el capitdn smiled as he 
 read his orders. The detail pleased him because 
 it was understood that any officers and men en- 
 gaged in the agreeable pastime of stalking Fer- 
 nandez should receive double pay. . . . Possibly 
 that was the reason why the elusive gentleman 
 still roamed at large. Surely it would have been 
 stupid to kill a goose that laid eggs of that sort ! 
 
 The officer stuffed the note inside his khaki
 
 1 62 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 tunic and hastened to set out a drink of brandy 
 for his caller. Such acquaintance as he had had 
 with Americans had taught him that that was the 
 surest method of establishing cordial relations 
 with them. 
 
 "Everything shall be done as the general says,'* 
 
 he assured De Boer. "Mariana " De Boer 
 
 had been expecting that inevitable "to-morrow" 
 "manana I will send out scouting parties. I will 
 even lead one myself. And if you like you shall 
 accompany us." 
 
 So the matter was arranged. That evening 
 Jose Crispo borrowed a horse for De Boer from 
 one of the storekeepers, who also took Dick's 
 chief into his house for the night. 
 
 It was not long before every soul in the village 
 knew what was afoot. And Crispo found himself 
 deluged with suggestions as to the bandit's pos- 
 sible whereabouts. So absurd were some of them 
 that any one of a suspicious turn of mind might 
 almost have supposed them to be inspired by a 
 desire to send the searchers on a fruitless chase. 
 But el capitdn to De Boer's astonishment 
 religiously made note of them all. 
 
 Later that night, when the American and 
 Crispo returned to the storekeeper's dwelling in
 
 AT THE END OF THE STREET 163 
 
 the rear of his shop, they found a boy waiting for 
 them. He whispered a few words to Crispo, who 
 soon turned to De Boer and said: 
 
 "He tells me that some one wishes to talk with 
 us some one in a house at the further end of 
 this street. He will not say who it is. But it is 
 evident that the business concerns Senor Bristow. 
 The boy will show us the way. . . . Shall we 
 follow him?" 
 
 After the foolishness to which he had been lis- 
 tening in the barracks De Boer was prompted to 
 say "No." But on second thought he decided that 
 circumstances did not warrant the rejection, un- 
 heard, of any possible clue. 
 
 "All right !" he agreed. "We may as well hear 
 one as another." And with that they started. 
 
 When their guide had piloted them past a num- 
 ber of cafes and shops he turned suddenly down a 
 dark side-street, which brought them, after a few 
 steps, to an alley which ran parallel to the street 
 they had just left. 
 
 "Have the goodness to go quietly," he said to 
 them, as he motioned to them to follow. "It is 
 desired that no one shall see you in this place." 
 
 As they stole along the star-lit passage De Boer 
 noticed that numerous doors opened into it. And
 
 1 64 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 he saw, too, that the further end of the alley was 
 closed by a blank wall. Staid New York business 
 man that he was, he could think of many pleas- 
 anter situations. Prowling through that blind 
 alley at night to meet a mysterious stranger sa- 
 vored too much of the fantastic to suit his taste. 
 It occurred to him, moreover, that any one step- 
 ping out of one of those doors that they had 
 passed could effectually cut off their retreat. The 
 idea was not an agreeable one especially when 
 he considered the nature of his errand, concern- 
 ing as it did the sudden disappearance of another 
 American. And the thought came to him that 
 Jose Crispo might know more about Dick than 
 he claimed. De Boer was no coward. But he 
 put his hand in his coat-pocket. There was com- 
 fort in the feel of the automatic pistol that he 
 carried there. 
 
 Near the end of the passage the boy knocked 
 lightly on a door. And soon they found them- 
 selves in a bare, barn-like room. There were a 
 few cheap chairs, a bed, a table ; and to De Boer's 
 satisfaction, an acetylene flame furnished plenty 
 of light. The man who admitted them to the 
 house bade them be seated. And then he left
 
 AT THE END OF THE STREET 165 
 
 them, to return after a few minutes with a good- 
 looking native girl. 
 
 "My sister-in-law!" he explained. "She wishes 
 to tell you something that will interest you. . . . 
 There is no time to lose," he said to the girl sig- 
 nificantly. And motioning to the boy to stay, he 
 disappeared into the front part of the building, 
 closing the door carefully behind him. 
 
 De Boer, no less than Crispo, looked at the 
 girl in surprise. They had not expected to meet 
 a woman. And furthermore, this one was unde- 
 niably pretty. Her dead black hair and slightly 
 staring eyes contrasted startlingly with the pallor 
 of her face, which she had powdered with a lavish 
 hand. She was dressed in a bizarre fashion in a 
 tight-fitting gown covered with spangles. And in 
 her ears glittered stones which might have cost 
 almost anything or nothing. At all events, her 
 costume displayed her sleek figure to advantage. 
 De Boer had seen her like before, on the streets 
 of Havana. And he had a shrewd suspicion that 
 she owed something of her physical perfection to 
 a touch of the African, which a preponderance of 
 Spanish blood had subdued and refined but not 
 entirely subjugated. She impressed him, some-
 
 1 66 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 how, as a splendid, tigerish animal, docile at 
 times, but a vixen when roused. 
 
 "You wish to speak with us?" he asked her, 
 since she seemed at a loss for words. 
 
 "Yes, senor'' she answered, relieved to find 
 that he could manage her language, albeit some- 
 what lamely. He had, as a matter of fact, spent 
 enough time in South America to pick up a smat- 
 tering of Spanish. 
 
 "It is about the American, Bristow?" 
 
 "Yes, senor." 
 
 "What do you know about him?" he persisted. 
 
 She fanned herself nervously under his cross 
 examination. 
 
 "He is alive," she said at length. "He is held 
 in the country a prisoner." 
 
 "Where?" Jose Crispo broke in, with an eager- 
 ness which convinced De Boer of his anxiety. 
 
 "That I do not know," the girl answered. "But 
 the place is not more than six leagues from your 
 house." 
 
 "How do you know this?" De Boer demanded. 
 
 "That I cannot tell you," she replied. "But 
 what I say is true. And you must let no one know 
 that I have spoken with you. If you should, they
 
 AT THE END OF THE STREET 167 
 
 would make me pay." Fear plainly showed in her 
 dark eyes as she regarded him intently. 
 
 "They!" he exclaimed. "Whom do you mean 
 by they?" 
 
 "Pepe and Fernandez!" 
 
 "But that rascal of a barber is here," Crispo 
 objected. "I saw him this very day, with my own 
 eyes." 
 
 "In the daytime yes!" she answered haught- 
 ily. "But one can ride far in a night, senor. He 
 is even now gone to the place where the gringo 
 is imprisoned. . . . This is all I can tell you," 
 she added. And she shot a suggestive look at 
 the boy who had brought them to the house. "Get 
 Ricardo!" she commanded sharply. 
 
 "I have told them all," she announced with an 
 air of finality, when her alleged brother-in-law 
 had returned. 
 
 "It is not much," Crispo grumbled. "I think 
 she knows more." 
 
 The girl's eyes flashed as she turned upon him 
 angrily. 
 
 "Listen, old man " she cried, "is it not 
 
 something to know that you have to look for a live 
 gringo instead of a dead one ?"
 
 i68 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Yes!" Jose Crispo admitted. "But in the 
 name of the Virgin, where are we to search? The 
 country is big. And anything may happen to our 
 friend while we are hunting for him." 
 
 The man Ricardo shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "That is not her fault," he said. . . . "Why do 
 you not set a watch on Pepe? Why do you not 
 follow him the next time he rides away in the 
 night?" 
 
 But Crispo was pessimistic. 
 
 "He is too clever that scamp!" he observed. 
 
 Ricardo turned towards the door then the 
 door that opened into the alley. 
 
 "I am sorry if I seem inhospitable, gentlemen," 
 he said. "This house is, naturally, your home. 
 But you will be wise if you do not occupy it too 
 
 long to-night. Some other time, if you will 
 
 But to-night no !" 
 
 Polite as it was, the hint was too obvious to be 
 disregarded. So De Boer thanked the dark 
 beauty. And he wished her good-night. But 
 Jose Crispo wasted no felicitations upon her. He 
 would have liked to twist her arm until she told 
 him more. 
 
 They had scarcely risen from their seats; and 
 the man Ricardo's hand was reaching for the bolt
 
 on the door when a loud knock upon it sent him 
 suddenly back. 
 
 For a moment they stood in utter silence and 
 stared at one another. It was clear that the girl 
 was alarmed. And Ricardo, too, appeared ill 
 at ease. 
 
 After a brief interval the knock was repeated. 
 
 "Come this way!" the man whispered, beckon- 
 ing to them to follow him into the next room. "I 
 will let you out into the street. ... It is to be 
 hoped that no one will see you leaving." 
 
 The front of the house was quite dark; and 
 De Boer barked his shins against some heavy 
 piece of furniture as he stumbled through the 
 blackness. 
 
 Then something happened that sent Ricardo 
 into a string of muffled curses. Some one was 
 at the front door now. It rattled ominously 
 under a terrific pounding. And De Boer heard a 
 bang as of another door slammed shut behind him. 
 He groped along the wall until his hand fell upon 
 the latch. But to his consternation that inner 
 door was locked fast. 
 
 Was it a trap? As the thought flashed into 
 his mind he called himself a fool for having come 
 to that strange house on so vague an errand, and
 
 i yo THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 in company with so recent and untried an ac- 
 quaintance as old Jose. 
 
 "Crispo !" he called, as his eyes strove to pierce 
 the gloom. But Jose Crispo did not answer. In- 
 stead a woman's voice rose in a shrill scream.
 
 MARK HEARS ENOUGH 
 
 JULIAN MARR seldom cumbered his mind with 
 details. That was one of the secrets of his suc- 
 cess. An excellent judge of men, he surrounded 
 himself with assistants whom he could trust to 
 execute his orders without inquiry as to ways and 
 means. When he issued a command to an em- 
 ployee he expected results. And in the main it 
 was immaterial to him how those results were 
 obtained. 
 
 The telegrams he had sent to Cisneros and 
 Farrand from Mexico City were entirely charac- 
 teristic of him: "Aguacate not to be sold. Re- 
 cover option." 
 
 Cisneros had done what he could. He had sent 
 two men into the Hotel Inglaterra with instruc- 
 tions to relieve Mr. Bristow of the desired docu- 
 ment. And when they reported their failure to 
 him he had been justifiably dismayed. He knew 
 
 171
 
 172 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 that Marr was impatient of failure. But he had 
 immediately wired news of the abortive attempt 
 to the great Englishman, for he realized that neg- 
 lect to do that would have been unforgivable. 
 And by apprising his chief of the fact that Bristow 
 had the option on his person he hoped to mitigate 
 Marr's displeasure. Moreover, he had advised 
 Marr of Bristow's movements. It had been a 
 simple matter to ascertain the point to which he 
 had bought his railroad ticket. 
 
 Wade Farrand had gone about his task with 
 more determination than the native land commis- 
 sioner had displayed. Thoroughness was one of 
 his strong points. And the trap he set for Dick 
 permitted small chance of escape. The supple- 
 mentary telegram which Marr had sent him the 
 one he had opened in Dick's presence had in- 
 formed him of the de facto government's defiance 
 of the protest from Washington. Farrand sensed, 
 then, the disaster that threatened his own pet 
 scheme to marry Janet and so obtain control of 
 her share of the mine. He had trusted to Marr's 
 ability to hold De Boer's operations in check. 
 And when he saw that Marr was on the verge of 
 utter rout he redoubled his own efforts to frustrate 
 Dick's plans. He left no stone undisturbed the
 
 MARK HEARS ENOUGH 1731 
 
 turning of which would contribute to the success 
 of the undertaking. 
 
 It was Farrand who had ordered the Com- 
 pany's blacksmith to twist a shoe half of Dick's 
 horse. It was Farrand who had contrived to hold 
 Dick in Rio Chico by the pretense that he ex- 
 pected Julian Marr that day. And again, it was 
 Farrand who had conceived the idea of the note 
 purporting to come from Jose Crispo, calling 
 Dick home late in the afternoon, when night 
 must surely overtake him. 
 
 Pepe the barber had performed sundry services 
 for Farrand before. And between them they had 
 carefully worked out the details of Dick's kid- 
 naping. The robbery had been merely incidental. 
 That was a piece of luck for Pepe and his fel- 
 lows and something that Farrand knew nothing 
 about. The option was what Farrand wanted. 
 And when Pepe returned to Rio Chico and told 
 him that he had failed to find it on the American, 
 Marr's henchman was indeed dismayed. 
 
 He considered the situation intently. Lacking 
 the option, it occurred to him that the next best 
 thing would be to hold prisoner the man to whom 
 it had been issued. Pepe assured him that there 
 was not the slightest chance that any one could
 
 i 7 4 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 locate that out-of-the-way retreat in the forest. 
 
 "What if they call out the ruralesf Farrand 
 asked him doubtfully. He knew the rural guard 
 to be thoroughly familiar with even the wildest 
 sections of the State. 
 
 "You forget that I have Fernandez to help 
 me," Pepe reminded him. x "Even now he is wait- 
 ing for me at the house of a friend not two kilo- 
 meters away. And when have the rurales trou- 
 bled Fernandez? No! I tell you we can hold 
 the gringo there until his beard is a yard long, 
 before any one will disturb us." 
 
 So Farrand sent the rascal away again. 
 
 On his own account, even more than Marr's, 
 Wade Farrand regretted the fact that his plans 
 had miscarried to the extent of not placing the 
 option in his hands. If he could only have ob- 
 tained possession of that ominous document he 
 would have burned it in short order. And its 
 destruction would have put a conclusive quietus 
 upon the Bristow-De Boer .attempt to buy Janet's 
 and Marr's mine. To be sure, there was nothing 
 to prevent them from building their railroad and 
 developing the mining properties of Bristow and 
 the old Mexican, Crispo. But Farrand cared not 
 a fig for those contingencies. What he wanted
 
 MARK HEARS ENOUGH 175 
 
 was to marry Janet provided he could be sure 
 that there was no chance of her having to part 
 with her share of Aguacate for a paltry thirty- 
 five thousand dollars. 
 
 Farrand drank much during those days of 
 worry; and now the situation perplexed him more 
 than ever. Janet had not yet given him her an- 
 swer, and he hesitated to urge her further, but 
 at the same time he suffered an agony of appre- 
 hension lest she should someho^ learn of the min- 
 eral discovery. If Janet stumbled upon that news 
 he was afraid she might suspect his sudden ardor. 
 She was quick-witted, he knew; and Farrand had 
 a wholesome respect for the intuition of women. 
 At least, he hoped for the best; and incidentally 
 he carefully kept all Mexican newspapers out of 
 the way of his guests. There was no knowing 
 when some report of the iron find might appear 
 in the daily prints from Mexico City. 
 
 Despite Pepe Moreno's assurance that he could 
 hide Bristow for an indefinite time, Farrand felt 
 less secure than he could have wished. If Pepe 
 had only found the option on Bristow, all would 
 have been clear sailing. Much as Farrand dis- 
 liked to tell Julian Marr that the coveted docu- 
 ment was still unrecovered, nevertheless he was
 
 1 76 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 anxious to know his wily chief's opinion of the 
 situation, for he held Marr's judgment in great 
 respect. 
 
 "By the way, what do you suppose has actually 
 become of that chap Bristow?" Marr asked Far- 
 rand, that first night after his return from Mexico 
 City, when Farrand had persuaded him to let 
 Janet bide her time, on the plea that if left to 
 herself she would eventually change her mind with 
 regard to selling her share of Aguacate. "I hope 
 you got your hands on that confounded option 
 before he disappeared," he continued, before Far- 
 rand had answered his question. 
 
 Wade Farrand shifted uncomfortably in his 
 chair. 
 
 "I haven't been able to locate it yet," he ad- 
 mitted reluctantly. 
 
 "The devil you haven't 1" Marr exploded. 
 "What's the matter with you, Farrand? I wired 
 you that Cisneros saw the contract, didn't I ? He 
 saw Bristow put it back in his pocket; and then 
 the fellow came straight here. I thought that tip 
 ought to be enough for you. Couldn't you get the 
 chap drunk ? You ought to be able to do that."
 
 MARR HEARS ENOUGH 177 
 
 Farrand ignored the insinuation in Marr's last 
 remark. 
 
 "I don't think Bristow drinks," he said. "At 
 least I've never seen him take anything." 
 
 "Well what have you done, anyhow?" Marr 
 pressed him. "Did you let him get away without 
 even making a try for that contract?" 
 
 "Oh, I've tried!" Farrand told him. "And 
 since I couldn't get the contract I did the next best 
 thing. I took the man instead." There was a 
 hint of triumph in the look he turned on his chief. 
 
 "What good is that going to do us?" Julian 
 Marr grunted. "And what d'you mean, 'took the 
 man'?" 
 
 Farrand was accustomed to his employer's testi- 
 ness. Much as it sometimes rankled, he had al- 
 ways borne it patiently. And now that he hoped 
 to turn the tables on Marr before they saw the 
 finish of that land transaction he realized that 
 there was all the more reason why he could afford 
 to submit to Marr's snubs without showing his 
 
 rancor. 
 
 1C 
 
 Why I've got a bunch of peons looking 
 after him in a shack in the bush, about twenty 
 miles from aowfeere," he explained.
 
 178 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "The hell you have !" exclaimed Marr, lapsing, 
 in his surprise, into the vernacular of his youth, 
 when he had fought his way upward from a 
 navvy's berth. "What's that for?" 
 
 "Well my men nabbed him on the road one 
 night, in the dark, and took him off to search him. 
 And when they couldn't find what I wanted they 
 just kept him there and came back to report to 
 me. . . . And I told 'em to hold the goods until 
 they received shipping instructions." 
 
 Marr shot a quick glance at him in which doubt 
 and admiration mingled. 
 
 "What'd he do with that paper eat it?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 "Search me I" said Farrand. "He must have 
 hidden it somewhere. But so long as we hang on 
 to him it's obvious he can't go and get it again. 
 It was the only safe thing to do, it seemed to me 
 to keep him out of mischief until that option 
 expires." 
 
 For a few moments Marr smoked in silence. 
 
 "Maybe you're right," he vouchsafed at last. 
 "If your plan works I'll call it a stroke of genius, 
 Wade. . . . But if it fails you may get yourself 
 into a devil of a pickle. Mind! this is none of 
 my affair this kidnaping. I know absolutely
 
 MARK HEARS ENOUGH 
 
 nothing about it. Getting a man tight is one thing 
 it's done every day, even in the very best circles ; 
 but abduction, my dear boy, is something entirely 
 different. Naturally, I couldn't sanction such an 
 act." 
 
 "Oh! of course not!" Farrand agreed. 
 
 "No, indeed ! But it's not my fault if a zealous 
 employee oversteps his authority and commits a 
 well, crime, to put the case baldly. I wash 
 my hands of the whole affair. Still, if it turns out 
 all right perhaps it will have been worth your 
 while to take the risk." 
 
 "Oh! it will turn out right enough," Farrand 
 declared confidently. If he did not mean pre- 
 cisely what Marr had in mind, the great man was 
 none the wiser. And Farrand permitted himself a 
 self-satisfied smile as he pictured Marr's chagrin 
 when he should discover that he had Wade Far- 
 rand to deal with in that mining affair, instead of 
 a woman. 
 
 In the course of Julian Marr's numerous enter- 
 prises in lands far from his native England there 
 had been many little incidents to which he had 
 been obliged to shut his eyes. For instance, in 
 the case of the concessions that he owned in the 
 Putumayo rubber country, while he carefully
 
 i8o THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 scrutinized his companies' financial reports he was 
 content not to meddle with matters touching upon 
 the welfare of his Indian rubber-gatherers. He 
 had seen it stated, sometimes, by sensational 
 writers, that their condition was one of virtual 
 slavery. But Marr left all such details to his able 
 young men. Perhaps an occasional brutal over- 
 seer in his South African diamond mine lashed 
 and otherwise maltreated the blacks in his gang. 
 But Julian Marr hardly thought it possible that 
 any unnecessary harshness was customary. Even 
 on the sugar-plantations of the South Eastern 
 Railway Company it happened now and then 
 or so rumor had it that a native mayoral had 
 been known to use his machete on an insubordi- 
 nate cane-cutter, dexterously splitting him open 
 while a man on each side held the laborer who 
 had been so impolitic as to incite his companions 
 to demand higher pay. Such unfortunate events, 
 however, seldom came to Marr's attention. It 
 was understood that his rough, bluff exterior hid 
 sensibilities of the most refined sort and there 
 was no use wounding his feelings needlessly. Be- 
 sides, he would certainly never have sanctioned 
 violence of any sort. But being, in a way, of a 
 forgiving nature, he had been known to overlook
 
 MARK HEARS ENOUGH 181 
 
 such crudeness on the part of faithful employees. 
 
 Wade Farrand, consequently, felt little uneasi- 
 ness because of the medieval methods he had 
 made use of in Bristow's case. He trusted to 
 Marr's generosity to condone the irregularity of 
 his acts provided they proved successful. 
 
 "I think everything will turn out well in the 
 end," he assured Marr. "I have some pretty com- 
 petent men working for me in this affair. 
 There's " 
 
 "No, no!" Julian Marr protested. "Not an- 
 other word! I don't want to hear anything 
 more."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT 
 
 LUCKILY, the shot Dick's guard fired at him did 
 no damage. He had intended to land a crushing 
 blow on the bandit's jaw. But as he saw the fel- 
 low clutch at his revolver Dick dived head fore- 
 most for the Cuban's legs. The bullet passed 
 harmlessly over Mr. Bristow's back; and the next 
 instant he brought down his man in a flying foot- 
 ball tackle that would have done the most exact- 
 ing coach a world of good to see. 
 
 Dick had remembered the maxim of the force- 
 ful gentleman who had held down the chair of 
 football in his undergraduate days: "If you put a 
 man out, put him out for fair!" And accordingly 
 he had thrown every ounce of his hundred and 
 seventy pounds of bone and muscle into that 
 tackle. As the Greaser fell backward his head 
 crashed into the hand-hewn hardwood post that 
 served as a door-jamb and his neck doubled up 
 
 182
 
 WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT 183 
 
 like so much rubber. He lay limp and still in a 
 heap in the doorway. And as Dick quickly slipped 
 the coveted revolver out of its holster he thanked 
 his stars for having had a college education. 
 
 Keeping a careful eye on the door of the inner 
 room, where the remaining three brigands had 
 been sleeping, he rolled his late adversary over on 
 his back and unbuckled his cartridge-belt. Then 
 he appropriated the fellow's knife and machete as 
 well. He had hardly slipped the latter upon his 
 own belt when the door of the sleeping-room 
 slowly opened until a tiny crack showed. Dick's 
 revolver barked sharply as he threw a slug into 
 the half-inch planking. It was almost amusing 
 so quickly did the door close again. He could 
 imagine that after that warning the three cronies 
 bottled up in that dark box would think twice be- 
 fore they ventured out. So long as he stayed 
 there to pot them he hardly thought they would 
 attempt to escape from their trap. But he had 
 no desire to remain in that locality. He wanted 
 to get away from that spot in the shortest order 
 possible. 
 
 Except for a few chairs, there was little mov- 
 able furniture in the room that he could pile 
 against the door. The bench-like table that sup-
 
 1 84 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 ported the charcoal fire would have served his 
 need excellently; but unfortunately its legs were 
 firmly planted in the ground. He contrived, how- 
 ever, to rig up a makeshift barricade, composed 
 of chairs wedged between the end of the heavy 
 table and the door of the sleeping-box, which 
 opened outward. And then, after picking up a 
 saddle and bridle from a corner where they had 
 been flung, he tiptoed out of the house and ran 
 lightly to the small corral some six rods distant. 
 
 There were horses there he had seen that 
 much from the doorway. But his own pony had 
 disappeared. 
 
 It was irritating the way those horses slunk 
 away from him. Several times he almost suc- 
 ceeded in laying his hand on the mane of the most 
 docile a scrubby bay gelding, with ears lopped 
 over from ravages of ticks. But each time the 
 rat-like animal slipped out of his grasp. 
 
 He had wasted several precious minutes thus, 
 before he remembered that there was a lariat tied 
 to the saddle he had taken. With the aid of that 
 he soon accomplished his purpose, for he had only 
 to fling an end of the rope across the back of the 
 bay to bring him to submission. The animal both 
 knew and feared the lariat, which had caused him
 
 WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT 185 
 
 many a cruel fall when he fought it in his more 
 rebellious youth. 
 
 It was only the work of a few seconds to bridle 
 the horse and cinch the saddle in place. And 
 Dick had his foot in the stirrup when a shot rang 
 out and reverberated with an ominous rattle as the 
 forest walls caught the sound and tossed it back 
 and forth across the clearing. 
 
 Dick ducked instinctively as he heard the 
 whistle of the bullet over his head. And as he 
 turned he saw the flash of another shot fired from 
 the shelter of the nearest hut. Exposed as he was 
 to the screened attack of that hidden marksman, 
 Dick stood not upon the order of his going. He 
 had already flung open the gate to the corral. 
 And once in the saddle he sank his spurs deep into 
 the sides of his mount. 
 
 The bay pony grunted like a pig as Dick drove 
 the rowels home. But he responded gamely, run- 
 ning like a rabbit across the clearing toward the 
 opening where Dick and his captors had emerged 
 from the bush the night before. 
 
 A hail of shots crashed out as Dick made his 
 dash for freedom. He did not attempt to return 
 the fire, but crouched like a jockey as he urged 
 his pony to further effort.
 
 i86 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 When horse and rider plunged out of sight into 
 the thicket the fusillade ceased abruptly. Dick 
 steadied the scrubby bay as he went careening 
 down the shaded trail; and he was conscious of a 
 feeling of fierce exultation. So far the risk had 
 proved worth the taking. 
 
 The shot fired by the Mexican whom Dick had 
 left crumpled in the doorway had both awakened 
 and alarmed his three friends. One of them, as 
 it chanced, had been merely dozing and for him 
 there had been no mistaking the report of the re- 
 volver. Hurriedly they crawled out of their ham- 
 mocks and waited, silent, in absolute darkness, 
 with ears straining to catch some sound that 
 would give them an inkling of what had hap- 
 pened. But all was still on the other side of the 
 closed door. 
 
 "Madre de Diosf" one of them whispered at 
 last, his nerves all but breaking under the stress. 
 "Open the door, some one ! Let us see what this 
 is all about." 
 
 "Open it yourself, Juan!" the voice of another 
 snarled. 
 
 "Son of a dog! Thou art afraid!" the first 
 speaker reproached his fellow.
 
 WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT 187 
 
 "My skin is my own," the other whined. "If I 
 do not choose to have it filled with holes it is my 
 own affair." 
 
 And for the time being not one of them could 
 muster enough courage to peep out. 
 
 "I believe," the third man ventured, after a few 
 more minutes of fruitless waiting, "I believe 
 Manuel is playing a joke on us." 
 
 The other two rascals promptly encouraged him 
 in his theory. 
 
 "Open the door a bit, Raphael, and look out," 
 the man whom they called Juan suggested. 
 
 And while his fellows, whom he could not see, 
 flattened themselves against the walls of the 
 cramped room, as far out of range as possible, 
 while they skulked out of danger Raphael lifted 
 the latch and pushed the door open ever so 
 slightly. 
 
 It was then that Dick's shot effectually nipped 
 their ambition to look out and sent the optimistic 
 peeper scurrying into a corner. Then they heard 
 a thumping and scraping against the door (that 
 was when Dick built his barricade against it). 
 
 There they crouched for a time, cursing futilely 
 under their breaths until at length one enterpris- 
 ing fellow began to pry at the siding of the room
 
 1 88 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 with his machete. He quickly loosened one of 
 the palm-boards and promptly applied his eyes 
 to the chink through which the daylight streamed 
 in. As luck had it he was just in time to see Dick 
 running towards the corral. 
 
 The imprisoned Mexicans immediately grew 
 bold. And all three threw their weight upon the 
 door. But Dick had blocked it securely. They 
 set to work, then, with their machetes. A few 
 minutes of wrenching and hacking sufficed to yield 
 an opening big enough for them to squeeze 
 through. And then they quickly made their way 
 behind the shelter of the half-dozen shacks until 
 they had reached the one nearest the corral. 
 
 It was a crestfallen trio of highwaymen that 
 returned to their hut after their quarry had van- 
 ished down the forest trail. They found their 
 friend Manuel lying across the threshold, just as 
 Dick had left him. The way in which his head 
 lopped over when they raised him in their arms 
 told them what his difficulty was if a dead man 
 may be said to have difficulties. His fall against 
 the door-jamb with Dick's weight on top of him 
 had broken his neck. 
 
 They let him drop upon the dirt floor again.
 
 WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT 189 
 
 "He has nothing to fear from Fernandez, any- 
 how," the man Juan said callously, as he spat 
 across the body. 
 
 At the mention of Fernandez's name the other 
 two exchanged a look of apprehension. 
 
 "Fernandez will be like a wild boar when he 
 discovers that the gringo has gone," Juan warned 
 them. "And it is all your fault, Raphael," he told 
 the man who had tried to peep through the door. 
 "If you had stayed on guard with Manuel this 
 would never have happened. . . . What are you 
 going to say for yourself? Fernandez and Pepe 
 will know that the three of us were asleep." 
 
 Raphael looked at him dully. 
 
 "Manuel was a fool," he said; and he stirred 
 the dead man with his foot. "No one but an 
 idiot would have let the Yanqui pig get the better 
 of him. . . . For Dios! I don't know just what 
 to do about this." 
 
 "I have it!" Juan exclaimed. "It is, after all, a 
 quite simple matter." And stepping behind his 
 perplexed friend he stuck the muzzle of his re- 
 volver against his back and pulled the trigger. 
 
 Raphael toppled forward upon his face. See- 
 ing that he stirred slightly, the murderer sent an- 
 other bullet into his body.
 
 1 90 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "That devil of a gringo would have killed him, 
 anyhow, if he had not been with us," he remarked 
 to his companion as he replaced the empty shells 
 in his revolver with fresh ones from his cart- 
 ridge-belt. "As it is, I have saved Fernandez the 
 trouble. 
 
 "And now vamosf Let us leave this ac- 
 cursed place. I have no wish to face Fernandez 
 when he returns," he said. "It will be bad 
 enough later. But at least we shall be able to 
 tell him, when he finds us, that the gringo did for 
 both these fellows while you and I were sleeping." 
 
 Great as their hurry was, they tarried long 
 enough to strip the two dead men of their share 
 of the money they had stolen from the departed 
 prisoner.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 
 
 IN spite of himself, there was something about 
 that piercing, feminine cry, coming as it did out 
 of the darkness, that set De Boer's flesh a-crawl. 
 Instinctively he drew the automatic from his 
 pocket; and he remembered, then, that he had a 
 small flash-lamp too. In the excitement he had 
 completely forgotten it. 
 
 As he played the comforting shaft of light 
 about the room he saw that he and the man 
 Ricardo were alone. 
 
 "Where is Crispo?" De Boer asked him. But 
 Ricardo did not answer. He was too intent on 
 opening that door which barred the way to the 
 back part of the house. "It is Rosita," he panted 
 as he tugged violently at the latch. "Diablo! 
 What can have happened to her?" 
 
 De Boer could not help wondering, as well, 
 what was going to happen to him, when the door 
 
 191
 
 192 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 suddenly gave way, sending Ricardo sprawling 
 upon the floor. He had not pulled it open, how- 
 ever. It was Crispo who had unfastened it from 
 the other side. And now he stood over the thresh- 
 old with his naked machete in his hand, blinking 
 in the spot-light that De Boer threw upon him. 
 Picking himself up, Ricardo tried to push past 
 him. 
 
 "Where are you going?" Crispo demanded of 
 him, effectually blocking the way. 
 
 "Rosita " the fellow answered. "I want to 
 
 see if she is in trouble." 
 
 "She has not been harmed," Crispo told him. 
 And laying a lean but powerful hand on Ricardo's 
 shoulder he turned him about like a child and 
 pushed him forward. "Open the door !" he com- 
 manded. "Let us go in peace or it will be the 
 worse for you." 
 
 Ricardo cringed away from the tall country- 
 man. He was as he knew no match for the 
 vigorous old man. 
 
 "One moment, senor!" he begged. "Do not be 
 in a hurry. If you leave my house now you will 
 surely be seen. And I do not know what Pepe 
 Moreno would do to me if he learned that you 
 had been here. Surely you would not wish to
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 193 
 
 repay my kindness and that of Rosita in such a 
 fashion ? . . . One moment, until I see what may 
 be done!" 
 
 "Be quick, then!" Crispo ordered. And with 
 that Ricardo approached the street door. 
 
 "Who knocks?" he called out. 
 
 "A friend!" came the answer in Spanish. 
 
 That was enough for Ricardo. He promptly 
 invoked the aid of a half-dozen saints, and not 
 to make invidious discriminations appealed to 
 the devil as well. 
 
 "It is Pepe himself!" he told the others in an 
 awestruck whisper. "What can I do?" 
 
 "Send him around to the back door," Crispo 
 suggested. 
 
 "But there is some one else there. Who it is I 
 do not know." 
 
 "What matters that?" Crispo asked him. "If 
 they quarrel in the alley, let them kill each other. 
 Your skin will be whole." 
 
 Since he could think of no move more feasible 
 Ricardo bade Pepe Moreno the barber to enter 
 by the rear door. "This one is closed for the 
 night, and the bar sticks," he added by way of a 
 fine touch to disarm suspicion. 
 
 They heard the mestizo grumble. But his foot-
 
 1 94 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 steps, ringing upon the cobblestones, soon told 
 them that he had gone. And after waiting until 
 he judged the coast to be sufficiently clear Ricardo 
 slipped the heavy wooden bar from out its sockets 
 and fairly pushed his two guests into the street. 
 He was in a hurry to bar the door again. And he 
 did not want to keep Pepe waiting. 
 
 The first thing the rascally barber said when 
 Ricardo at last admitted him was, "Send for Senor 
 Farrand inmediatamente!" 
 
 "It is not necessary," Ricardo told him. 
 
 "Not necessary! Do as I tell you, you fool! 
 
 Here " Pepe turned to the boy who had 
 
 piloted the two departed guests "run at once to 
 the house of Senor Farrand and say to him that 
 he is wanted in the pueblo." 
 
 "I repeat, it is needless," Ricardo insisted, "be- 
 cause Senor Farrand is already here." 
 
 It was true. When Ricardo had hurried Crispo 
 and De Boer into the street he had discovered on 
 his return to the rear room that Rosita had al- 
 ready opened the back door to him who had first 
 knocked. And the caller was Farrand. 
 
 When Crispo left the girl he had told her that 
 he intended making his exit by way of the street
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 195 
 
 for he had preferred to take his chances in the 
 open rather than in the cramped passage through 
 which they had reached the house. He had no 
 sooner disappeared than Rosita admitted the im- 
 patient caller who had also approached by way 
 of the alley. 
 
 "Well, Rosita, don't you want to see me?" Far- 
 rand asked her as he entered. "You've kept me 
 waiting long enough, I should think," he grum- 
 bled. , 
 
 "I did not know who it was," she protested. 
 "I did not dream it was you who knocked." 
 
 And then Ricardo returned, to stare open- 
 mouthed for a moment at the newcomer. Events 
 were happening almost too fast for him to grasp. 
 Rosita and her caller had passed on into an ad- 
 joining room. And now, as Pepe questioned him, 
 Ricardo nodded in the direction in which they had 
 vanished. 
 
 "He is with Rosita," he explained. 
 
 "I must see him at once," Pepe said, and he 
 pushed through the door without so much as a 
 tap on it. His first glance at the bandit barber 
 told Farrand that something was amiss. 
 
 "What is it, Pepe?" he asked. "What's hap- 
 pened?"
 
 196 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "The gringo has escaped," Pepe answered 
 breathlessly. 
 
 "The devil he has!" Farrand cried in dismay. 
 "How could that have come about? He must 
 have bribed the fellows you left with him." 
 
 "I don't know," said the crestfallen Pepe. "He 
 killed two of them. And the others are gone." 
 
 Farrand regarded him with some suspicion. 
 He wondered whether his lieutenant might not 
 have taken pay from Bristow as well as himself. 
 
 "When did all this occur?" he inquired. 
 
 "Three days ago, perhaps I am not sure," 
 the mestizo replied. "I only know that I returned 
 to the clearing yesterday and found no living per- 
 son in the place. Manuel and Raphael were 
 there, to be sure what was left of them. The 
 buzzards had been there before me." 
 
 "But I thought you were going back at once 
 when you left here five days ago," Farrand inter- 
 posed coldly. "I should like to know where you 
 have been all this time." 
 
 Like most of his race, Pepe was instantly ready 
 with an excuse. 
 
 "Fernandez wanted to see his brother, who 
 lives in San Pedro. . . . The village was not more
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 197 
 
 than two leagues out of our way. We went there. 
 The people were going to have a pig-roast the 
 next day. . . . And the day after that was Fer- 
 nandez's saint's day his name is Jose, you know. 
 So we stayed for a feast in his honor. With four 
 men to guard him the gringo should never have 
 escaped. It is a marvel that he got away. I do 
 not understand it." 
 
 Farrand had listened to the plausible recital 
 with ill-contained impatience. 
 
 "What have you been doing since you discov- 
 ered the bird had flown?" he asked Pepe. 
 
 "Hunting for him ! Fernandez and I have not 
 been out of the saddle except for a few hours' 
 sleep and to take coffee now and then. I have 
 eaten almost nothing in two days, senor," the bar- 
 ber whined, laying an eloquent hand across his 
 stomach. 
 
 Farrand gave a grunt of impatience. 
 
 "Get him something to eat, Ricardo," he said 
 to the listening Mexican. "No doubt you ate 
 enough pig to last you at least a week," he ob- 
 served sarcastically, as he turned to Pepe again. 
 "And pulque, too I suppose you fellows swilled 
 enough of that to waterlog you."
 
 198 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "You are mistaken," Pepe told him sullenly. 
 "We never get drunk Fernandez and I," he 
 lied. "We are not gringos." 
 
 "You've muddled this business, anyhow," Far- 
 rand retorted. "But eat, now, for you've no time 
 to fool away. You're going straight back to-night 
 where you came from. And I expect you to find 
 Bristow. You may tell Fernandez for me that 
 he's a false alarm as a bandit if he can't do any 
 better than this. I begin to think Bristow bought 
 you both off." 
 
 Pepe looked at his tormentor darkly. 
 
 "It is not so. I am an honest man," he de- 
 dared. "Never have I broken faith with a 
 friend." He seated himself at the table then and 
 began to eat noisily of the food that Ricardo had 
 brought for him. 
 
 Farrand, meanwhile, rejoined Rosita. He had 
 thought, of late, that he had noted signs of jeal- 
 ousy in her. She had questioned him somewhat 
 sharply about the American girl with whom he 
 was so often seen riding. And just then Farrand 
 deemed it the part of wisdom to placate Rosita by 
 more frequent visits than he had honored her with 
 during the weeks immediately preceding. She was 
 decidedly too familiar with his affairs to make her
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 199 
 
 enmity desirable. When the proper time came he 
 knew of ways in which he could rid himself of her. 
 But for the present he felt that he must retain her 
 good will. 
 
 Farrand had not dreamed of the extent to which 
 Rosita's vindictive nature was already aroused. 
 While he talked to her fatuously she contrived to 
 conceal from him the resentment that consumed 
 her. And all the time she plied him guardedly 
 with questions concerning Bristow's disappear- 
 ance. She had long since guessed that in some 
 way Farrand's scheming against Dick involved his 
 relations with the American girl. Farrand's prod- 
 igal consumption of spirits had occasionally loos- 
 ened his tongue to an undue extent. And at such 
 times Rosita had made the most of her oppor- 
 tunities. She knew vastly more than he suspected. 
 And while he sought to further his plot, she did 
 everything she could to block his moves, on the 
 well-taken ground that even though her efforts 
 might do her own cause no good, at least they 
 could scarcely work her any harm. 
 
 Later, when Pepe had bolted his meal, Farrand 
 told him that the rurales were preparing to take 
 the field the next morning.
 
 200 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "They're going after Bristow, and Fernandez 
 too," he explained. 
 
 "Fernandez!" Pepe laughed. "You know as 
 well as I do how anxious the rurales are to find 
 him." 
 
 "Yes ! But what about the American? Do you 
 intend to let them rescue him ? . . . Go back and 
 tell Fernandez that I want you two hombres to 
 get him!" 
 
 "Dead or alive?" Pepe inquired, as casually as 
 he might have asked whether Farrand preferred 
 cigarettes of rice paper or pectoral. 
 
 "Get him!" Farrand cried. "Do I need tell 
 you more?" 
 
 "Why not rout out the captain of the guards 
 and have him nab that fellow who was at the 
 front door?" De Boer suggested to Crispo as 
 they hurried away from Ricardo's house. 
 
 "Pepe Moreno? It would be useless," Crispo 
 said. "What evidence have we against him?" 
 
 "There's the girl," De Boer reminded him. 
 
 But Crispo did not appear to consider her a 
 creditable witness. In the first place, Rosita was 
 a woman ; and in the second, her status in society 
 was hardly such as to cause a judge to weigh her
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 201 
 
 words carefully. "Besides," Crispo said, "she 
 would not dare testify against that fellow Pepe." 
 And he explained to De Boer that the natives 
 were generally averse to calling down upon their 
 heads the ill-will of the bandit fraternity. "There 
 would be a drawback for us, too, if she did testify 
 against Pepe," Crispo added. 
 
 "What's that?" De Boer inquired. 
 
 "Why they've a hostage Bristow," he ex- 
 plained. "If the girl denounced Pepe Moreno and 
 we had him thrown into jail, just as likely as not 
 Fernandez would take revenge on Bristow. 
 That's the customary thing to do, in such an 
 event." 
 
 De Boer could not but recognize the force of 
 the old man's argument. But he felt at the same 
 time that they ought to take some advantage of 
 the information they had just obtained. 
 
 "Why not set a watch on that house," he 
 asked, "and then follow Pepe when he leaves 
 it?" 
 
 Jose Crispo shook his head. 
 
 "That would be of no use at all none at all," 
 he declared. "He would soon discover that he 
 was followed and would not return to the place 
 where they have taken Bristow."
 
 202 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "I don't see that our call amounted to much," 
 De Boer observed. He was disgusted with 
 everything and everybody with Rosita for not 
 telling them more, with the fact that an ignorant 
 barber balked them, with Crispo's objections, with 
 himself for listening to them. "We might as well 
 have gone to bed an hour ago," he grumbled, "for 
 all the good that Rosita has done us." 
 
 "I found out something while you were alone 
 with Ricardo in the front room," Crispo said 
 drily. "You heard the girl scream?" 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "That was when I twisted her arm," Crispo 
 said grimly. "I thought she knew more than she 
 told us. I thought that if I could get her alone 
 for a few minutes I'd learn more. That's why I 
 locked you and Ricardo into the front room. . . . 
 The boy was still with us with me and the girl 
 but he was nothing to manage. Ricardo might 
 have proved troublesome, and I did not wish to 
 hurt him, so I locked him out. 
 
 "I did not have to twist the muchacha's arm 
 long before she was ready to talk," Crispo re- 
 marked with a chuckle. "And now I know where 
 Bristow is. They have hidden him in an old brava
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 203 
 
 on a ranch known as La Caridad. It is not more 
 than three hours' ride from my place." 
 
 De Boer was overjoyed at the news. But one 
 thing puzzled him. 
 
 "Why did the girl send for us to tell us only 
 part of what she knew?" he asked Crispo. "Why 
 should she want to see us at all ?" 
 
 "I do not know," Crispo replied. "She is a 
 woman. And one can never tell what moves 
 women. . . . She is up to some deviltry. She 
 may have a grudge against Pepe." 
 
 "But why didn't she tell us more ? Why should 
 she tell only half what she knew?" 
 
 Crispo himself was hazy on that question. 
 
 "Perhaps she only wanted to alarm Pepe and 
 Fernandez by sending us in the neighborhood of 
 their hiding place, without letting us know enough 
 to find the exact spot where they are keeping 
 Bristow." Rosita's motives did not bother Crispo 
 at all. He was too much the thoroughgoing Mex- 
 ican to give thought to the mental processes of so 
 unimportant a creature as a mere woman. He be- 
 lieved the sex to be capricious, unreasoning, 
 stupid incapable, in fact, of any action more en- 
 terprising than sitting behind a curtained window
 
 4 
 
 204 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 and plying a fan and eating sweets. It was enough 
 for him to know that his course upon the morrow 
 lay clear before him. 
 
 When morning came the captain of the rural 
 guards declined absolutely to lead his men with 
 Crispo and De Boer to the clearing that Rosita 
 had described. 
 
 "Why do you think the Americano has been 
 taken there?" he asked. 
 
 But they could not answer him. Rosita had 
 enjoined secrecy upon them. 
 
 "I cannot act upon a mere whim," the captain 
 
 pointed out to them. "I have here " he pulled 
 
 out his notebook "I have here a number of ex- 
 cellent clues. But where do you get your informa- 
 tion? Our friend Crispo has had a dream last 
 night no?" The captain laughed pleasantly. 
 There was a reason why he could afford to be 
 agreeable. He knew perfectly well that Crispo 
 was on the right track. He knew where Bristow 
 was hidden ; and he had not the slightest intention 
 of going anywhere near the spot. 
 
 De Boer and Crispo soon saw that they had 
 nothing to hope for from el capitdn. 
 
 "All right!" De Boer told him. "Go ahead
 
 PEPE BRINGS SOME NEWS 205 
 
 with your search in your own way. But excuse us, 
 please, if we do not accompany you." 
 
 The captain returned to barracks then, to give 
 his men their final instructions. And he had not 
 been gone fifteen minutes before Crispo and De 
 Boer mounted their horses and started for the old 
 Mexican's house. Jose Crispo preferred to or- 
 ganize his own searching party among his own 
 people.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 
 
 As Dick fled down the forest-trail, after his escape 
 from his captors, he pushed the lop-eared bay to 
 the limit of his speed. There were two reasons 
 why he was in a hurry to reach the end of that 
 trail through the bush. He had no cause to sup- 
 pose that his guards would not pursue him. And 
 moreover he faced the disconcerting possibility 
 that he might meet Fernandez and Pepe at any 
 moment, returning to the clearing. Dick had no 
 desire to be caught between two fires. And if he 
 should be trapped in that fashion he knew that to 
 plunge into the thicket would serve only to pro- 
 long the game of hide-and-seek. In the end he 
 must surely be overtaken, for the Mexicans were 
 all expert woodsmen, while he was a mere novice. 
 He was not aware that certain details such as 
 two dead men and the division of their booty 
 prevented pursuit; nor did he know that Fernan- 
 dez and Pepe were miles away, lulled into a false 
 
 206
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 207 
 
 sense of security by their mistaken confidence in 
 the strength of the party they had left behind 
 to guard their prisoner. 
 
 Ordinarily Dick would have ridden slowly at 
 the beginning of a journey, to let his horse warm 
 gradually to his work. But the present situation 
 demanded haste; and he had learned from expe- 
 rience that even the scrubbiest of the Mexican 
 horses were remarkably enduring. So he spurred 
 on, with ears alert for the sound of hoof-beats 
 behind him. 
 
 There was another problem besides that of re- 
 capture that confronted him. He had not the 
 slightest idea where he was; and he wanted, as 
 soon as possible, to get his bearings and make for 
 some point where he might be sure of friendly 
 shelter. One thing, at least, he could tell from 
 the slanting shadows which the tree-tops flung 
 across the trail. The early sun was upon his right 
 and he was therefore traveling northward. That 
 was as he wished it, because that way lay civiliza- 
 tion. He knew that upon his right stretched the 
 East Coast, harborless because of the shallow 
 sounds between the shore and the coral keys, and 
 hence but sparsely settled. Once he won clear 
 of that narrow trail he would gladly take his
 
 208 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 chances in a running fight in open country. And 
 so he did not spare his horse. After he emerged 
 from the bush he intended to give him a breathing 
 spell. 
 
 It was not long, however, before he saw with 
 dismay that his undersized mount was beginning 
 to lag. He seemed to have spent himself in that 
 first quick spurt and he no longer responded to 
 the spur. On the contrary, he soon slowed down 
 to a mere lope, with head hung low and his breath 
 coming in great gasps. Dick pulled him up then 
 and dismounted. There was blood trickling down 
 the pony's hind legs. And as the brute stood 
 wearily in the middle of the trail more blood 
 dripped from his belly and formed a bright pool 
 upon the ground. He had been hit during that 
 dash across the clearing and Dick reproached him- 
 self for having punished him so severely. His 
 spurs were red, too mute witnesses to his unin- 
 tentional cruelty. 
 
 He removed saddle and bridle from the 
 wounded animal. And despite the knowledge that 
 he might have need of every cartridge he pos- 
 sessed humanity prompted him to send a shot 
 crashing into the pony's brain. He did not want 
 to leave the poor beast to suffer needlessly.
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 209 
 
 As he fired the pony sank in his tracks. And 
 then, after walking a few rods, Dick hid the heavy 
 Texas saddle and the bridle near a great tree. 
 Then he hurried on again, ready to jump into 
 the tangle on either side of him at the first hint 
 of danger. 
 
 He had not gone far before the trail forked. 
 There was nothing to choose between the two 
 paths, so far as their appearance went. Neither 
 was more traveled than the other. So Dick took 
 the one that seemed to hold to the more westerly 
 course. 
 
 That fork proved to be only the first of any 
 number of similar divergencies. And as he forged 
 on, Dick soon found the trail twisting and turning 
 in a most bewildering fashion. Sometimes the 
 tree-tops, meeting above his head in a tangle of 
 vines and streamers of Spanish moss, made it im- 
 possible for him to determine even vaguely the 
 general direction in which he was wandering. 
 And as the morning sped it became increasingly 
 difficult to judge the points of the compass, even 
 where the forest was less dense, for in that south- 
 ern country the sun mounts high in the heavens. 
 
 At last, to his relief, the trail brought him to a 
 savannah an old, disused pasture, sprinkled with
 
 210 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 palmettos. Numerous paths could still be dis- 
 cerned there, reaching out in a haphazard fashion 
 from the forest opening across the level stretch 
 of wiry bunch grass, as if they had been worn by 
 aimlessly wandering cattle. Dick followed one of 
 them at random. He was glad to get out of the 
 bush. It seemed to him that he could breathe 
 more easily now that he was no longer hemmed in 
 by the living walls of tree and vine and scrub 
 growth. A light breeze swept refreshingly over 
 the natural clearing a welcome breeze, because 
 the sun beat down with a tropic fierceness and 
 Dick was both hungry and thirsty. He had had 
 nothing to eat or drink since that meal that had 
 followed his arrival at the shack, in the small 
 hours. It was not long before he had crossed the 
 pasture. And following along the edge of the 
 bush Dick plunged once more into a partially over- 
 grown bridle-path which appeared to stretch 
 toward the north. He was glad, then, that he had 
 taken Manuel's machete, along with his revolver 
 and his knife, for he had to wield the swordlike 
 weapon almost constantly to cut his way through 
 the tangle that choked the old trail. As it was, 
 his clothes were soon rent in a dozen places by 
 wait-a-bit vines tough briars with stout, curved
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 211 
 
 thorns which menace the hurried wayfarer along 
 little-used paths. 
 
 In spite of the shade it was stifling hot in the 
 cover of the thicket, where no breath of air 
 stirred; and what with the heat and the work of 
 clearing the trail for Dick was far from skilled 
 in the use of the machete he found himself in 
 distress from thirst. From the waist up his 
 clothes were dark with sweat and he was bleeding 
 from a score of scratches. At last he came to a 
 lemon tree, growing by the side of the trail. He 
 sucked eagerly on the sour, stunted fruit, no bigger 
 than crab-apples. It was wonderfully refreshing. 
 And after filling his pockets with more of the 
 lemons he pressed on again. 
 
 At best he made but slow progress through the 
 tangle. And though he had been working for a 
 considerable time he had not in reality gone much 
 further before he caught the sound of something 
 stirring in the underbrush ahead of him. He stood 
 still and listened. And soon an unmistakable grunt- 
 ing told him what the noise was. Wild pigs ! There 
 was nothing else that could be responsible for those 
 squealing grunts. Dropping the machete into its 
 scabbard, Dick drew his revolver and began creep- 
 ing forward upon his hands and knees. He had
 
 212 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 wormed his way along a distance of two or three 
 rods when he came upon a sight that was no less 
 welcome to him than the lemon tree itself. Be- 
 neath a huge algaroba tree an old sow and four 
 young were gobbling up the beanlike pods which 
 had fallen upon the ground. Dick drew a bead 
 on one of the pigs and fired. 
 
 He waited for a few moments after the shot. 
 He had made a kill he could see that much; and 
 the sow and the remaining pigs had vanished. 
 But Dick knew that there was a chance of his 
 being charged by the boar if he were near at 
 hand. The protector of the family, however, 
 failed to put in his appearance. And soon Dick 
 pushed forward and picked up his prize. The 
 pig was a fat one. And Mr. Bristow felt uncom- 
 monly hungry. But before making his prepara- 
 tions for a meal he reflected that the presence of 
 the pigs must mean that there was water not far 
 away. So he slung the game across his back by 
 means of a piece of tough vine and returned to 
 his task of opening up the old path. 
 
 Within half an hour his assumption proved cor- 
 rect. Even before he could hear the trickle of 
 water he could see ahead of him the gently wav- 
 ing tops of a clump of royal palms, the plumes of
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 213 
 
 which lifted themselves high above the more 
 plebeian cedar and mahogany. Palms, as Dick 
 was aware, usually fringe the banks of streams. 
 And shortly he came upon a small brook that cut 
 directly across the trail. 
 
 Dick did not wait even to slip the pig off his 
 back. He threw himself down and with arms 
 plunged into the water up to his shoulders he 
 drank deeply. When he rose, dripping, to his feet 
 again the world assumed a much more smiling 
 aspect. In a few minutes a fire blazed on the 
 border of the stream. And with the aid of the 
 long knife he had taken from the man in the hut 
 Dick proceeded to carve some tidbits off his 
 trophy. It was not long before they were sizzling 
 pleasantly over the embers. 
 
 Except for its lack of salt the broiled meat was 
 palatable enough. Dick knew that the natives, 
 given a little more time, and some sort of dish, 
 would have contrived to extract salt from the 
 palms. Long necessity during the wars that have 
 swept Mexico has made its inhabitants past mas- 
 ters in the art of living off the country. But as it 
 was, Dick was thankful enough for his impromptu 
 meal to refrain from being overcritical. A cig- 
 arette from his half-empty pack supplied all that
 
 2i 4 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 he felt he had any right or reason to wish for 
 in the way of luxuries. 
 
 As he rested, smoking, he deliberated as to his 
 next move. There had not been the least sign of 
 pursuit on the part of his erstwhile captors and 
 there seemed small grounds for supposing that 
 they would ever succeed in following him now. 
 But the problem of reaching assistance still faced 
 him. He had no desire to spend days, perhaps, in 
 roaming through the wilderness, trusting mean- 
 while to luck to find something to eat. He knew 
 that he should not starve, in any event, so long as 
 his ammunition lasted, for there was always game 
 of some sort to be shot. 
 
 He was lost there was no denying that fact. 
 But fortunately he was free from that unreason- 
 ing terror which often seizes even the strongest 
 men who have become confused in a strange and 
 unsettled country. As he rested by the brook it 
 occurred to him that the stream offered a way out 
 for him. By following it he must eventually come 
 to the river which received its waters and car- 
 ried them to the coast, where he might find him- 
 self marooned in a maze of swamps, far from any 
 human being. 
 
 As he studied the situation he could not help
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 215 
 
 admitting that his progress through the bush was 
 discouragingly slow. The natives, accustomed 
 from childhood to swinging the machete, knew 
 how to take every advantage of the weight of the 
 blade. Their skill enabled them to cut their way 
 through the most difficult country so deftly that 
 they could proceed at a rapid walk. But Dick's 
 was only a snail's pace. It was grueling work, too, 
 for a Northerner, in that heat. And the chill 
 that was almost certain to descend with nightfall 
 meant suffering, if not actual danger, to a man in 
 sweat-sodden garments and without blankets. 
 
 Dick reflected that he could travel fast along 
 the half-empty bed of the brook. The rivers, too, 
 were at their lowest at that season. And in the 
 end Dick decided to take his chances on follow- 
 ing the stream. Not the least of the advantages 
 it offered consisted in its ever present supply of 
 water for a thirsty pedestrian. 
 
 Before setting out again he wrapped up a sup- 
 ply of pork as best he could and stowed it in his 
 pockets. And then he was off downstream, splash- 
 ing through pools, scrambling over rocks, and 
 sometimes jogging at a dog-trot over smooth 
 stretches. After his heartbreaking work with the 
 machete the going was actually inspiring.
 
 216 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 As he reeled off mile after mile the little brook 
 grew steadily until by mid-afternoon its bed had 
 become an arroyo of considerable size. There 
 was not much water in it, however. But its high 
 banks told that when the spring rains came it 
 would swell rapidly into a torrent. 
 
 All at once as he rounded a bend in the river 
 Dick saw a low building set not far back from 
 one of the banks. It was the first sign of life he 
 had come across. But even that soon proved dis- 
 appointing. The hut was deserted. Charcoal 
 burners had once used it the remains of a pit 
 nearby told him that much. The tumble-down 
 shack was innocent of any sort of contents; but 
 at least it offered a shelter for the night. And 
 rather than push on and find himself caught by 
 darkness and forced to lie under the stars he de 
 cided to rest there until morning. The next day, 
 he hoped, would bring him to some inhabited 
 dwelling. 
 
 As the day waned he explored his immediate 
 surroundings. It seemed unlikely that any one 
 would come many miles from some hamlet- or 
 even an isolated house to burn charcoal. And at 
 last Dick stumbled upon the distinct traces of an 
 old trail, in much the same condition as the one
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 217 
 
 in which he had shot the pig, which he thought 
 might lead him to humans. And he resolved to 
 begin hacking his way through it as soon as it 
 should grow light the following morning. 
 
 Stretched as he was on the dirt floor of the 
 hut, without covering of any sort other than the 
 clothes he was wearing, Dick found that night to 
 be the longest he had ever passed. He was so 
 fagged that the cold did not keep him wholly 
 awake ; but it effectually prevented his falling into 
 anything more than a fitful doze, during which 
 he was all the time conscious of the penetrating 
 chill, which seemed to reach the very marrow of 
 his bones. At last he could stand the discom- 
 fort no longer. It was, indeed, bordering on 
 actual torture. So he built another fire of wood 
 that he had collected the evening before; and 
 then he slipped down the bank of the river, which 
 glistened where the moon found it. It was colder 
 than ever there; and he shivered, in spite of the 
 exercise, as he picked up some sizable stones and 
 carried them to his fire in front of the shack. 
 Necessity had at length jogged his memory into a 
 recollection of the old Indian expedient of heat- 
 ing stones and then lying as close to them as pos- 
 sible. Though he would not have chosen to rely
 
 218 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 as a matter of practise upon such primitive means 
 of keeping warm, the arrangement served to make 
 the rest of the night more comfortable. But it 
 was not difficult to rise early when morning once 
 came, for Dick welcomed the end of that night 
 of misery. 
 
 He ate sparingly of his breakfast. Roasted 
 pig, when served alone, soon grows monotonous. 
 And before the sun was fairly up he was hard 
 at work with his machete, cutting his way along 
 the overgrown path. 
 
 After some two hours of that exercise he be- 
 gan to regret having forsaken the river. But 
 he kept on. He still had almost a dozen of the 
 wild lemons in his pockets; and he resorted to 
 them grudgingly. 
 
 That old trail proved disappointing. Though 
 Dick stuck doggedly at his task, he had to admit 
 to himself at last that for all his efforts he seemed 
 no nearer help than before ; and he stretched him- 
 self on the ground to rest and smoke. He knew 
 there was a limit to his endurance in the tropics. 
 Riding is usually the most violent exercise at- 
 tempted by one from the North in that climate. 
 
 He had taken only a few puffs on his cigarette 
 before he was fast asleep. . . .
 
 LOST IN THE BUSH 219 
 
 He awoke with a start. He had no idea how 
 long he had lain there ; and habit sent his hand to 
 feeling for his watch before he remembered that 
 the mestizo had relieved him of it two days be- 
 fore. He had wasted precious hours that much 
 he was sure of, from the slant of the sun. And 
 he sprang up and set to work again. 
 
 Dick swung his long blade with feverish energy 
 now, as his predicament began to prey upon his 
 mind. Broken sleep, excitement and lack of 
 proper food, together with undue exertion under 
 trying conditions, had begun to tell upon him. But 
 if he worked faster than before it was only to 
 exhaust himself the more quickly. Objects be- 
 gan to assume a curiously indistinct shape before 
 his staring eyes. And scraps of long gone conver- 
 sation came back to him and rang annoyingly in 
 his ears over and over again. Strangely enough, 
 it was his talks with Janet Ashley that returned to 
 him the most persistently. . . . It's a sporting 
 chance. . . . I believe you're going to win. . . . 
 You must win! . . . He heard every inflection of 
 her voice. But it seemed to him now that those 
 phrases were flung at him mockingly. They came 
 from the depths of the thickets that enveloped 
 him, from the trees over his head; he could hear
 
 220 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 them even in the ring of the machete as it ate 
 its way through branch and vine. 
 
 Dick realized that he must keep a tight rein 
 upon himself. He rested again for a few minutes 
 and resolved to take things more calmly. There 
 was no sense in spending his strength in a hectic 
 effort. And once he resumed his struggle against 
 the rank-growing tangle he sternly repressed his 
 impulse to dash at it wildly. And all the time he 
 told himself that he would win that he must win. 
 He must not die there in the wilderness with guilt 
 on his soul the guilt of not having righted the 
 wrong he had done Janet.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 
 
 WHILE De Boer and Crispo were sleeping in the 
 house of the storekeeper at Rio Chico, the mestizo 
 barber rode hard through the night. It was nearly 
 three o'clock before he pulled up at a remote 
 ranch-house in which Fernandez had often found 
 asylum. And there Pepe delivered Farrand's mes- 
 sage. He was not so indiscreet, however, as to tell 
 Farrand's exact words to his chief. He knew 
 what Fernandez was like when he was angry. 
 So Pepe simply announced that Farrand wanted 
 them to find the gringo, Bristow. 
 
 "This time we do not need to take the trouble 
 to make a prisoner of him," Pepe explained. "It 
 will be sufficient if we merely kill him." 
 
 Fernandez blinked in the lantern-light and drew 
 his blanket more closely about him. 
 
 "Did he give you any money?" he asked. 
 
 "No !" And then Pepe added, as the fat rascal 
 
 221
 
 222 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 began to revile him, "That need not worry us. He 
 will pay, and pay well, too. Once we put the 
 gringo out of his way it will be an easy matter to 
 collect the agreed sum and even more I Meester 
 Farrand will be as good as a gold mine for us. 
 He will have to give us whatever we ask for, at 
 any time or we shall threaten to denounce him." 
 
 Fernandez smiled at that. 
 
 "You speak truly, Pepe. And if we cannot find 
 the gringo we will say that we have killed him, 
 anyhow. Perhaps he will lose himself and die 
 in the bush. But that will make no difference. 
 Farrand will never know." Half awake as he was, 
 Fernandez was still his resourceful self. "When 
 it grows light," he said, "we will start out. And 
 until then I, for one, intend to sleep like a pig. 
 We may have much riding ahead of us." 
 
 The next day the precious pair set forth on their 
 murderous errand. Their method was simple. 
 Starting systematically, they rode by twisting trails 
 until they had described a wide semicircle, distant 
 by a radius of some ten miles from the deserted 
 hut where they had first taken their quarry. 
 Wherever there was a house they stopped and 
 made inquiry for Dick. 
 
 That plan of search was a product of
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 223 
 
 Fernandez's fertile intellect. A man cannot com- 
 mit unnumbered outrages and escape punishment 
 without possessing a certain ability. And 
 Fernandez was a clever rogue. He purposed 
 making a complete circle about the old clearing, 
 if it should prove necessary. He had hosts of 
 friends among the country people. In the first 
 place, events had taught them that it was the part 
 of wisdom safer, in short to stand in his good 
 graces. And in the second, Fernandez was gen- 
 erous. He scattered his ill-gotten gains with a 
 prodigal hand. He had been known to pay a 
 peso for nothing more than a cup of coffee, and 
 ten for the privilege of sleeping in a hovel. Fur- 
 thermore, it was said that he never molested the 
 poor. His friends made much of that fact, not 
 stopping to realize, perhaps, that such considera- 
 tion was not so great a virtue after all, inasmuch 
 as robbing the impecunious is never a profitable 
 procedure. He was shrewd enough, however, to 
 confine even his minor depredations to the rich. 
 Wealthy native planters, ranch-owners, American 
 mining men or engineers such were his victims. 
 On the other hand, if he killed so much as a cow 
 or a pig that belonged to some poor peon 
 Fernandez always saw that the owner was recom-
 
 224 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 pensed. And it was no wonder, then, that he ex- 
 pected to receive information of Dick's movements 
 in case any of the country people had chanced to 
 see him. 
 
 It was nearly midday when Fernandez and Pepe 
 picked up the scent. They met a boy from whom 
 they learned that a gringo had been staying for 
 several days at a house some two leagues away 
 a gringo who had lost himself in the bush. 
 
 That was enough for them. They could not 
 reach that house fast enough. Gringos were not 
 so numerous in that region as to lead them to be- 
 lieve that there was much doubt that the man who 
 had been lost was Bristow. They had obtained 
 fresh horses during the morning from one of 
 Fernandez's numerous friends; and now they 
 pushed on at a steady lope. 
 
 Arriving in sight of their destination, they 
 did not ride directly up to the house. Bristow 
 had demonstrated that he could give a good ac- 
 count of himself in a fight; and Fernandez always 
 preferred to play the game of murder safely. A 
 knife plunged in his victim's back, or a shot from 
 ambush those were his favorite methods! And 
 he had no stomach for showing himself boldly
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 225 
 
 in a doorway and allowing his man to pot him 
 from within. Hidden in a clump of guava trees 
 they reconnoitered for a few minutes. And soon 
 they saw some one drive a yoke of bulls away 
 from the little group of buildings. By a short 
 detour they contrived to head off the bull-driver, 
 just out of sight of the house. 
 
 That countryman both knew and feared the two 
 bandits. And he promptly told them all he knew 
 of the Yanqui who had reached his house in a 
 state of collapse. It was Bristow. His heavy 
 chin identified him beyond any possibility of doubt. 
 
 "But he is gone now, amigos" the man said. 
 "He left this very morning. I let him have a lit- 
 tle old horse to ride a soft-gaited caballito, for 
 the gringo was still very weak. He had had 
 fever much fever. 
 
 "I myself rode with him, to set him on the 
 camino real the highway. By keeping to that 
 road he will have no trouble in reaching places 
 that are familiar to him." 
 
 "He rode west?" Fernandez demanded. 
 
 "Si, senor!" 
 
 "How long since you left him?" , 
 
 "An hour, perhaps "
 
 226 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Is he armed?" the bandit asked abruptly. 
 
 "Si, senor! with a very big revolver, and a 
 belt full of cartridges." 
 
 Fernandez and Pepe drew to one side and held 
 a whispered consultation. 
 
 "You think he will ride slowly?" Fernandez 
 asked the countryman shortly. 
 
 "Si! Very slowly poco-poco! The little 
 horse, as I said, is old." 
 
 "How much is he worth the horse?" 
 Fernandez asked him, pulling out a bag of money. 
 
 "Eighty pesos!" the man said, naming a sum 
 that was at least twice the value of the animal. 
 And he was sorry, at that, that he had laid stress 
 upon his age. 
 
 "And the saddle and bridle?" 
 
 "Ten pesos, perhaps " 
 
 Fernandez dropped a fistful of coins into the 
 fellow's hands, some of which were of gold. 
 
 "A hundred and twenty pesos!" he announced. 
 "You may never see your property again. . . . 
 If you should, it is the same thing to me. The 
 money is yours. All I ask is that you keep a quiet 
 tongue in your head. . . . We understand each 
 other no ?" 
 
 And then the two horsemen hurried off but
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 227 
 
 not toward the camino real. Instead, they doubled 
 back to the westward along narrow trails that 
 paralleled the highway which Dick had taken. 
 And always they rode furiously. 
 
 Fernandez knew every twist and turn of the 
 nameless paths that criss-crossed that back country 
 in a veritable labyrinth. Now he boldly forsook 
 a well-worn trail and made off in a straight line 
 across a savannah, to strike unerringly an old 
 snake-trail through the woodland beyond. Now 
 he doubled around a patch of cane. If they came 
 to a barbed-wire fence that blocked their way he 
 always knew the location of the nearest gate. He 
 had threaded that maze too often by night ever to 
 falter at its intricacies in the daylight. 
 
 In time the rapid pace began to tell upon their 
 mounts. And when they had ridden for two hours, 
 perhaps, they changed horses again. This time 
 they took fresh mounts out of a pasture, turning 
 loose their own jaded animals in the place of those 
 they borrowed. At the ranch-house, which they 
 reached a half-mile further on, they paused long 
 enough to explain what they had done and to 
 fling some money through the doorway. 
 
 Soon after that they swung to the left. And 
 it was not long afterward that they came out
 
 228 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 upon the camino real itself, on a crossroad that 
 brought them to a cantina. 
 
 That wayside hostelry faced the main road. 
 Across its entire front ran a long counter over 
 which the proprietor dispensed coffee, or lukewarm 
 beer, or ale in stone bottles, to travelers who rode 
 their horses beneath the wooden awning and drank 
 without the inconvenience of dismounting. Sev- 
 eral naked children played under the shade of the 
 canopy; and the proprietor himself sat behind the 
 bar-like counter, smoking a cigarette. He slid 
 off his perch in a hurry when he recognized the 
 newcomers. 
 
 "Buenas dias, friends!" he murmured with a 
 propitiating smile. "How can I serve you?" 
 
 In a few moments the two cutthroats were 
 guzzling tepid beer from bottles while they ques- 
 tioned the uneasy canteen-keeper. And to their 
 satisfaction, no one answering Dick's description 
 had passed the cantina that day. So they tossed 
 the relieved countryman a coin and went on. 
 
 But now they no longer rode toward the west. 
 Following the camino real, they traveled east- 
 ward. And they had not gone a mile further 
 before they stopped. Behind a screen of 
 palmettos a little distance back from the road they
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 229 
 
 hid their horses. And then they wormed their way 
 into a dense thicket of scrub growth that skirted 
 the highway. 
 
 They had chosen their vantage point with skill. 
 The thicket grew in an angle round which the 
 road bent abruptly and afforded them an unob- 
 structed view of the highway in either direction. 
 Where they left their horses Fernandez had 
 plucked a few leaves from the cabbage-palms and 
 from these he now fashioned masks for himself 
 and his ally. 
 
 While the mestizo watched the road toward the 
 west, to make sure that no one should surprise 
 them in the midst of their work, Fernandez kept 
 his own eyes upon the stretch along which he 
 expected Dick to appear. Rifle in hand, he peered 
 intently through the holes of his green mask. 
 Now and then the two bandits grumbled at the 
 length of time it took their quarry to approach. 
 It was tiresome waiting there. 
 
 "It would not be so bad," Pepe observed, "it 
 would not be so bad if he had any money on him. 
 But we already have that." 
 
 "A good thing, too!" was Fernandez's philo- 
 sophical answer. "Now we shall not have to stop 
 to search him. . . . Let me have only one fair
 
 230 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 shot at him! Then for the horses and away I" 
 
 At last came the reward for their patience. 
 
 "Some one comes!" Fernandez muttered sud- 
 denly. . . . "It is he!" he exclaimed a moment 
 later, when his keen eyes had made him sure. 
 
 "Let me shoot the dog!" Pepe begged. 
 
 But Fernandez bade him be silent and stick to 
 his post. 
 
 "No more chances!" he growled. "I will kill 
 him myself. ... Is any one coming from the 
 other way?" 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "Then I will wait until he is closer, though it 
 would be simple to pick him off his horse even 
 now that little old soft-gaited horse. ... I 
 paid well for that pony but estd bienf that's all 
 right! I'd give more for him than his rider just 
 now ha I ha! . . . You say no one comes?" 
 
 "No one, chico!" 
 
 Fernandez waited until the unsuspecting horse- 
 man had come almost within a dozen rods of him 
 before he raised his rifle and fired. 
 
 The impact of the .30 caliber bullet tumbled 
 Dick out of his saddle like a straw dummy. The 
 decrepit pony jumped as his rider slipped off him.
 
 NO MORE CHANCES 231 
 
 But he stopped after a few plunges and began 
 grazing by the roadside. 
 
 Fernandez took one good look at his victim 
 as he lay limp upon the ground. 
 
 "We shall have no more trouble from that 
 gentleman," he said with a chuckle. 
 
 "Give him another shot for good measure," 
 Pepe suggested. 
 
 But Fernandez saw no sense in wasting ammuni- 
 tion like that. 
 
 "Vamos!" he cried. "Come on! I want to be 
 fifteen leagues from here by dark."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 
 
 "THAT captain is a rascal," Jose Crispo confided 
 to De Boer as they put Rio Chico behind them. 
 It was the morning after their highly interesting 
 call upon the girl Rosita. "The rural guard do 
 not wish to capture Fernandez," Crispo declared. 
 "And the refusal of el capitan to accompany us to 
 La Caridad makes me feel certain that Bristow 
 is there and that the rurales know it. ... 
 
 "We must hurry; for it is not beyond reason 
 that the captain may find some way of warning 
 Fernandez that we are going to La Caridad to 
 look for our friend. He must know, of a cer- 
 tainty, that we will go there and I do not wish 
 to give Fernandez a chance to hide his prisoner 
 elsewhere. . . . We do not need those knock- 
 kneed soldiers to help us, anyhow. They are 
 mere boys. They can shoot well enough at a 
 target, it may be. But they have no stomach for 
 real fighting. 
 
 '232
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 233 
 
 "But I, senor I know what it is to fight. And 
 my brother-in-law too he is also a veteran of the 
 wars. With him and my eldest son we shall have 
 a party of four. And I hope to meet that fat out- 
 law Fernandez. He has stolen cattle from me 
 more than once. I should like to get the thousand 
 dollars that the government offers for his body." 
 
 Long unused to riding as he was, De Boer was 
 glad when Crispo at last pointed out a cluster of 
 thatched buildings as his own. To be sure, the 
 storekeeper's singlefooting pony had carried De 
 Boer as easily as it lay in the power of horse- 
 flesh to bear a moderately heavy man a distance 
 of twenty-five miles in three hours. But De Boer 
 was quite ready to stretch his legs on terra firma 
 while Crispo's family began preparations for the 
 little relief expedition. Two of old Jose's nu- 
 merous progeny went to an outlying pasture to get 
 fresh horses, while their father overhauled rifles 
 and revolvers. Meanwhile others brought forth 
 hammocks, blankets, provisions and a dish or 
 two in which to cook them. Saddles, bridles, sad- 
 dle-bags everything was strewn about in careless 
 confusion. 
 
 At last De Boer looked uneasily at his watch. 
 He saw that an hour had already passed and yet
 
 234 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 their departure seemed little nearer, for all the 
 bustle. Even after the horses arrived old Crispo 
 would not leave until his guest had eaten. So all 
 the men sat down to a midday breakfast, while 
 the women being inferior creatures waited. 
 De Boer had not been long enough away from the 
 States to shake off his Yankee habits. His notion 
 of hurrying and Jose Crispo's were as far apart 
 as the poles. He did not realize that any action 
 of the rurale captain would proceed in a likewise 
 leisurely fashion. 
 
 But finally they were off though at a pace that 
 was far too slow to suit De Boer. Old Crispo, 
 however, was too sensible to push his horses to 
 the lope at which he and De Boer had ridden in 
 the cool of the morning. It was hot now. And 
 there were the men to consider, too. Crispo knew 
 that after their hearty meal they were in no condi- 
 tion to stand the pounding of fast riding under 
 that scorching sun, even if the horses were equal 
 to the ordeal. So they jogged along at what 
 seemed to De Boer a snail's pace. 
 
 It was not long before Crispo's policy justified 
 itself. They had not been in the saddle half an 
 hour before De Boer was drunk with sleep. Every 
 few minutes he would reel in his seat, awaking
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 235 
 
 with a start to find himself on the point of falling. 
 The others, too, had to fight off that overpower- 
 ing drowsiness all but Crispo, who led them 
 steadily on. Mounted on a white stallion, the 
 lean, erect old man made an impressive figure. 
 With the military collar of his linen coat closing 
 tightly under his chin, and machete dangling from 
 his side with the movement of the stallion, the 
 grim old veteran looked sufficiently formidable to 
 cause the most desperate outlaw to think twice 
 before he stood up before the fire of the rifle that 
 lay under Crispo's leg in a saddle-holster. Even 
 the knowledge that the old man wore not a stitch 
 of clothing beneath that tightly buttoned linen 
 suit did not detract one whit from De Boer's ap- 
 preciation of so imposing and romantic a picture. 
 
 The afternoon was half gone and for nearly 
 an hour they had been riding eastward when 
 Crispo halted them before a cantina. There was 
 no one in sight ; and the old man called loudly for 
 coffee. But no one appeared. 
 
 There seemed to be a commotion in the back 
 part of the building, in the living room behind 
 the thin partition that divided the flimsy structure. 
 After waiting for a few moments Crispo dis- 
 mounted. And handing his bridle-reins to his
 
 236 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 son he crawled over the long counter and pushed 
 through the door that opened into the rear room. 
 In a corner he saw a group of chattering peo- 
 ple clustered about an iron bed. A figure lay upon 
 the gaudy quilt he could see that much. And 
 then he rapped sharply upon the open door. 
 
 "Luis!" he called, for he knew the keeper of 
 the cantina. "What is the trouble?" he asked, 
 when the man Luis crossed the room to where 
 he stood. 
 
 "A gringo he has been shot!" the fellow said. 
 "He rode up here a quarter of an hour ago, 
 more dead than alive." It was clear that Luis 
 was excited. One look at his face as pale as 
 it could grow under its coating of tan and his 
 rolling eyes told Crispo that he was badly fright- 
 ened as well. And old Jose himself was uneasy. 
 He stepped forward quickly. And he peered for 
 a moment at the wounded man upon the blood- 
 soaked bed. Then he turned and ran quickly out 
 of the room. 
 
 Dick was not dead. Fine marksman that he 
 was, for once Fernandez had deceived himself. 
 He had held his sights upon Dick's heart; and 
 when his victim fell at the crack of his rifle
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 237 
 
 Fernandez had been satisfied that his work was 
 completed. He had not even taken the trouble 
 to run forward and examine the prostrate figure, 
 so confident was he of his skill as a sharpshooter. 
 And he had imperiously brushed aside Pepe's sug- 
 gestion that he pump another bullet into the body. 
 
 When Dick came to his senses he was conscious 
 of a peculiar numbness in his left arm. And turn- 
 ing his head he discovered that he was lying in 
 a pool of blood. He struggled to his knees; and 
 he felt suddenly faint as he saw that his arm 
 hung inertly from his shoulder. Somehow it did 
 not seem to belong to him that torn and scarlet 
 thing. One look at it sent him sprawling forward ; 
 and he lay there, helpless, for a time, without mak- 
 ing any further effort. 
 
 Then something happened that sent a horrible 
 fear over him and shook him out of the daze that 
 had gripped him. A buzzard flapped leisurely 
 down and lighted in a low tree near-by. Dick 
 knew what errand had brought that gruesome 
 scavenger out of the sky. And he managed by a 
 mighty effort to gain his feet. He had no idea of 
 the seriousness of his wound; but if he must die 
 he was determined that he would die under a roof.
 
 2 3 8 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 The thought of falling a prey to those loathsome 
 birds revolted him. 
 
 The little old pony still nibbled at the scatter- 
 ing bunch-grass by the roadside and Dick stag- 
 gered to his side. He thanked the Almighty that 
 the scrubby fellow was so small; but at that he 
 found the task of mounting him to be almost an 
 impossibility. Time after time he tried to climb 
 upon him, only to slip futilely back again. It was 
 heartbreaking. But still he persisted. And in the 
 end he succeeded in pulling himself into the 
 saddle. 
 
 He had lost all sense of direction. So he 
 started his horse haphazard down the camino real. 
 And so at length he came to the cantina at the 
 crossroads. 
 
 Luis had been too frightened and too incom- 
 petent to do much for the wounded stranger ex- 
 cept to lay him upon the bed and give him a drink 
 of roily, brackish water. But now Dick's friends 
 rendered him such first-aid as they could. They 
 bound up his torn arm tightly with the cleanest 
 cloths they could find; and De Boer gave him 
 whisky from his pocket-flask. Under the stimu- 
 lant Dick's eyes lost something of their glassy 
 look and his voice became stronger.
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 239 
 
 Crispo and De Boer watched him narrowly for 
 a time. And then they withdrew to hold a whis- 
 pered consultation outside the door. They had 
 beckoned to the canteen-keeper to follow them. 
 
 "Where can we get a doctor?" De Boer asked 
 the man. 
 
 Luis declared that there was no medico nearer 
 than Rio Chico. 
 
 The American turned to Crispo then. 
 
 "How far away is that?" he inquired. 
 
 Old Jose shot some rapid Spanish at his com- 
 patriot. 
 
 "Five leagues!" he answered at length. 
 
 De Boer quickly translated the five leagues into 
 good American miles. Elastic as he had found 
 the Spanish league to be, he dared not believe 
 that Rio Chico lay much less than fifteen miles 
 distant. Waving the man Luis back into the house 
 he said to Crispo: 
 
 "It would be hours before we could get the 
 doctor here. And then this would be no place 
 for a man in his condition." He nodded toward 
 the shack where Dick lay. "There's not a single 
 convenience here nothing at all that he would 
 need if he has need of anything much longer.
 
 2 4 o THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 . . . What shall we do? Perhaps we could man- 
 age to take him to Rio Chico " 
 
 Crispo shook his head doubtfully. 
 
 "He might die on the way," he observed. "He 
 has lost much blood." 
 
 "Is there a hospital at Rio Chico?" De Boer 
 asked. 
 
 "Si, senor! The Company has a hospital for 
 its employees." 
 
 As De Boer deliberated it struck him that Dick's 
 only chance lay in obtaining an antiseptic dressing 
 for his wound with the least possible delay. He 
 felt that to attempt to save his life in those un- 
 sanitary surroundings would be sheer folly. De 
 Boer realized that the germ theory meant nothing 
 to Crispo. It was useless to discuss such a topic 
 with him. 
 
 "I want to take this boy to Rio Chico," he told 
 the old man at last. "Do you think we can keep 
 him on a horse?" 
 
 "It is possible," Crispo replied. "This cross- 
 road leads there. As you see, it is not too narrow 
 for us to travel three abreast. One of us can 
 ride on either side of Bristow." 
 
 "We'll try it, anyhow!" De Boer declared.
 
 WHAT DE BOER FOUND 241 
 
 And he strode back into the house to fortify his 
 patient with more whisky. 
 
 Luis watched their preparations with interest. 
 And when he saw that they intended to place 
 the wounded gringo upon one of their own horses 
 he protested volubly. 
 
 "Este caballito es muy manso muy comodof" 
 he clamored, pointing to the dejected pony that 
 had borne Dick to his hostelry. "I know him 
 well," he declared. "He is twenty-five years old, 
 it is true; but he has a gait of the softest." 
 
 Crispo's brother-in-law cast a contemptuous 
 glance at the sorry brute. But he threw a leg 
 over the animal and sent him across the road and 
 back. 
 
 "He speaks rightly," he affirmed. "The little 
 old horse is like a rocking-chair." 
 
 So they set Dick gently upon the tattered sad- 
 dle; and then they started. 
 
 They made surprisingly good time. To be 
 sure, Dick's ancient steed often lagged. But the 
 Mexicans had a remedy for that. They kicked the 
 poor animal mercilessly; and under the circum- 
 stances De Boer made no protest. But he re- 
 solved to hunt up the owner of that wreck of a 
 horse. He wanted to buy him and turn him loose
 
 242 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 in a good pasture, where he might spend his re- 
 maining years in peace. De Boer little dreamed 
 that Fernandez himself had paid an outrageous 
 price for that broken-down pony that very day.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 
 
 "BRISTOW is dead!" Pepe Moreno announced, a* 
 he faced Farrand triumphantly. After the shoot- 
 ing he had ridden straight to Rio Chico. There 
 was no price upon his head. He did not need 
 to run for cover, like Fernandez. And so secure 
 did he feel that he had come boldly to the Com- 
 pany's office, demanding to see the manager. 
 
 "Don't talk so loud!" Farrand warned him. 
 They were alone in Farrand's private office; and 
 the door was shut. But thin partitions and open 
 windows served to make Wade Farrand cautious. 
 "You should not have come to see me openly, like 
 this," he said reprovingly. 
 
 "What matters that?" was Pepe's indifferent 
 answer. He felt that the time had arrived when 
 he need no longer submit meekly to Farrand's 
 complaints. Their relations were suddenly 
 changed. And Pepe was quick to assume that the 
 
 243
 
 244 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 present business had put them upon a common 
 level. 
 
 "You say Bristow is dead?" Farrand whispered. 
 "How do you know? You told me once before 
 that you had him safely hidden. But he escaped 
 from you." 
 
 "I tell you, he is done for," Pepe declared. 
 "Fernandez himself shot the fellow. With my 
 own eyes I saw him lying dead in the road." 
 
 Farrand stared at him dully. He seemed 
 scarcely to grasp the news. He had been guilty 
 of plenty of reprehensible acts during his life; 
 but he had never before connived at murder. 
 
 "You'd better disappear for a time," he ad- 
 vised the mestizo, pulling himself together with 
 an effort. 
 
 "One requires money to travel," Pepe observed 
 with an impudent grin. 
 
 Farrand regarded him with exceeding disfavor. 
 
 "I've already paid you enough for the present," 
 he told him. "And in addition to that, you must 
 
 have robbed " He hesitated momentarily. 
 
 "You must have robbed him. He had money for 
 his payroll, they say." 
 
 "That was nothing," Pepe said lightly. "There 
 was very little. And there were six of us. ...
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 245 
 
 Besides, we have now done more than we bar- 
 gained for, at first." 
 
 "That's your affair," Farrand rejoined. 
 
 "But we have killed the man," Pepe remon- 
 strated. 
 
 "I didn't tell you to kill him," Farrand re- 
 torted. 
 
 At that Pepe gave him a black look. 
 
 "Oiga!" said Farrand. "Listen to me! You 
 can get no more money from me now. You would 
 not have needed to kill your man if you had not 
 bungled the business. . . . Leave Rio Chico. Go 
 to some other state until the affair blows over. 
 Then then you will find me more than willing 
 to talk with you." 
 
 That arrangement did not suit Pepe at all. It 
 was far too indefinite to please him. But Far- 
 rand was shrewd enough to perceive that he must 
 handle Pepe with a firm hand, or ever afterward 
 submit to his blackmailing demands. And in the 
 end Farrand's will prevailed. Pepe went away 
 grumbling. But he had promised to leave town 
 that night. 
 
 Farrand derived no little solace from his claim 
 that he had not ordered Pepe to kill Bristow. And 
 after the mestizo had gone he repeated the state-
 
 246 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 ment again to himself. He had merely told Pepe 
 to "get" Dick. Surely it was not his fault if the 
 bandits had construed his directions to mean that 
 he wanted him murdered. And Farrand assured 
 himself that he had never had any such inten- 
 tion. If Bristow had been killed well! that was 
 a chance that every man took who came to that 
 rough country. 
 
 After reenforcing his specious reasoning with a 
 stiff drink of whisky, Farrand locked his desk and 
 departed. He had an engagement to go riding 
 with Janet at five o'clock and it then lacked ten 
 minutes of the hour. He was already in riding- 
 breeches and puttees, and the horses in the care 
 of a stable-boy were waiting outside. 
 
 From the piazza of Farrand's house Janet saw 
 the two riders approaching; and when they ar- 
 rived she was at the gate. 
 
 They had not gone far along the highway that 
 led from the village when Farrand swung off into 
 the cane-fields. 
 
 "I'm going to show you a new road to-day 
 new to you, I mean," he remarked, as they 
 threaded their way through a maze of canaverals 
 long, narrow lanes which served as paths for 
 the cane-carts as well as for fireguards. "There's
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 247 
 
 an old wood-road over there in that timberland," 
 he explained, pointing to the bush ahead of them. 
 "We'll explore it as far as we can. The light 
 will last two hours yet." 
 
 Farrand had not chosen that secluded road for 
 nothing. He wanted an opportunity for an unin- 
 terrupted talk with Janet. With Bristow's definite 
 removal from the stage of events and Farrand 
 saw no reason to question Pepe's news with that 
 danger done away with he was eager to obtain 
 Janet's promise to marry him. Renewed tales of 
 the richness of the iron deposit upon Janet's and 
 Julian Marr's property had reached his ears that 
 very day, making him all the more anxious to 
 achieve the end toward which he had schemed. 
 
 The days immediately preceding had told sadly 
 upon Farrand's nerves. He had asked Janet to 
 marry him. And then had come Marr's discon- 
 certing announcement that De Boer had obtained 
 his railroad franchise. To be sure, Farrand had 
 reflected that even should Janet accept his offer 
 without further urging, there were ways in which 
 engagements might be broken. But he had been 
 reluctant to abandon his design. That mining 
 property was a lure that dangled constantly before 
 his eyes. And his cupidity had conquered. He
 
 248 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 had resorted to the only remaining means for 
 making his plan good the elimination of Bris- 
 tow, with his option. 
 
 But since his proposal to Janet to which Dick 
 had been an unwilling listener Farrand had not 
 urged her further. He had not dared crowd his 
 luck too hard. And when Pepe brought him word 
 of Dick's escape he had congratulated himself 
 upon his discretion. But now all that was changed. 
 He was determined to win Janet's consent before 
 some untoward happening intervened to frustrate 
 his plans. Indeed, it was a miracle that she had 
 not already got wind of that ore discovery. 
 
 They had not proceeded far along the old 
 wood-road before Farrand broached the subject 
 that was uppermost in his mind. 
 
 "Have you thought over what I said to you last 
 week?" he asked her abruptly. 
 
 Janet heard his question with dismay. She had 
 had misgivings when Farrand suggested taking 
 that little used road, where they were scarcely 
 likely to meet other horsemen. But she had felt 
 that it would be footless to attempt to evade the 
 issue which lay between them. 
 
 Their horses had slowed down to a walk; and 
 the remains of the wide track worn long since by
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 249 
 
 the great wheels of carretas permitted them to 
 ride abreast. It was a lonely spot. On either 
 hand the forest crowded close upon them in a 
 forbidding wall of rank and tangled growth. 
 Strange tendrils, twisted into grotesque knots, 
 hung from the trees and reached down menacingly, 
 as if in resentment at their violation of that soli- 
 tude. Farrand could not have selected a better 
 place in which to demand his answer. 
 
 "Have you thought about it?" he repeated, since 
 she still remained silent. 
 
 "I've thought about nothing else," Janet told 
 him then a statement which was scarcely true, 
 as she had to admit to herself after she had 
 spoken. For much as her mind had dwelt upon 
 Farrand and his proposal, there was another who 
 had obtruded himself insistently upon her musings. 
 And that other was Dick Bristow. Never had 
 he been out of her mind. She had found herself 
 wondering, again and again, what fate had over- 
 taken him. Somehow, he had established him- 
 self in her thoughts in a way she had never antici- 
 pated. Often, when reading, it had surprised her 
 to discover that the printed words meant nothing 
 to her. Her eyes had followed the type mechani- 
 cally, it was true ; but her brain had utterly failed
 
 2 5 o THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 to grasp its significance. Instead, she had un- 
 consciously been speculating as to his whereabouts, 
 asking herself if he could have vanished of his 
 own free will, or whether he might not have met 
 with some accident, or even with violence. And 
 what especially amazed her was the fact that she 
 cared. Had his safety not meant much to her she 
 knew that she would never have lain awake by 
 night to think of him, to hope that he was un- 
 harmed, to wish for his return. And yet she 
 realized that he had never given her the slightest 
 reason to believe that she was more to him than 
 scores of other women. 
 
 "I hope you've made up your mind," Farrand 
 was saying. And so far away were her thoughts 
 at that moment, even, that she started as he spoke. 
 "I hope that you're ready to give me the answer 
 I want," he said. "This long week of waiting has 
 been a nightmare for me. I can't tell you how I've 
 worried. But I've felt that I ought not to hurry 
 you." 
 
 "You've been very kind," Janet told him grate- 
 fully. "You've always been that to me." And 
 she was sincere. It did, indeed, seem to her that 
 he had been more than considerate not to urge 
 her.
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 251 
 
 & 
 
 "I've wanted to be, surely," he replied. "But 
 it's not hard to be kind to you, my dear. What 
 I want is the chance to be kind to you always 
 not just for a few weeks." 
 
 She turned her face toward his impetuously. 
 
 "I'm afraid to say I'll marry you!" she cried 
 with much emotion. "I I'm not sure of myself." 
 
 "What troubles you?" he asked her. 
 
 "Don't think me cruel, please, when I tell you. 
 It's only that I want to be honest with you. . . . 
 Frankly, I'm not sure that I care enough for you 
 to become your wife." 
 
 "You like me, don't you?" he inquired. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "But you're not positive that you love me is 
 that it?" 
 
 "Y-es!" 
 
 "My dear don't worry about that!" he ex- 
 claimed. "You know, it's said that when two 
 people marry there's always more affection on one 
 side than the other. Why should our case be dif- 
 ferent from others? It's well enough natural 
 enough to hope for the ideal. But we seldom 
 realize our ideals completely. They are elusive 
 things, Janet. . . . Suppose you did not marry 
 me suppose you waited; and when some other
 
 252 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 man asked you to marry him some man for 
 whom you seemed to care more than for me 
 how would you know that he loved you as much 
 as I do? Would you prefer to care more, and 
 have your husband care less? . . . Would you?" 
 
 "I hadn't thought of that," she said slowly. 
 And Farrand's words turned her mind upon Dick 
 again. She had discovered that she cared 
 a good deal for him. But doubtless he thought no 
 more of her than of dozens of other girls of his 
 acquaintance. . . . Was there not after all 
 much truth in Farrand's argument? 
 
 "I don't blame you for wanting to be sure of 
 yourself," Farrand continued. "But marriage is 
 so momentous a step that I doubt knowing you 
 as I do that you would ever take it without mis- 
 givings, no matter how long you deliberated." 
 
 "Are you sure that you want me?" she asked. 
 
 He rode close to her and laid his hand upon 
 hers where it rested upon the pommel of her 
 saddle. 
 
 "Surer than I ever was about anything in my 
 life!" he declared with well simulated emotion. 
 "Come! Tell me what I want you to tell me! 
 . . . Will you, Janet?"
 
 ON THE OLD WOOD-ROAD 253 
 
 For a few moments her eyes searched his. And 
 then she whispered 
 
 "Yes! ... Oh! I hope it's for the best for 
 us both !" she cried in the next breath. "I hope 
 I'm not wronging you!" 
 
 "Wronging me!" he protested, with an odd, 
 short laugh. "My dear Janet! You're doing me 
 the best turn any one ever did me!" No state- 
 ment that he had ever made came nearer the truth 
 than that. 
 
 But even then her misgivings were not entirely 
 dissipated. 
 
 "Do you think you can say that with as much 
 enthusiasm thirty years from now?" she ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 "Always! always!" he declared with apparent 
 conviction. "I'll say it as long as I live." 
 
 Night descends quickly in that land of scant 
 twilights. The day was fast fading when Janet 
 and Farrand reached the group of low buildings 
 that crowded close to the larger structures that 
 flanked the mill itself. Before the Company's 
 hospital it was only by the greatest courtesy 
 that one could dignify the edifice by that name
 
 254 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 before it stood several horses. And a group of 
 people lounged about the doorway. 
 
 "Something's up!" said Farrand. "Do you 
 mind waiting a moment while I go in?" 
 
 "Not at all I" Janet told him. 
 
 So he dismounted and pushed his way through 
 the knot of chattering natives. Inside he found 
 Dick. Farrand's heart sank as he recognized 
 him. But as he noted his white face and glassy 
 eyes he told himself that he had little to fear. 
 Dick seemed as good as dead. 
 
 Wade Farrand returned quickly to join Janet. 
 He told her briefly that Dick was there wounded. 
 "Shot in some brawl, probably!" he added, by way 
 of explanation. 
 
 Somehow, as they rode on in the thickening 
 dusk, the joy seemed gone from Janet's soul.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 
 
 SEATED in a comfortable wicker chair on Far- 
 rand's piazza, Julian M arr was diligently scanning 
 a ten-day-old New York newspaper. Marr seldom 
 indulged in anything so nearly approaching idle- 
 ness as that. Usually he read his newspaper in 
 snatches, so to speak. But there was a curious 
 languorous quality in that soft air that made its 
 impression even upon his unflagging energy. And 
 after finishing his breakfast he had yielded to a 
 luxury that he did not often allow himself. 
 
 He had not noticed the approach of a man who 
 when he caught sight of the bulky figure upon the 
 piazza, thought better of his intention to ring the 
 bell and made his way down the long gallery. 
 Marr turned his head at the sound of the foot- 
 steps; and a look of annoyance crossed his face. 
 For years he had made it a practise to grant 
 interviews except with newspaper gentry only 
 
 255
 
 256 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 by appointment. It was not that he was a snob. 
 At heart he was the most democratic of men. 
 But with his gradual rise to a position of power 
 in the world he had found that the demands made 
 upon his valuable time by inconsequential people 
 became increasingly greater. And he had so long 
 hedged himself away from casual interruptions 
 that he had grown to resent any attempted en- 
 croachment on the part of strangers. 
 
 "You want to see Mr. Farrand," he blurted, 
 before the newcomer had spoken. "You'll find 
 him at the Company's office." 
 
 His caller a well-knit, virile individual whose 
 gray hair alone gave him an appearance of middle 
 age smiled slightly under the rebuff. But he 
 was in no wise abashed. As it happened, he was 
 himself a person of some importance. 
 
 "No " he said, "it's you I want to see, Mr. 
 
 Marr. My name is De Boer." And he held out 
 a card to his unwilling listener. 
 
 Marr made no move to take the bit of paper. 
 He was not invariably noted for his good man- 
 ners. 
 
 De Boer dropped the card upon the arm of 
 Marr's chair. And seating himself deliberately 
 in another, with the air of a man who had some-
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 257 
 
 thing on his mind and intended to relieve himself 
 of it, he looked at Marr evenly. But whatever 
 his business might be, he appeared to be in no 
 hurry. 
 
 "Well ?" his host inquired irritably. "What can 
 I do for you?" In spite of his brusqueness Marr 
 was interested. He hazarded the guess that Bris- 
 tow's approaching demise and the consequent 
 failure of De Boer's plans had very likely 
 brought that suave gentleman to the point where 
 he was desirous of effecting a truce. 
 
 "I want you to talk over this matter of your 
 land Aguacate," De Boer explained. 
 
 "Humph! I'll hear what you have to say, if 
 that's what you mean," Marr replied. "I don't 
 know that I've anything to offer on that sub- 
 ject." He rose from his chair then. "Come 
 inside," he continued. "We're less likely to be 
 disturbed in there." And he led the way to the 
 room that was set aside for his use as an office 
 whenever he chanced to visit Rio Chico. 
 
 Marr seated himself once more, behind the 
 large, flat-topped desk in the center of the room, 
 while De Boer drew up a chair opposite him. 
 
 The office was but sparsely furnished. Beyond 
 three or four chairs, a bookcase, together with
 
 258 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 some framed photographs of Mexican scenes 
 upon the walls and a Persian rug upon the floor, 
 there was little in the room. A few sticks of 
 wood blazed in the open fireplace a concession to 
 the chill of the early morning. 
 
 "The time has come," De Boer began, "when 
 I want to exercise that option for the purchase 
 of the property." 
 
 "The option was granted to Bristow, was it 
 not?" Marr interposed. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "Dead men can't exercise options," Marr re- 
 marked with acerbity. 
 
 "Quite right!" said De Boer. "But Bristow 
 is not dead if you have him in mind." 
 
 "Dying, then!" the older man retorted. "He 
 is certainly in no condition to transact business. 
 His signature would have no value in the eyes of 
 the law." 
 
 "This is really quite beside the question, Mr. 
 Marr," De Boer objected. "We don't need Bris- 
 tow to complete this negotiation." 
 
 "But I tell you a dead man or as good as 
 dead can't do business!" Marr growled. 
 
 "I grant you that," De Boer admitted softly. 
 'No matter how irritable his testy host might be,
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 259 
 
 he had no intention of losing his own temper. 
 "I grant you that much. But heirs and assigns 
 can transact business, always." 
 
 ".Are you his heir?" the other demanded fero- 
 ciously. 
 
 "No " 
 
 "Well I have nothing to say to you about this 
 affair, then absolutely nothing." 
 
 "But this contract is assigned to me, ' De Boer 
 explained politely enough. 
 
 "Let me see it!" Marr snorted. He was con- 
 vinced that his caller was trying a game of bluff 
 on him and he had no notion of succumbing to 
 any Yankee trick of that stamp. Marr, be it said, 
 was an excellent poker-player; and when there 
 was any bluffing to be done he was quite capable 
 of taking care of his own interests. He had no 
 idea that De Boer had the document. Where 
 it might be he did not know. But both he and 
 Farrand had come to the conclusion that although 
 Farrand's cutthroats had failed to find it upon 
 Bristow, nevertheless it was non-existent so far 
 as all practical purposes were concerned. They 
 believed that Bristow had concealed the paper 
 somewhere for safekeeping, that he had hidden it 
 in some secret place beneath a tree, possibly
 
 2 6o THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 where none but him could find it. But now Marr 
 experienced a curious sensation as he saw De Boer 
 put his hand into the breast pocket of his coat 
 and pull out a long pocket-book. And he became 
 decidedly uneasy, inwardly, when De Boer pro- 
 duced a legal-looking envelope therefrom and pro- 
 ceeded to open it. 
 
 "Here it is!" De Boer held up the paper for 
 him to see. There was an additional sheet at- 
 tached to the original contract, which constituted 
 an assignment of the option to himself. He did 
 not, however, place it in Marr's hands. 
 
 "My dear sir ! This is preposterous ! An op- 
 tion is not assignable. Some one has played a joke 
 on you. You may as well put that paper in your 
 pipe and smoke it. It's worthless." 
 
 "You'll find this is no joke," De Boer retorted. 
 In spite of his resolution he was beginning to feel 
 vexed by Marr's attitude. 
 
 "And I say it's a hoax I" Marr roared. "A 
 hoax pure and simple! Let me see that!" He 
 had risen from his seat and before De Boer 
 grasped his intention he had snatched the docu- 
 ment out of the American's hand. "Just as I 
 thought!" Marr spluttered. And while he scanned 
 the papers he edged toward the open fire. His
 
 A DIFFERENCE Ofc OPINION 261 
 
 hand the one that held the contract was al- 
 ready stretched over it when De Boer covered 
 him with his automatic. 
 
 "No, you don't!" De Boer cried. "Give me 
 that paper!" 
 
 Julian Marr glanced back at him and paused. 
 He did not relish the gleam of that sinister-look- 
 ing pistol. And yet his hand wavered above the 
 fire. 
 
 "I'll shoot you, sure as hell, if you drop that 
 contract!" De Boer warned him. . . . "Come! 
 Give it back to me!" 
 
 Marr straightened up and faced him with an 
 easy smile. 
 
 "It's valueless," he said. 
 
 "I don't agree with you," was the blunt answer. 
 
 "Why it's as plain as can be. Let me explain 
 it to you. Sit down!" He waved De Boer back 
 to the chair in front of the desk, at the same time 
 resuming his own seat behind it. "You under- 
 stand, of course," he continued, "you understand 
 that Bristow, by his payment of a thousand dol- 
 lars a ridiculous sum, by the way, to tie up so 
 valuable a property Bristow obligated me and 
 the coowner of the tract to sell Aguacate to the 
 party of the second part that is, to Bristow. By
 
 262 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 our acceptance of the sum specified it became our 
 duty to sell Bristow the land at any time within 
 one year another absurd condition ! if it should 
 be his pleasure to purchase it. ... I believe I 
 am stating the terms correctly?" 
 
 De Boer nodded. He still clutched the auto- 
 matic pistol. But he no longer had Marr cov- 
 ered with it, for the man had returned the con- 
 tract to him. 
 
 "Very well, then!" his burly antagonist con- 
 tinued, in a tone vastly pleasanter than he had 
 hitherto employed during the interview. "I am 
 surprised that you, as a business man, are not 
 aware of the established fact, at law, that duties 
 and obligations are not transferable not as- 
 signable." 
 
 At that De Boer laughed in Marr's face. 
 
 "Your statement is absolutely specious," he 
 declared. "As a business man I am certainly not 
 to be hoodwinked by any such argument. It is 
 not at all a case of transferring the duties and ob- 
 ligations of the present owners of Aguacate. But 
 every one knows you must know, yourself that 
 rights are assignable. And Bristow has assigned 
 his rights, as specified by contract, to me. Your 
 obligation to sell has not been assigned. That
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 263 
 
 exists as before. And what is more, I intend to 
 give myself the pleasure and satisfaction of see- 
 ing that you perform your obligation." 
 
 Julian Marr advanced no further argument on 
 that point. He saw that De Boer was sure of his 
 ground too sure to be bluffed out of his convic- 
 tion. But still the wily old strategist had no 
 thought of surrender. And he shook his head 
 with the air of one who almost despaired of driv- 
 ing a self-evident fact into the cognizance of a dull 
 brain. 
 
 "I have told you that a dying man is hardly 
 held competent by the courts," he said with a 
 show of weariness, which he assumed as a cloak 
 to his maneuvers. 
 
 "I'm afraid I don't follow you," De Boer re- 
 marked. "I don't grasp your point at all." 
 
 "Bristow executed this assignment on his death 
 bed " 
 
 "He did not! It was executed at San Miguel 
 nearly ten days ago. It is witnessed by Gordon 
 Macdonald, local manager of the Banco Terri- 
 torial, and the bank's traveling auditor, J. F. 
 Simmons both creditable persons, I should say. 
 And for your further enlightenment I will add that 
 the document was despatched to me by registered
 
 264 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 mail, on the same day as the assignment. Yo i 
 can see for yourself that it was posted in one of 
 the bank's envelopes." And he showed Marr the 
 envelope with the imprint of the Banco Territorial 
 at San Miguel, duly postmarked and with a can- 
 celed stamp upon it. 
 
 Marr glanced at the evidence in the most casual 
 manner. 
 
 "What do you propose to do now?" he in- 
 quired. 
 
 "Why 1 propose to crowd sixty-nine thou- 
 sand dollars on you," De Boer answered. "Here 
 is a certified check for the amount." He held up 
 a pink slip for Marr's inspection. 
 
 Julian Marr emitted one of his famous grunts. 
 
 "I suppose you want a receipt, pending the exe- 
 cution of the deed?" 
 
 "That's agreeable to me," De Boer replied. 
 
 Marr nodded his acquiescence. He seemed to 
 have struck his colors. 
 
 "Very well !" he said. And he opened a drawer 
 of his desk. In another second he had leveled a 
 large, blue revolver at his caller. "Drop that 
 pistol!" he commanded. And De Boer let his 
 automatic fall upon the floor. "A taste of your 
 own medicine," Marr remarked grimly. "Now,
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 265 
 
 then! Hand over that document and the en- 
 velope too!" 
 
 "I'll do no such thing!" 
 
 "Then I'll take them off your dead body." 
 
 "What! Julian Marr turned brigand thief 
 murderer!" De Boer exclaimed incredulously. "I 
 can't believe it." 
 
 "Exactly!" said Marr, with a confident smile. 
 "And no one else will believe it, either. That's 
 why I'm willing to take this step. You don't 
 suppose they'd touch me, do you for killing 
 you?" He laughed aloud. "I hold these native 
 judges in the hollow of my hand. They're my 
 men; I had them appointed. They'll rule that I 
 shot you in self-defense. . . . You're armed. 
 You came here to intimidate me into selling you 
 some land you wanted. And I declined to be 
 coerced. You had no option. Your tool, Bris- 
 tow, had one; but it was lost. You abused me, 
 threatened me. You drew your pistol. . . . But 
 I was quicker than you and I fired first. ... A 
 pretty good story eh, what? . . . And one that 
 will be believed, too. I have something of a repu- 
 tation," remember !" 
 
 "For truth and veracity?" De Boer inquired 
 with an air of innocence.
 
 266 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Don't forget that I own the judges!" Marr 
 snarled. "Come ! Drop that paper on the desk!" 
 
 "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" 
 
 "Ashamed? Hell! You're a good one to ask 
 that. Why! it's not five minutes since you threat- 
 ened to shoot me." 
 
 "Yes because you tried to rob me," De Boer 
 retorted. 
 
 "Rob? Nonsense! I'm simply administering 
 justice, my dear fellow. You and your gang con- 
 spired to get possession of this mining property 
 by unfair methods very questionable methods. 
 And I must give you credit for playing your cards 
 well. You bribed the Mexican legislators. I be- 
 lieve you even bought my own land commissioner 
 paid him money, by God! to induce me to 
 sign that absurd contract. . . . The whole thing's 
 rotten ! It would never stand in the courts. . . . 
 Now, then ! Give me the paper ! I'll only be sav- 
 ing you the expense of a law-suit, for I'd have 
 fought you to a finish before I'd be beaten by 
 you. . . . What chance would you have with your 
 principal witness Bristow dead ?" 
 
 Still De Boer made no move to relinquish his 
 grip upon the crumpled contract. And now he 
 said slowly:
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 267 
 
 "I've heard it said that Englishmen are hard 
 losers. ... I never believed it, though. But you 
 certainly do hate to see money slip through your 
 fingers, don't you?" 
 
 "It's not for myself that I'm taking this con- 
 tract away from you," the other objected. "And 
 it won't be for myself that I'll kill you, in about 
 one minute more, if you don't give up that bit of 
 paper. . . . Your gang has made one fatal error. 
 You've attempted to defraud a girl an orphan. 
 Why you're worse than the three-card monte 
 men I used to know years ago in the States 
 out West. They wouldn't take bets from widows, 
 cripples or orphans. But God only knows where 
 you'd draw the line. . . . Now I'm drawing it 
 for you. I ask you just once more do you or do 
 you not intend to give me that contract?" 
 
 Before he had finished talking De Boer's eyes 
 forsook his and rested on a figure that appeared 
 in the doorway behind Marr. 
 
 It was Janet Ashley. She hesitated as she saw 
 that the office was occupied, and stopped short as 
 if in astonishment at the amazing scene before her. 
 
 De Boer glanced back at his adversary then. 
 
 "Your minute must be up," he observed in ?. 
 low voice. "And since there's a most creditable
 
 268 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 fitness to the killing I beg you to proceed with it." 
 
 "What d'ye mean?" Marr demanded. 
 
 "Look behind you!" 
 
 "What and have you rush me ? Not if I know 
 it!" Marr smiled mockingly. "That trick's too 
 simple." 
 
 "Good-morning !" De Boer said. "Is there any- 
 thing I can do for you? . . . Mr. Marr's en- 
 gaged, as you see." 
 
 Marr turned his head warily then. And when 
 his eyes fell upon Janet he dropped his revolver 
 into the drawer in momentary confusion and shut 
 it with a bang. 
 
 "Er I was just telling Mr. De Boer a story 
 about a Greaser who threatened to shoot me 
 one time. 'Wait a moment!' I said. 'I want to 
 take your picture first.' There was a camera on 
 my desk and I took a snap-shot of the fellow. He 
 was so surprised ha ! ha ! so surprised that he 
 forgot all about shooting me, or thought better of 
 his intention, perhaps. Anyhow, he put away his 
 revolver. And I'm alive to tell the tale." 
 
 "How interesting!" Janet exclaimed. She had 
 moved forward as Marr rambled on. "For a 
 moment I was frightened." 
 
 "Naturally! Quite realistic, wasn't it?" Marr
 
 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION 269 
 
 said. "What is it, my dear ? Is there something 
 you want?" 
 
 "I don't want to bother you," she apologized, 
 "but I thought I might have left a book here 
 one I was reading yesterday." 
 
 "No bother at all, I assure you!" he protested 
 affably. "I don't see any book lying about. It's 
 not in that case, is it?" 
 
 As Janet stepped to the bookcase De Boer re- 
 trieved his pistol from the floor. He had covered 
 it with his foot as she entered the room. 
 
 "I'll be going now," he announced. "Next 
 time we discuss this matter, Mr. Marr, I'll bring 
 a lawyer with me and we can finish the business." 
 
 Julian Marr bowed to him. Inwardly he was 
 raging. But nevertheless he preserved outwardly 
 an appearance of the utmost calm. And in an- 
 other moment De Boer was gone, taking his con- 
 tract with him.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 TO RIGHT THE WRONG 
 
 IN spite of the protests of the native doctor, De 
 Boer had pushed Dick's bed close to a window, 
 with instructions that it should not be moved. 
 Like his compatriots, the medico considered night 
 air to be injurious. 
 
 "It's the only kind of air there is after sun- 
 down," De Boer declared; "and we'll give him 
 plenty of it." 
 
 Lulled somewhat by the opiates they adminis- 
 tered to him, Dick had dozed fitfully during that 
 first night in the hospital. His weary body seemed 
 to beg for sleep; but his brain would not be 
 still. A curious haze of unreality enwrapped him. 
 Somehow he could not be sure that it was him- 
 self that lay there in that strange place. It all 
 impressed him as some dream. De Boer's occa- 
 sional presence in the room the doctor the 
 flickering lamp-light nothing seemed quite actual. 
 
 270
 
 TO RIGHT THE WRONG 271 
 
 Toward the end of that night of phantoms the 
 sufferer at last fell asleep. . . . The day had 
 come when Dick awoke. As he lay motionless 
 and gazed out of the window he saw that an early 
 morning mist hung over the land, shutting out 
 from view all but the nearest objects, except for 
 a line of feathery palm tops that rose above the 
 fog. There was a bull-team passing not far off. 
 Dick could hear the tinkle of the bell upon one 
 of the leaders, the shouts of the driver; even the 
 creaking of the great cart reached his ears with 
 minute distinctness. He could see nothing of the 
 objects themselves; but it was as if he might al- 
 most have reached his hand out of the window 
 and touched them. Then a breeze folded back 
 the filmy curtain momentarily and he made out 
 the dim shapes that moved like silhouettes across 
 the scene. The team was just crossing a low 
 ridge; and the long line formed by the six bulls, 
 yoked two abreast, and the huge carreta bent it- 
 self to conform to the undulations of the ground. 
 In another instant the picture was gone. 
 
 It seemed to Dick that life was like that a 
 mere fleeting passage. Sometimes the curtain fell 
 quickly. And if the invisible hand was already 
 loosening the folds that would blot out his own
 
 brief course he could not believe that it mat- 
 tered. 
 
 There was one effort that Dick would make, 
 in disregard of De Boer's urging that he should 
 husband his strength. He insisted on making 
 a will. With the assistance of an old native 
 lawyer whom De Boer found in the village the 
 thing was soon accomplished, for the instrument 
 was of the briefest. And then Dick asked De 
 Boer to go to Julian Marr and eomplete the 
 Aguacate transaction. That much he wished to 
 see accomplished. 
 
 De Boer was loath to leave him. But requests 
 of that sort are not to be lightly regarded. So 
 De Boer made his memorable call upon Marr. 
 And when he returned he found that Dick had 
 one more desire. He wanted to see Janet. 
 
 De Boer sent a note to her. He thought that 
 under the circumstances he would scarcely be 
 persona grata under the roof that sheltered the 
 president of the South Eastern Railway Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Marr had protested vigorously when he learned 
 that Janet was about to visit the hospital. 
 
 "There's no sense in your being harrowed by 
 any death-bed scene," he told her. "Bristow has
 
 TO RIGHT THE WRONG 273 
 
 no right to impose any such ordeal on you. He 
 has no claim upon you." He turned to Janet's 
 aunt. "Surely, Miss Browning," he said, "surely 
 you won't allow your niece to submit to this un- 
 reasonable demand?" 
 
 Janet did not wait for her aunt's answer. 
 
 "I must go!" she declared. "I can't bear to 
 think of his dying almost alone in this strange 
 land, so far from, his own people. . . . I'm glad 
 to go, if he wants me." 
 
 She found De Boer waiting for her. He 
 thanked her briefly, then showed her into the 
 room where Dick lay. And placing a chair be- 
 side the bed, he left them. 
 
 Dick smiled at her wanly. 
 
 "It's good of you to come," he told her in a 
 faint voice. 
 
 "I'm glad to come," she said. "It's nothing. 
 I only wish there was more I could do some- 
 thing to help you." 
 
 "You can help me," he replied. "You are 
 helping me. Just to see you again is is a bless- 
 ing. And I I hated to go without a chance to 
 speak to you again. There's something I want
 
 274 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 to tell you." He took her hand; and as he looked 
 at it he noticed a ring that he did not remember 
 having seen there before. It was her left hand 
 that he had touched. 
 
 Farrand had given Janet that ring the evening 
 before. He had bought it ten days earlier, when 
 he chanced to make a hurried trip to Mexico City. 
 To be sure, he had not then received Janet's 
 answer. But he had not doubted his ability to 
 win her; and when she should at length tell him 
 that she would marry him he wanted to be ready 
 to set every seal possible upon their compact. 
 
 As Dick's eyes caught the glint of the big dia- 
 mond he said nothing for a moment. Then he 
 looked up at her, into her own eyes, which swam 
 with unshed tears. 
 
 "It's it's from Farrand?" he whispered. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "I hope you'll be happy! . . . He's lucky 
 'Farrand is! ... I hope you'll have every good 
 thing that life ever gave any one." 
 
 Janet choked back a sob as she thanked him. 
 
 "I'll remember your wish always," she said. 
 
 For a little while Dick lay back upon his pillows 
 and gazed in silence at the thatched roof above
 
 TO RIGHT THE WRONG 275 
 
 them. Then he stirred, and looked at her again 
 questioningly, as if he had forgotten what he 
 wanted to say to her. 
 
 "Oh yes! There's something more you can 
 do for me," he told her. "I want your forgive- 
 ness." 
 
 "Forgiveness?" she exclaimed, wondering. 
 "For what? Surely there's nothing for me to for- 
 give you!" 
 
 "There is! Oh, I've felt like a thief every 
 time I looked at you. I hated to face you. I 
 despised myself. I'd promised to square myself 
 with you, in the end. . . . The end is different 
 from what I expected." 
 
 "What is it?" Janet asked him. "Nothing 
 very bad I'm sure ! I don't see how you could 
 have injured me." She wondered whether his 
 mind were not wandering. 
 
 "It's about that land of yours and Mr. Marr's," 
 he explained then. "I discovered iron on my own 
 property and on old Jose's as well. But I wasn't 
 satisfied with that. I suppose I was greedy. I 
 looked further. And I found that the deposit ex- 
 tended over a part of your tract too. So I hur- 
 ried to get an option on it cheap. 
 
 "I thought I was pulling off a clever trick. I
 
 276 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 was pleased with myself. But after I met you I 
 realized what I was doing robbing you ! I didn't 
 feel so happy then. But I was committed to the 
 thing. I couldn't back out. It was too late for 
 that. But I made up my mind that some day I'd 
 see that you were repaid. . . ." 
 
 "Don't !" Janet protested. She saw that he was 
 greatly agitated. "It's nothing. I was glad 
 enough of a chance to sell. . . . Why it was 
 just just business, I'm sure. Any one would have 
 done as much. Don't let it worry wou. I'll never 
 feel the least resentment toward you I promise 
 you that." 
 
 Dick's fictitious energy had left him, now that 
 he had at last told her. 
 
 "I've done what I could," he said haltingly. 
 "They they'll tell you out there what I've 
 done." He moved a hand slighdy in the direction 
 of the adjoining room. "But that's not enough. 
 I want to know you've forgiven me. ... Can 
 you tell me that you have?" 
 
 "Yes I've forgiven you," she said, for she 
 saw that he would not be satisfied until she told 
 him that. "And I'll think of you as being good 
 and kind and true the best sort of friend. That's 
 how I'll feel toward you just as I always have."
 
 TO RIGHT THE WRONG 277 
 
 Dick smiled up at her. "Thank you I" he said. 
 Then he fell back wearily upon his pillows again, 
 completely exhausted by the effort of speaking. 
 
 She bent over him and kissed his forehead. 
 Still he lay motionless. And with that Janet left 
 him. 
 
 Outside, with De Boer, she wept piteously, 
 while De Boer tried to comfort her. 
 
 "Is there no hope?" she asked him, after she 
 had grown calm once more. 
 
 "This Mexican doctor says there isn't. He lost 
 a great deal of blood. . . . I'm sorry but I can 
 hardly keep from breaking down myself. Miss 
 Ashley, that boy is a prince. I couldn't love him 
 more if he were my own son. . . . Do you know 
 what he's done for you?" he asked her, as a 
 curious look came into his eyes. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "He said you would tell me," she replied ex- 
 pectantly. 
 
 "He has made you his sole heir," De Boer in- 
 formed her. 
 
 "Oh, no !" she cried. "I can't let him do that !" 
 
 "You must. It's the least you can do for him. 
 f . . You want him to die happy, don't you?"
 
 278 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Oh, yes ! But it would seem as if I profited by 
 his dying. I can never touch the money." 
 
 "He would have wished you to, Miss Ashley." 
 In the end De Boer prevailed upon her.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 JANET had left the rude hospital knowing that she 
 loved Dick. And realizing that great truth she 
 was convinced that she could not marry Wade 
 Farrand. She was sure that in justice to Farrand 
 as well as to Dick and to herself she had no right 
 to marry him. 
 
 Not long after she had returned to the house 
 Farrand came into the library, where Janet sat 
 alone. He had just passed through a very bad 
 quarter of an hour with Marr, who had informed 
 him of his encounter with De Boer and the fact 
 that the game had gone against them. Farrand's 
 feelings, when he came upon her, were anything 
 but pleasant. Marr had not minced matters. 
 And when he now stood face to face with Janet, 
 whom he no longer had the slightest desire to 
 marry, the situation became particularly trying. 
 He did not want to talk with her then. He did 
 
 279
 
 not even want to see her. But he sat down with 
 as good grace as possible. 
 
 "Wade," Janet began, "I've something to say 
 to you. I don't know what you'll think of me 
 the worst, I suppose. But I can't help that." 
 
 "What is it?" he said, looking up in surprise. 
 "What do you mean?" He wondered what 
 further ill luck could befall him. 
 
 "I can't marry you, Wade," she said. 
 
 He turned from her to hide the look of satis- 
 faction that he knew he could not conceal. But in 
 another moment he had risen to his part. 
 
 "Why Janet!" he exclaimed. "You you 
 shock me ! You don't know what you're saying. 
 What has happened? What have I done?" 
 Though he was vastly relieved, at the same time 
 a certain feeling of uneasiness would come creep- 
 ing over him. He hoped she had learned nothing 
 of his machinations. 
 
 "It's nothing you've done," she told him. 
 "You've been honest with me, I know. And I 
 have tried to be with you. But I can't blame 
 you if you feel otherwise. . . . But please 
 please don't think of me too hardly!" 
 
 "My dear girl of course not!" he assured 
 her. "If you've changed your mind I suppose
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 281 
 
 there's really nothing for me to do but face the 
 situation. It's a woman's prerogative to change 
 her mind, I know. But what's the matter? Why 
 this sudden decision?" 
 
 "Wade it's as I feared. I don't love you. I 
 told you before that I was afraid I didn't. But 
 you said you didn't mind that. And I I hoped 
 I would care more for you some day. . . . Now 
 I know that I never can. ... I love Dick I 
 That's the reason, Wade. I've just really found 
 it out and I've come straight to you to tell you. 
 It seemed to me that was the only way to do." 
 
 "So that's the lay of the land, is it?" He gave 
 a short laugh. "Well, well ! I suppose congratu- 
 lations are in order, eh?" 
 
 She looked at him in amazement. 
 
 "How can you say that?" she cried. "You 
 must know he is dying." 
 
 "Beg pardon ! I thought possibly he was better 
 to-day that he had proposed to you, perhaps, not 
 knowing that you were already promised to me. 
 ... I meant no offense, I assure you. I always 
 flatter myself that I'm a good loser. Hello! 
 What's this?" he exclaimed, as Janet placed some- 
 thing in his hand. "Oh! My ring! Thanks!" 
 He dropped the token carelessly into his pocket.
 
 282 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Well, Janet, now that our little romance is so 
 soon a thing of the past it's hardly worth men- 
 tioning to any one is it?" 
 
 "I'll tell no one," she replied coldly. "I wish 
 to spare your feelings as much as possible." 
 
 "That's kind of you! It's agreed then, eh? 
 . . . Good I" And with a nod he left her. 
 
 "Thank God, that's over!" she said wearily, 
 when he had gone. 
 
 Under the circumstances Wade Farrand felt 
 that he would be more comfortable outside his 
 house. He had no desire to face either Marr or 
 Janet after what had happened. So he strolled 
 over to the native village. He had neglected 
 Rosita of late. And it occurred to him that he 
 had best mend his fences. 
 
 As he had expected, Farrand found the girl 
 in none too pleasant a frame of mind. 
 
 "How's my Rosita to-day?" he greeted her. 
 "I couldn't stay away from her any longer." 
 
 "You seem to have been able to get on very 
 well without her for a long time," Rosita told 
 him icily. 
 
 "Business, my dear!" he explained. "Besides, 
 I didn't feel quite safe coming here with that Pepe
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 283 
 
 hanging around. But he's gone now. I fright- 
 ened the beggar away!" 
 
 "You're glad enough to have him here when 
 there's dirty work to be done," Rosita retorted 
 with warmth. 
 
 "Let's forget Pepe!" Farrand said. "I didn't 
 come here to quarrel with you about him or 
 anybody else. . . . No! I came to bring you 
 something, mi vida my life! Here! Give me 
 your hand a moment!" He slipped a ring 
 Janet's ring upon her finger. 
 
 Rosita gave a little cry of joy as she examined 
 
 . 
 
 "Is it for me?" she asked him. 
 
 "For whom else could it be, chica?" he an- 
 swered, patting her shoulder. 
 
 "I don't know unless unless it be for the 
 American girl?" 
 
 "Never fear!" he laughed. "I'll tell you 
 something, Rosita. I am surprised that you never 
 guessed it long ago. I haven't told you because 
 I wanted to tease you. She is in love with Bris- 
 tow. It's rather a joke on her, too. She'll wear 
 mourning now, instead of orange blossoms 
 ha! ha!"
 
 284 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 Quickly, joyfully, the girl turned to him and 
 yet she could not help doubting. 
 
 "Can I believe you?" she demanded. 
 
 "Of course! Is not this ring proof enough 
 that I am not lying to you?" 
 
 "If the stone is a real one " she began 
 
 slowly. 
 
 He laughed again. 
 
 "There you go suspicious to the last I See! 
 Here is the bill receipted! The ring comes 
 from the finest shop in Mexico City." 
 
 Rosita could not read. But she took the bill 
 and held it upside down while she looked at it. 
 The proceeding appeared to satisfy her. 
 
 As he made his way through the village, after 
 leaving the girl, Farrand turned in at a cafe. 
 There was a chattering knot of natives seated 
 around one of the tables among them an old 
 lawyer named Perez. Farrand saw that he was 
 treating the others and entertaining them with 
 some gossip at the same time. 
 
 The cafe-keeper who hovered over them de- 
 tached himself reluctantly from the group and 
 came to wait upon Farrand. 
 
 "Old Perez has had a fat fee," he explained.
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 285 
 
 "He drew a will for an American this morning 
 the man who was shot." 
 
 "That's interesting." 
 
 "Perez says he earned the money very easily," 
 the fellow continued. "It was only a short will. 
 . . . He bequeathed everything to a lady but 
 doubtless you know about that already, sehor. It 
 is the young lady who is the friend of the daughter 
 of Senor Marr." 
 
 For a moment Farrand gazed at him open- 
 mouthed. He was too surprised even to swear. 
 Then he poured an enormous drink of brandy for 
 himself and tossed it off like water. That was 
 only the first of several such libations with which 
 he comforted himself before he started home- 
 wards, steady upon his feet, clear as to speech, 
 but with his brain aflame. 
 
 So that was Janet's game! In 'some way she 
 had learned that Bristow was rich and she had 
 contrived to inveigle him into leaving her his prop- 
 erty. The brandy had loosened Farrand's tongue 
 and he swore fluently enough now great, mouth- 
 filling Spanish oaths. So that was why she had 
 thrown him over so quickly! She no longer had 
 any use for him, now that she had a fortune in 
 sight. . . .
 
 286 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 He came upon her, still alone in the library, 
 and stood and glowered at her. 
 
 At first she seemed not to realize that he was 
 there. 
 
 "Why what is it? Why do you look at me 
 like that?" she asked at length. 
 
 "So you wanted to be honest with me, did you? 
 You wanted to come straight to me and tell me the 
 truth, eh?" 
 
 "Why yes!" she answered, wondering. 
 
 "A damned queer notion you must have of 
 truth," he snarled, "judging from the lies you 
 told me!" 
 
 "You you frighten me! You're not your- 
 self!" she exclaimed, quick to note that some 
 change had come over him. 
 
 "Oh! I'm myself, right enough! That's just 
 the point. I've come to my senses at last. I 
 know now that I've let you make a fool of me. 
 I thought you were genuine that you were 
 straightforward sincere. But all the time you've 
 been using me as a foil playing me off against 
 Bristow. He was the game you aimed at;. You'd 
 no intention of marrying me until you thought he 
 was done for. Then I was good enough for you 
 until you discovered that you could get his
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 287 
 
 money as soon as he died. . . . Well, I might 
 have known you were that kind. They say New 
 York girls always play the game of love for 
 money. But I thought you were different, some- 
 how. I didn't pick you as being mercenary. 
 Love!" He gave a mirthless laugh. "You said 
 you didn't know what love was. You told the 
 truth for once, at least. You're no better 
 than " 
 
 "Stop !" she cried. "Let me out of this room !" 
 she demanded fiercely as he barred her way. 
 
 "I will when I'm ready to," he taunted her. 
 "You're not going yet. I've a lot of things to 
 say to you." 
 
 "You've said more than enough already." 
 
 "I've scarcely begun." 
 
 "I won't listen." She put her hands over her 
 ears. 
 
 "You were always willing enough to listen to 
 compliments," he sneered. "Now you shall hear 
 some unpleasant truths that will be good for your 
 soul. Perhaps you'll remember them the next 
 time you play fast and loose with a man." He 
 caught her arms and pulled them roughly away 
 from her head.
 
 288 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Let me go!" Janet cried. "I shall call for 
 help." 
 
 "It won't do you a bit of good. Mr. Marr's 
 leaving unexpectedly. Your aunt and Sylvia 
 walked over to his car with him. There's no one 
 in the house but the servants and you don't think 
 they'd interfere, do you?" 
 
 She sank into a chair then; and he seated him- 
 self facing her. 
 
 "I wondered why you were so upset over Bris- 
 tow's shooting," he resumed. "Now I under- 
 stand. You intended all the time to marry him 
 after you heard about that iron discovery. And 
 that's why you were so willing to let him buy 
 Aguacate. With you it was a case of 'heads I 
 win, tails you lose!' You were bound to be in 
 right, no matter what happened." 
 
 "So you knew about the iron, did you?" Janet 
 suddenly asked him. 
 
 "All the time !" he said, caught off his guard for 
 once. 
 
 "And you never mentioned it to me !" 
 
 He saw his mistake too late; but he did what he 
 could to put a plausible face upon the matter. 
 
 "I was sorry for you, m'dear. I hated to see 
 you cheated. But I could do nothing. I was ready
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 289 
 
 to marry you just the same. / didn't break faith 
 with you." 
 
 "No but I begin to wonder what would have 
 happened if I hadn't come to my senses when I 
 did. It struck me that you were not at all loath 
 to let me go. In fact, I hadn't thought you would 
 give me up so easily. . . . You say you've been 
 blind. You're not the only one whose eyes have 
 been opened. I begin to understand some things 
 now that I didn't know about before. I don't be- 
 lieve you ever thought that Aguacate would change 
 hands." 
 
 "Why that's absurd !" Farrand scoffed. "Ask 
 Mr. Marr. He can tell you what we thought." 
 
 "Then you discussed the question, did you 
 you and he?" 
 
 "I should say we did. You ask him." 
 
 "I don't need to ask him," she replied quietly. 
 
 Farrand shot a quick glance of suspicion at her. 
 
 "He hasn't been talking to you, has he?" he 
 asked, fearful lest Marr should have tried to 
 shift the blame upon him in some way. 
 
 "No! He hasn't been talking to me," she 
 said. "But I came upon a highly interesting 
 tableau this morning."
 
 2 9 o THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "You mean De Boer and " he started to 
 
 ask. 
 
 "So you know about that, too? Yes that's 
 what I mean. They didn't realize how their 
 voices carried. I couldn't help hearing them. 
 And that's why I went into the room when I did. 
 I thought it might prevent something dreadful 
 from happening." 
 
 Farrand leaped to his feet at that. 
 
 "Why didn't you keep out?" he cried, so angry 
 that he hardly realized what he was saying. 
 "Everything would have been all right then! 
 You spoiled the game, you " 
 
 "Ah! That's what I thought, Wade! You 
 wanted to marry me when you believed I was go- 
 ing to be rich. . . . And how glad you were 
 when I gave you back your ring! You'd seen 
 Mr. Marr then; and he'd told you about the con- 
 tract, hadn't he?" 
 
 But Farrand was silent. He only stared at her 
 stupidly. 
 
 "You don't need to answer," she told him. 
 "Your face gives you away." She rose and moved 
 toward the door. 
 
 "Wait a moment !" he cried after her. "Janet ! 
 Don't go ! You've got everything wrong. I can't
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 291 
 
 let you go, thinking such things. Listen to me a 
 moment ! Perhaps we can be more to each other 
 than ever, once we clear away our misunder- 
 standings. ... I was hasty. My pride was hurt. 
 I never meant what I said just now." 
 
 She turned and faced him from the doorway. 
 
 "I'm afraid, Wade, that's just the trouble with 
 you. You never say quite what you mean." 
 
 She left him then.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 HOMING 
 
 SPRING was at hand. Janet had grown to think 
 of Mexico as a land of perpetual sunshine. But 
 in the month that had passed since she bade 
 Sylvia Marr good-by at Rio Chico Nature had 
 wrought her inevitable change upon the once smil- 
 ing face of the land. Occasionally the clouds that 
 now gathered daily let loose a sudden deluge 
 as if to show what was in store, and to warn 
 dilatory tourists that they had best book their 
 passage North. From her windows in her Vera 
 Cruz hotel Janet watched those tropical storms 
 sweep over the roofs of the city. The very 
 abruptness with which they descended fascinated 
 her. It seemed almost as if they were alive 
 animated by the same quick passions that alter- 
 nately smoldered and flared up in the people who 
 dwelt in that haven of mercurial races. 
 
 Enamored as she had once been of that allur- 
 292
 
 HOMING 293 
 
 ing land, the spell that it had laid upon her was 
 now broken. Duplicity, treachery, violence she 
 had expected to find such defects in the characters 
 of some of the natives. And now, after the ex- 
 periences she had passed through, she had come 
 to believe that the tropics exert an evil influence 
 upon Northerners as well. What was the bane- 
 ful force that weakened the moral fiber of Anglo- 
 Saxons who lived there? She did not know. But 
 she felt that she could not get away too quickly 
 into the sane, cool North. The very air was op- 
 pressive. Janet counted the days until the ship 
 should sail. And above all she was eager to get 
 Dick into a more bracing climate. 
 
 For Dick did not die. He had rallied when the 
 end seemed in sight. Surgeons had come to Rio 
 Chico and after a consultation they had decided 
 to move the patient to Vera Cruz. 
 
 Janet, with her aunt and De Boer, had left on 
 the same train with him. And for four weeks 
 Dick had lain convalescent in a hospital, where 
 Janet had seen him as often as doctors and nurses 
 would allow her. It was the best tonic in the 
 world for him. 
 
 Bit by bit they had pieced together what they 
 knew of the happenings of those eventful days
 
 294 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 that were happily gone, until the story of the 
 conspiracy was fairly complete. Many of its de- 
 tails they would never know. But that did not 
 concern them greatly. To Dick, what mattered 
 most was the fact that he had won; to Janet, that 
 Dick was alive and would soon be himself again. 
 De Boer had long since left them, after mak- 
 ing sure that Dick was well out of danger. More- 
 over, he was not slow to perceive that the patient 
 would not lack care, with Janet and her aunt 
 to watch over him. So he hurried away, for 
 there were numberless business matters crying for 
 his attention. And above all, he wanted the satis- 
 faction of forcing that long deferred land deal 
 upon Julian Marr. 
 
 De Boer returned to Vera Cruz in the nick of 
 time to wish the voyagers Godspeed. They were 
 already on board the ship when he joined them, 
 together with some legal-looking gentlemen. And 
 Dick knew as soon as he saw him that his old 
 chief was in high spirits. 
 
 "I've good news for you!" De Boer cried as 
 he shook hands with Dick. "The best of news! 
 Aguacate's as good as ours! All we need now 
 is Miss Ashley's signature."
 
 HOMING 295 
 
 "You know you can have that," Janet assured 
 him. And they went forthwith into the saloon, 
 where she affixed her name to the documents De 
 Boer had brought with him. . . . "Congratula- 
 tions, Mr. De Boer! And to you too, Dick I" she 
 said as she rose from the small writing-table. 
 
 They thanked her. 
 
 "So Marr capitulated?" Dick remarked to De 
 Boer. 
 
 "Yes after standing me off as long as he could. 
 I thought we'd have to kidnap him, in order to 
 talk to him. But we caught him at last." 
 
 "I was afraid we'd have to bring suit against 
 him," Dick said. "And he's a power in Mexico 
 there's no denying that. Of course, I felt sure we 
 were safe. But he might have made us no end of 
 trouble." 
 
 "Yes ! But you see, I promised him more pub- 
 licity than he cared for," De Boer explained with 
 a grin. "There's the making of a series of very 
 interesting articles on the South Eastern Railway 
 Company just the sort of stuff for an enter- 
 prising writer to sell to a sensational magazine at 
 home. And you know Marr is fond of raking 
 American capital into his ventures. Big Business
 
 296 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 isn't in any too good odor just now, as it is; this 
 would be a bad time for a scandal." 
 
 "What did the old pirate say?" Dick inquired. 
 
 "Called me a blackmailer ! Perhaps I am. But 
 I was only after our rights. What really clinched 
 my argument was my informing him that Miss 
 Ashley never swallowed that yarn he told her 
 when she caught him pointing a gun at me. I 
 think he'd been congratulating himself over the 
 way he slipped out of the hole he was in. He 
 certainly looked surprised when I explained that 
 she not only knew he was threatening me, but had 
 heard a good deal of our conversation as well." 
 According to De Boer, Marr and his daughter 
 were leaving Mexico at once. "Their special 
 train was all ready to start when I came away 
 yesterday," he said. 
 
 Neither Dick nor Janet inquired for Wade 
 Farrand. She had told Dick that her engagement 
 was broken. Why it was so, Dick had no idea. 
 It was enough for him merely to know that Janet 
 was not going to throw herself away upon a rotter 
 like Farrand. 
 
 "I'll see you inside of a month," De Boer prom- 
 ised. "Now that we know exactly where we stand
 
 HOMING 297 
 
 I want to get our nodulizing plant started and 
 I'm coming North in a few weeks to buy ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 "You mustn't plan to come back before fall, 
 Dick," he continued. "You won't know Las 
 Alegrias then. There'll be a town there. And 
 I'll have a house ready for you. If you find you're 
 uneasy for want of something to do when you get 
 in shape you might draw some plans of the sort 
 of palace you would like. I'll guarantee that the 
 Company will build anything you ask for." 
 
 "Any old kind of shack will do for me," Dick 
 said. 
 
 "The president of the East Coast Mining Com- 
 pany must observe the conventions," De Boer told 
 him. "You'll have to live in a fashion befitting 
 your office. No more palm-thatch for you, my 
 boy!" 
 
 Mr. Bristow, to his extreme annoyance, flushed 
 to the roots of his hair. 
 
 "You're joking " he protested. 
 
 De Boer laughed at him. 
 
 "You ask my brother about it when you reach 
 New York," he said. "He'll tell you whether I'm 
 joking or not. . . . There's that infernal bugle I 
 I must get ashore."
 
 298 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 From his launch he waved to them until they 
 were out of sight. Thomas De Boer had great 
 confidence in Dick's abilities; but as he watched his 
 young friend leaning upon the rail between Janet 
 and her aunt he could not help hoping that Dick 
 would realize what way lay happiness. 
 
 Slowly the ship slipped away; and soon they 
 had left the emerald watdrs of the shelving shore 
 behind them, to enter the wondrous blue of the 
 Gulf. After the heat of the city it was delightful 
 to lie beneath the deck-awning and feel the soft 
 breeze upon one's face. Dick discovered that he 
 was quite content to rest in his steamer-chair. 
 After his long weeks of convalescence the fact 
 that he was actually going home was sufficiently ex- 
 citing in itself. And what with the bustle of sail- 
 ing-time and the chatter incident to leave-taking 
 he was forced to admit to himself that he was 
 still far from strong. But under the brace of the 
 salt air and the change of scene Dick's strength 
 fast returned. By their third day out he paced the 
 deck so energetically as to worry his two feminine 
 fellow-travelers, who were afraid lest he over- 
 exert himself. 
 
 During their stay in Vera Cruz Janet and Miss
 
 H HOMING 299 
 
 Browning had come to exercise a mild sort of 
 tyranny over him. They had, indeed, virtually 
 adopted Dick; and in spite of his protests against 
 their troubling themselves so much on his account 
 he had fairly basked under the warmth of their 
 attentions. It was years since he had known what 
 it was to have solicitous women-folk hovering 
 around him, plumping his pillows, bringing him 
 flowers, reading to him. 
 
 "You'll spoil me," he told Janet laughingly. 
 "How can I ever go back to Mexico to a bachelor's 
 life, after all this luxury?" It was when she in- 
 sisted on wrapping a steamer-rug about him. 
 
 "You'll soon escape from our clutches," she 
 said. "We simply have to look after you now. 
 Aunt and I promised Mr. De Boer we would. But 
 as soon as we come in sight of Sandy Hook I 
 shall turn you adrift to shift for yourself. I 
 know your pride and independence. You wouldn't 
 for worlds have any of your friends see you be- 
 ing mollycoddled." 
 
 "Wouldn't I?" he exclaimed. "I'm coming to 
 your house every day I'm in New York, to re- 
 port progress and receive instructions that is, 
 if you'll let me."
 
 300 THE COAST OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 "Of course I'll let you," she said, "if you really 
 want to." 
 
 "If I want to I My dear girl you don't sup- 
 pose you can ever shake me now, do you?" 
 
 "You'll soon forget Aunt and me when you're 
 hard at work again." 
 
 "Why do you always drag in your aunt? Not 
 that she isn't a dear soul she has petted me like 
 a mother. But I'm not thinking of her all the 
 time. I'm talking about you now, Janet." 
 
 They were alone in a secluded corner of the 
 deck. And much as Janet thrilled under her com- 
 panion's sudden fervor she was too thoroughly 
 feminine not to resort instinctively to womanly 
 evasion. 
 
 "You must keep well covered," she reminded 
 him, with calm disregard, apparently, of what he 
 was saying. "Put your arm under the rug!" 
 
 "I won't!" Dick rebelled. And he promptly 
 captured the hand that tried to pull the blanket 
 up to his chin. "Listen to me a moment! I'm 
 not going to forget you because when I go back 
 I'm going to take you with me." 
 
 "It's not so easy to kidnap people in New York 
 as it is in Mexico," she parried. But despite her 
 light words her heart was beating furiously.
 
 HOMING 301 
 
 "I'm not intending to use Greaser methods," he 
 told her. "I'm counting on love Janet. For a 
 long time I've known that I loved you." 
 
 "How long?" she asked him. 
 
 "Well a month, almost!" 
 
 "But that's only a short time." 
 
 "It's growing longer every day," he declared. 
 "It will be half a year by fall. . . . Isn't that 
 long enough, Janet?" 
 
 And though her answer was so low he could 
 not hear it, Dick swiftly did something then that 
 left no doubt at all in Janet's mind that he had 
 understood. 
 
 After that there was no sound as they sat silent 
 for a while, except the muffled throb of the ship's 
 engines and the swish of the water as it fell away 
 from her side. But they did not hear those things. 
 In their ears was the rustle of palm trees in the 
 wind; and in their eyes a flood of white sun- 
 light. 
 
 At last Dick turned to her. 
 
 "That old Spanish don must have been a seer. 
 Now I know why he named my place 'Las 
 Alegrias,' " he said. "I know why he called it the 
 'Lands of Joyfulness.' ' 
 
 THE END
 
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